Mother's Milk examines why nursing a baby is an ideologically charged experience in
contemporary culture. Drawing upon medical studies, feminist scholarship, anthropological literature, and an intimate knowledge of breastfeeding itself, Bernice Hausman demonstrates what is at stake in mothers'
infant feeding choices-economically, socially, and in terms of women's rights. Breastfeeding controversies, she argues, reveal social tensions around the meaning of women's bodies, the authority of science, and the value of maternity in American culture. A provocative and multi-faceted work, Mother's Milk will be of interest to anyone concerned with the politics of women's embodiment.
Textual analysis (not necessarily applied to what we immediately think of as texts) can be tough going at times, but Hausman is worth doing a little extra work to get through. Early on, she mentions…
