Fresh Milk
The Secret Life of Breasts
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- £8.99
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
While countless breastfeeding guides crowd bookshelves, not one of them speaks to women with anything approaching bestselling author Fiona Giles's level of intimacy and vitality. In Fresh Milk, through a provocative collection of stories, memories, and personal accounts, Giles uncovers the myths and truths of the lactating breast.
From the young mother grappling with the bewildering trappings of maternity wear to the woman who finds herself surprisingly aroused by new sensations, and the modern dad who learns the ins and outs of breastfeeding, the portraits in Giles's eye-opening book offer a funny, wise, and comforting resource for women -- and even their friends and partners who have had, or expect, intimate experiences with the pleasures and pain of lactation.
By turns poignant and informative, sexy and witty, empathic and empowering, Fresh Milk delivers everything we wanted to know about breastfeeding that our mothers never told us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australian scholar and feminist Giles (Dick for a Day) shows the personal is political (and vice versa) in this collection of accounts with commentaries, a look at the pleasures, difficulties and cultural attitudes about breastfeeding. She intersperses comforting images of Madonna-like mother-infant bonding with more disturbing and unexpected scenes: pus- and blood-oozing nipples, the sexuality of breastfeeding, "milkmaid" porn, nipples as technological fetish and a recipe for breast milk ice cream. Giles impressively argues that our culture's mixed message to women breastfeed for the health of the child, but don't practice that disgusting act in public reveals a squeamishness about the pure animality of breastfeeding, as well as an unwillingness to come to terms with its inherent sexuality. As Giles comments, "The stories in this book reach toward a wider, and a wilder, space in which breastfeeding might more freely ebb and flow." Drawn from historical research, conversations, questionnaire responses and Giles's own experience, some stories are presented straight from their sources; others are combined and fictionalized. The accompanying remarks are often as long as the stories, and readers may get confused about the identity of the narrator at any given moment. But this collection is sure to provoke deep thought and strong reactions, both visceral and emotional, from revulsion to longing, sometimes both at once.
