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Lactivism: How Feminists and Fundamentalists, Hippies and Yuppies, and Physicians and Politicians Made Breastfeeding Big Business and Bad Policy

Lactivism: How Feminists and Fundamentalists, Hippies and Yuppies, and Physicians and Politicians Made Breastfeeding Big Business and Bad Policy

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.;Is breast really best? Breastfeeding is widely assumed to be the healthiest choice, yet growing evidence suggests that its benefits have been greatly exaggerated....

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Basic Books

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Print Books

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Marc Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.;Is breast really best? Breastfeeding is widely assumed to be the healthiest choice, yet growing evidence suggests that its benefits have been greatly exaggerated. New moms are pressured by doctors, health officials, and friends to avoid the bottle at all costs-often at the expense of their jobs, their pocketbooks, and their well-being. In Lactivism, political scientist Courtney Jung offers the most deeply researched and far-reaching critique of breastfeeding advocacy to date. Drawing on her own experience as a devoted mother who breastfed her two children and her expertise as a social scientist, Jung investigates the benefits of breastfeeding and asks why so many people across the political spectrum are passionately invested in promoting it, even as its health benefits have been persuasively challenged. What emerges is an eye-opening story about class and race in America, the big business of breastfeeding, and the fraught politics of contemporary motherhood. --;Provided by publisher.;Breastfeeding has become a moral imperative in 21st century America. Once upon a time, this moral imperative made sense. Breastfeeding was believed to bring multiple health benefits, including increased resistance to many chronic and even fatal diseases, protection against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), improved intelligence, and countless immunities. The irony now, however, is that breastfeeding continues to gain moral force just as scientists are showing that its benefits have been greatly exaggerated. In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention declared the failure to breastfeed a public health issue, thus placing bottle-feeding on par with smoking, obesity, and unsafe sex. Recently, politicians too have launched highly visible breastfeeding initiatives, such as former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's well-publicized Latch On campaign. And, meanwhile, women who don't breastfeed their babies have found themselves with a lot of explaining to do. Physicians, public health officials, and other mothers are pressuring them to breastfeed even though the best science shows that the advantages of doing so are minimal at best. What is going on? In Lactivism, Courtney Jung offers the most deeply researched and far-reaching critique of the breastfeeding imperative to date. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, from rigorously peer-reviewed scientific research to interviews with physicians, politicians, business interests, activists, social workers, and mothers from across the social and political spectrum, Jung presents an eye-opening account of how a practice that began as an alternative to Big Business has become Big Business itself--;Provided by publisher.

Biographical Note:
Courtney Jung is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Review Quotes:
Publishers Weekly
"Jung makes some thoughtful points against seeing the practice [of breastfeeding] as the most or only acceptable option for mothers.... [H]er intersectional perspective, which looks at how feminist concerns mesh with those related to race and class, may encourage advocates to approach new moms with more sensitivity, and to view the ubiquity of breast pumps with a slightly more dubious eye."

Shelf Awareness
"[Jung's] research is extensive.... Lactivism illustrates how a woman's choice has become a matter of public health and a socially enforced necessity. A critical look at policies that have cemented poor science and damaged women's rights in the United States."

Kirkus Reviews
"Jung offers readers an inside look at the modern world of breast-feeding, which has undergone transformative changes since its revival in the United States in the 1970s.... Using solid evidence to back her statements, the author analyzes how the simple act of breast-feeding has shifted into a mechanical process through the use of breast pumps, with a salable commodity: the breast milk.... A levelheaded, well-researched analysis of the many 'trappings of contemporary breastfeeding culture.'"

Review Quotes:
"Jung's book is a bold challenge to the prevailing parenting orthodoxy."-- National Post

Review Quotes:
"The truths [Jung] uncovers may make your jaw drop.... But perhaps most interesting is Jung's astute observation that what is being so ardently promoted isn't actual breast-feeding--whereby a baby is fed from the breast--but human milk as a product, creating pressure for working mothers of all income levels to pump in less than ideal conditions, when what might benefit them and their babies most is paid maternity leave (or simply using formula).... [Jung's] keen analyses and wry humor keep the reader engaged."-- Lori Gottlieb, New York Times Book Review

Review Quotes:
"[Jung] makes a provocative case that [breast-feeding's] benefits have been drastically oversold.... [She] is particularly sharp in describing how 21st-century policy makers have turned breast-feeding into a consensus issue."-- Wall Street Journal

Review Quotes:
"[A] groundbreaking new book.... Jung's subject in Lactivism isn't nursing itself, but a strain of advocacy that prizes feeding babies breast milk above all else, no matter the cost to their mothers or, in some cases, the babies themselves.... [An] important book."-- Michelle Goldberg, Slate XX

Review Quotes:
"Highly readable.... [Jung] makes a strong argument: If women are supposed to have a 'choice' about their reproductive activities, why can't they choose how to nourish the offspring that might emerge?"-- Weekly Standard

Review Quotes:
"[Jung's] research is extensive.... Lactivism illustrates how a woman's choice has become a matter of public health and a socially enforced necessity. A critical look at policies that have cemented poor science and damaged women's rights in the United States."-- Shelf Awareness

Review Quotes:
"Jung lays out an intriguing analysis of how different groups have interpreted the 'breast is best' slogan to reflect their own agendas."-- Washington Post

Publisher Marketing:
Social scientist and mother Courtney Jung explores the ever-expanding world of breastfeeding advocacy, shining a new light on the diverse communities who compose it, the dubious science behind it, and the pernicious public policies to which it has given rise

Is breast really best? Breastfeeding is widely assumed to be the healthiest choice, yet growing evidence suggests that its benefits have been greatly exaggerated. New moms are pressured by doctors, health officials, and friends to avoid the bottle at all costs-often at the expense of their jobs, their pocketbooks, and their well-being.

In Lactivism, political scientist Courtney Jung offers the most deeply researched and far-reaching critique of breastfeeding advocacy to date. Drawing on her own experience as a devoted mother who breastfed her two children and her expertise as a social scientist, Jung investigates the benefits of breastfeeding and asks why so many people across the political spectrum are passionately invested in promoting it, even as its health benefits have been persuasively challenged. What emerges is an eye-opening story about class and race in America, the big business of breastfeeding, and the fraught politics of contemporary motherhood.

Review Citations:

  • Shelf Awareness 12/18/2015 (EAN 9780465039692, Hardcover)
  • Publishers Weekly 08/24/2015 (EAN 9780465039692, Hardcover)
  • Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2015 (EAN 9780465039692, Hardcover)
  • Library Journal 11/01/2015 pg. 108 (EAN 9780465039692, Hardcover)
  • New York Times Book Review 12/20/2015 pg. 8 (EAN 9780465039692, Hardcover)
  • New York Times Book Review 12/27/2015 pg. 22 (EAN 9780465039692, Hardcover)
  • Choice 05/01/2016 (EAN 9780465039692, Hardcover)


Author: Jung, Courtney
Publisher: Basic Books
Binding: Hardcover
Pub Date: 2015-11-24
BISAC: Social Science|Women's Studies|Health & Fitness|Breastfeeding|Social Science|Disease & Health Issues|Medical|Health Policy
Subjects: Women's studies|United States|Breastfeeding|Social aspects|Infants|Nutrition|SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies|HEALTH & FITNESS / Breastfeeding|SOCIAL SCIENCE / Disease & Health Issues
Weight: 1.05 lbs
ISBN: 9780465039692
ASIN: -
SKU: SP-9780465039692

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