Reconfiguring the breastfeeding body in urban public spaces

• Published in: Social & cultural geography Vol. 20; no. 9; pp. 1266 - 1284
• Main Author: Mathews, Vanessa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 22.11.2019; Taylor & Francis LLC
• Subjects: allaitement au sein; Amamantar; auto-ethnographie féministe; Auto-etnografía Feminista; bodily fluids; Body; breastfeeding; Breastfeeding & lactation; corps; Cuerpo; embodied practice; espace public; Espacio Público; Feminism; feminist autoethnography; fluides corporels; Fluidos Corporales; Health care policy; Human body; Identidad Materna; Identity; identité maternelle; maternal identity; Meaning; Modern society; Mothers; Participation; pratique incarnée; Práctica Corporal; public space; Public spaces; Sexuality; Sexualization; Social response; Urban areas; Vignettes
• ISSN: 1464-9365; 1470-1197
• DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2018.1433867

The breastfeeding body is subject to overt and subversive forms of regulation and control in contemporary society, where it is sexualized and naturalized, rendered both visible and invisible, revered and found disruptive. Despite health policy espousing the benefits of breastfeeding for mother and child, duration rates in Canada remain relatively low. In this paper, I explore the spatial practices of the breastfeeding body in public, using feminist work on the body and theorizations of built form, urban space and embodied practice. Drawing on a series of feminist autoethnographic vignettes, I write my breastfeeding body into a diversity of routine urban spaces - a car, grocery store, mall, bookstore, highway, alleyway - and narrate my experiences negotiating social responses and spatial arrangements. I argue that the breastfeeding body challenges normative understandings of gender, motherhood and sexuality through its participation and presence in public space. The breastfeeding body transgresses the meaning of space and the performance of identity as it claims space for private use.