Wired For Noise

How’s that for a title to get your attention?

Toliet paper: Being the wanna-be uber-hippie that I am the boys and I use reusable products almost entirely. And yes, that includes our TP. I’ve been using cloth wipeson the boys for a while and only recently made th switch to cloth TP for myself. And yes, I made that same “Ewww” face you’re making now. Until I tried it and realized evrythign I thought it would mean was wrong. So I’m delighted to share that Crunchy Chicken is having a Cloth Wipes Challenge. *anouncer voice* try it for two weeks and if you don’t agree that cloth wipes are better on your parts you’ll get a complete refund (offer void everywhere)* hey it’s 2 weeks, what do you have to lose?

Breastfeeding: Some people know about the Bill Maher video going around. Where he basiclly declared that he loves breasts, as long as they’re for entertainment purposes only. Put a baby on those breasts and suddenly those breasts are supporting terrorism. You can hear more about it tonight on Blog Talk Radio.

You know, it’s one thing to get crap from men aobut breastfeeding. But when you get comments from women, well then it gets my nerve. Even worse is from women who claim to be fighting for body integrity and women’s rights. Just ask Jill, she’s got a nice rant on the very topic. It gets me riled up to read quotes like this from women who are supposed to be on my side.

Is there some reason that you absolutely MUST go out to a restaurant to eat? Are you physically incapable of picking up the phone and ordering pizza? Do you not have anything in the fridge with which to feed yourself? Do you not have a partner or co-caregiver who can bring back takeout?

And oh, poor you for not being able to get a babysitter. Shouldn’t you have thought about child care BEFORE you got pregnant? Or were you just so thrilled about all the attention you were going to get for having a baby that the practical issues of that just never entered your head?

So this morning I was overjoyed to read on Feministe, one of the top Feminism blogs out there, support for breastfeding mothers. Andnot only in the post but from commenters too. Especially this brilliant comment:

I couldn’t disagree more. His rant, to the extent it talked about “parochial” activism, was dead wrong. Women who are activists about breastfeeding are likely to be activists on a LOT of other subjects, including those subjects Bill Maher deigns to believe are important. If a woman is a breastfeeding activist because she’s motivated by concern for her children and want them to have good nutrition, then she’s likely to be an environmental activist (wants a clean world for her kids), an activist for well-regulated trade (wants to avoid imports from China that include harmful substances), and an anti-war activist (wants a more peaceful world), at a minimum. If a woman’s breastfeeding activism stems from a more feminist/civil rights point of view, then all of the prior list could also be included (perhaps with slightly different motivations, but with similar outcomes), and could have added to it race relations, women’s bodily integrity rights, etc.

The problem with activism is not that activists have their time taken up with other forms of activism, it’s that the rest of the people who would blow off issues like breastfeeding would be equally likely to blow off other issues and remain uninformed and apathetic about the war, the environment, and other “really important” causes.

breastfeeding, Bill Maher, cloth wipes

Related Reading:

The American Academy of Pediatrics New Mother's Guide to Breastfeeding

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks