I’ve read this about sex abuse survivors and breastfeeding in most of the books I’ve bought on BF. But here is an internet link from kellymom (one of the best BF websites) that has links to some studies:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mom/bfhelp-mother.html#abuse

He was like, yes, breasts are just secondary sexual characteristics, so they are expendable. So I wonder if there might be a more complicated history of all this? (surprise!)

There sure is. That history is one of excessive medical arrogance and paternalism, and the notion that patients should not participate in the decision-making surrounding their own treatment.

While the medical profession for the most part takes the position that this was all about the “bad old days”, and is now completely a thing of the past, anyone with half a fucking brain knows that is far from the case.

One concern no one has mentioned is that (last I knew) breast cancer can manifest regardless of having had breasts removed. It does so on the chest wall rather than the breast, but there you are, still with cancer, albeit the likelihood is probably reduced.

@ perpetua, I have enjoyed nursing, but when my baby recently weaned herself I told my partner that they need some alone time. In other words, “get OFF of me!”

Interesting point about nursing infants–many women may feel like that’s a period in their lives when in fact their breasts don’t belong to them, because of the nutritional demands of mewling infants! Breasts really are a kind of liminal body part that are oddly central to other familiy members’ experience of domesticity/family life. (That said, I think it’s totally reasonable to privilege the interests of the mewling infant over that of the infantile husband/male partner.)

I have a good friend who had a preventive double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, as a young woman. It was devastating, physically and emotionally. Her husband was a giant tool, a total support no-show. Of course that fit into the general pattern of behavior, not an exception – he didn’t help around the house, take care of his children, etc etc.

A less life-threatening note, but still about breasts, men are *all the time* acting as though they have ownership over their wife’s/girlfriend’s body, her breasts in particular. As though if something happens to them (the breasts), it’s about them (the menz) rather than their wives. A good example is all those comments nursing mothers make about how their husbands were “jealous” of the nursing and felt like something was being “taken away” from them. Hey, menz, women’s bodies actually belong to *themselves*, not to you!