Van Esterik P
Department of Anthropology, York University, Ontario, Canada.
Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 1994 Dec;47 Suppl:S41-50; discussion S50-4. doi: 10.1016/0020-7292(94)02233-o.
Breastfeeding empowers women and contributes to gender equality; therefore, it is an important feminist, human rights, and women's issue. Although seldom addressed as a feminist issue, breastfeeding is paradigmatically one because it requires rethinking basic issues such as the sexual division of labor, the fit between women's productive and reproductive lives, and the role of physiological processes in defining gender ideology. The conceptual problems which emerge in the fit between breastfeeding promotion and feminist theory include the place of motherhood; technology versus liberation; fear of biological determinism; breasts and sexuality; locating guilt; personal choice; romanticizing breastfeeding; and conceptualizing women's work. Feminist theorists who take up breastfeeding as an issue and medical researchers who address questions raised by feminist theory have the occasion to produce a non-dualistic feminist problematic that would draw together a wide range of theories and practices that go beyond breastfeeding and mothering. The failure to develop this analysis could have serious consequences.
母乳喂养赋予女性力量并促进性别平等；因此，它是一个重要的女权主义、人权和女性议题。尽管母乳喂养很少被视为女权主义议题，但它典型地属于这一范畴，因为它需要重新思考诸如劳动性别分工、女性生产生活与生殖生活的契合度以及生理过程在界定性别意识形态中的作用等基本问题。母乳喂养推广与女权主义理论之间的契合所产生的概念问题包括母性的地位；技术与解放；对生物决定论的恐惧；乳房与性征；罪责定位；个人选择；美化母乳喂养；以及对女性工作的概念化。将母乳喂养作为一个议题的女权主义理论家以及探讨女权主义理论所提出问题的医学研究者，有机会提出一种非二元论的女权主义问题，它将汇聚一系列超越母乳喂养和育儿的广泛理论与实践。未能开展这种分析可能会产生严重后果。
