Breast Milk Baby!

Crosspost from Salutations

To Whom It May Concern at Berjuan Toys,

Props.

Props to you and all of the controversy being stirred up about your “Breast Milk Baby.” I’m really glad to see the uproar, to be quite honest. Breastfeeding is a topic which needs to be discussed and this seems like a fine enough platform.

I was introduced to your doll through this Fox News clip. I found Dr. Keith Ablow’s response to the doll so disturbing I did some more research and found that many people are in agreement with him.

There are three main complaints people are making in reference to your doll which encourages children to mimic breastfeeding. They are centered on three claims.

1. The doll is blurring lines between children and adults.
2. It’s contributing to the sexualization of children.
3. It’s weird.

Your response has been something like, “really, America?” I like your response.

In regards to the first claim, I can only laugh. People are okay with buying their children dolls…which are pretend babies. Children want to carry around babies because they are pretending to be the parents…intentionally blurring the lines between children and adults. That’s exactly why children play with dolls. This seems simple to me. The same goes for the ways children pretend to be doctors, cooks, ministers (yes, some children do that!), or teachers. Pretending to be an adult, and do adult things, as a child, is healthy.

“But breastfeeding is different,” people are saying. But that’s probably because they are also making the second claim, that the doll is contributing to the sexualization of children. This is absurd. There is nothing sexual about feeding a child. The problem is that our culture has so oversexualized breasts that even their primary purpose as a means of nourishing human life has become taboo. America does not understand that this is strange – that America is weird for thinking this way.

For some reason we don’t think it’s sexual when our pet dog is feeding her little pups. We don’t think there’s anything sexual about the gallons and gallons of milk we drink that comes from a cow’s breasts. Suddenly, however, it is a sexual act when a woman feeds her child? Or when a child simulates his/her mother? Again, this does not make sense to me.

Further, if America is concerned about the sexualization of children (as America SHOULD be) then perhaps we should start paying more attention to baby dolls that wear high heels and/or make-up. Or to the fact that people still get away with child pornogrophy. Or maybe we should do something about all of the ads that continue to infantalize women because (gasp!) these issues are intertwined.

As for the third claim, I would say, “grow up.”

I digress. Berjuan Toys, I am excited that your doll will be entering the US. There are so many perks for both babies and mothers involved in the breastfeeding process that I hope this will encourage both little boys and girls to support/engage in breastfeeding if they have their own children. You have created a toy that encourages children to engage in a healthy activity later in life. That’s refreshing.

Thank you and keep on, keepin on.
Mary Ann