While I firmly stand by the thousands –if not millions– of women hoping to normalize the act of breastfeeding, I can't say that I understand the choices of every breastfeeding enthusiast, especially those that involve wearing breast milk around your neck. However, it appears that dozens and dozens of women are interested in doing just that. Several Etsy purveyors have built their shops around selling kits that allow mothers to dehydrate or plasticize a portion of their breast milk and turn it into jewelry.
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A description of the pendants sold in the MommyMilk Etsy shop says, "What a wonderful way to preserve the "liquid gold" that we are only able to make for certain period of time. This can be passed down for generations and what a fantastic gift to give to your child, the root of their survival. Amazing." But honestly, breast milk is just food.
Every woman — with the exception of those with certain medical conditions — is capable of producing it. In fact, breastfeeding is really only even a topic of discussion in the Western world — where women's breasts have become more associated with sexual acts than with the sustenance of babies. Everywhere else, it's just a normal part of life. Sure the feeding aspect may not be the most pleasant thing to figure out and yes, it can be a very emotional and significant journey, but the milk itself is just an aspect of physiology.
I really can't help but wonder what the wearers of such jewelry say when someone asks them about it. I mean some people might think it's cool, but I'm betting that most would give you the side eye and slowly find a way to back out of the conversation. And can I also mention how weird and slightly creepy the idea of someone else sitting in their kitchen getting crafty with my expressed breast milk is? Oh, and I would be remiss not to mention that these folks are capitalizing on the bodily functions of other women. I mean would anyone think it's okay to collect and preserve blood for the purpose of turning it into jewelry — it too is a life-sustaining fluid, so what's the difference?
To each their own, but I have to say that breast milk jewelry is far more likely to damage the image of breastfeeding mothers than to convince skeptics that it's normal. Of course, the women purchasing breast milk jewelry are probably not doing it to promote breastfeeding, but their fashion choices will undoubtedly have some unintended affects. Let's just hope celebrities don't start sporting them around town and end up inciting a trend.
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