The organizing principle of contemporary mothering ideology (aka attachment parenting) is NOT nature as its proponents like to pretend. It’s not intuition as its most stalwart ideologues insist. And it’s certainly not science. The organizing principle of contemporary mothering ideology is FEAR. Every aspect, from natural childbirth to breastfeeding to baby wearing, is designed to […]
Latest News
Radical feminists disrespect women and harm feminism
One of the greatest ironies of radical feminism is that it is both disrespectful to women and harmful to the feminist project. Consider this comment left on my Facebook page by a radical feminist: [H]ow does anyone, not only women, make decisions in a patriarchal society that aren’t limited by patriarchal structures? Have you developed […]
Do radical feminists think women are capable of autonomy?
Over the past week or so I’ve engaged with a number of radical feminists who have a remarkably dismissive view of women. They appear to believe that — against the background of historical and ongoing patriarchal oppression — women are incapable of making authentic choices about their own lives. Any decisions they make about makeup, […]
Kate Cohen and the casual condescension of radical feminists
Yesterday I critiqued Kate Cohen’s recent piece in The Washington Post, Sorry, but these choices aren’t ‘feminist.’ They’re sexist. on substantive grounds. It isn’t specific choices that make women feminists; it is the conviction that choices should be made BY them, not FOR them. It’s anti-feminist for women to knuckle under to specific choices prescribed […]
Sorry, Kate Cohen, you don’t get to decide what’s feminist
Another day, another misguided feminist who mistakenly believes she has the right to define feminism. Writing in The Washington Post, Kate Cohen feels it necessary to tell us what she thinks about other women’s personal choices, in this case women like Jennifer Lopez who change their surname after marriage: … some claim that changing their […]
For anti-abortion legislation the cruelty is the point
Anti-choice advocates say they oppose abortion because it stops a beating heart. They say it makes no sense to have a rape or incest exception because it’s not the fault of the beating heart that it was conceived through violence. That’s rather difficult to believe when the exact same people also say that capital punishment […]
A linguist analyzes competing claims of Breast Is Best vs. Fed Is Best
‘Breast is Best’ or ‘Fed is Best’? A Study of Concessive Relations in the Debate on Methods of Infant Feeding is a fascinating new paper about the rival claims of the Breast Is Best vs. Fed Is Best movements. The paper was written by linguistics professor, Giorgia Riboni. As a linguist, she analyzes the claims […]
Trans women vs. women: what is justice?
One of the most contentious aspects of the currently roiling debate about the rights of transgender persons is that both sides imagine that they are defending the principle of justice. Trans advocates are absolutely, positively, unalterably convinced that justice REQUIRES not merely acceptance of transgender individuals, but capitulation to all their demands. Anyone who doesn’t […]
5 lies the AAP told me about breastfeeding
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released guidelines promoting breastfeeding each child for two years — despite the fact that there is NO scientific evidence for the recommendation. How did that happen? When you let lactivist zealots make breastfeeding policy, you end up with breastfeeding policies that ignore scientific evidence in favor of lactivists’ cherished […]
Why do we allow zealots to make breastfeeding policy?
There has been a furor over the latest American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to breastfeed children for two years. The paper that offers the new recommendation is Policy Statement: Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk written by Joan Younger Meek, MD and Lawrence Noble, MD. Extended breastfeeding dramatically increases the physical, psychological and economic […]
Amy Tuteur, MD
Dr. Amy Tuteur is an obstetrician gynecologist. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1979 and her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine in 1984. Dr. Tuteur is a former clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. She left the practice of medicine to raise her four children. Her book, Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting (HarperCollins) was published in 2016. She can be reached at DrAmy5 at aol dot com... More
