Boobs, knockers, Tits, hooters, fun bags…
call them what you will, they have a biological purpose.
To feed babies.
But culturally – they take on a whole new purpose.
Sales.
The cultural influence on breastfeeding is enormous. Boobs are Big Business. And our modern culture is media-driven; advertising and pop-culture dominate how we identify, how we perceive others and the choices we make. Whilst our inner circle (family and friends) still have a strong influence, increasingly the outside influence of media and the ‘wider’ community (social media, for instance) directs cultural change.
From birth, our children are being bombarded with messages: in advertising, in television shows, in films, on social media. These are reinforced by peers, who compete and vie for social acceptance. From the moment a girl first begins to develop, it intensifies. She is pressured to wear a bra, is either overly sexualised or ominously oppressed. ‘She’ is the driver of the economy, from her pre-teens she directs her parents purchasing (pester power), in her teens this magnifies. By the time she is an adult, she is firmly entrenched in consumer culture, and ultimately as a Mother, she drives the family purchases. This illusion of power is steeped in an undermining of instinct and a move away from biological towards technological.