Maternal sexuality and breastfeeding

Article


Bartlett, Alison. 2005. "Maternal sexuality and breastfeeding." Sex Education. 5 (1), pp. 67-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/146818142000301894
Article Title

Maternal sexuality and breastfeeding

ERA Journal ID13789
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorBartlett, Alison
Journal TitleSex Education
Sex Education: sexuality, society and learning
Journal Citation5 (1), pp. 67-77
Number of Pages11
Year2005
Place of PublicationMilton Park, U.K.
ISSN1468-1811
1472-0825
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/146818142000301894
Web Address (URL)http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a713949710&fulltext=713240928
Abstract

[Abstract]: In this paper I consider the ways in which lactation has been discussed as a form of maternal sexuality, and the implications this carries for our understanding of breastfeeding practices and sexuality. Drawing on knowledge constructed in the western world during the last half of the twentieth century, the paper identifies a shift between the radical ideologies of the 1960s and 1970s and the newer moral conservatism of the 1990s. The emergence of lactation porn and erotica in the 1990s has meant that the sexuality of breastfeeding has been contained in a subculture outside of dominant cultural values, and so maternal sexuality has become a muted discourse, sometimes bordering on the immoral and illegal. My project in this paper, however, is to argue that breastfeeding pleasure is physiologically 'normal' and should be productively rather than illicitly incorporated into the meanings we make of sexuality and of breastfeeding.

Keywordsmaternal sexuality, breastfeeding, lactation,
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020440599. Gender studies not elsewhere classified
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Byline AffiliationsSchool of Humanities and Communication
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