Bodies get in the way: breastfeeding and gender equality in Swedish handbooks for new parents

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of three popular Swedish handbooks for new parents, written by authors in the "media class." In these texts breastfeeding as a gendered, embodied practice collides with the Swedish ideal of genderequal parenting. The analysis explores the various ways that gendered bodies, gendered (parental) rights, and gender equality figure in the handbooks, drawing upon feminist studies of bodies and embodiment, and of breastfeeding in particular. It contextualizes the primary texts in terms of the Swedish ideal of gender-equal parenting, and in terms of current breastfeeding practices in Sweden. In the handbooks, the "breastfeeding imperative" is resisted because it is irrelevant and constraining for women, but also because it alienates fathers from infant feeding. Breastfeeding is ultimately rejected for reasons grounded in differences between gendered parental bodies, and particular understandings of gender-equal parenting. We contend that the books' suggestion that breastfeeding be rejected in the name of parental gender equality, while it may cause women to feel physically free, also supports fathers' rights discourses and in fact serves to (once more) marginalize women's bodies, straight and queer.

Breastfeeding and infant care as ‘sexed’ care work: reconsideration of the three Rs to enable women’s rights, economic empowerment, nutrition and health

“…The impact on breastfeeding of societal expectations that mothers and fathers should share infant care equally, such as in Scandinavia, should also be considered. In Sweden, parenting handbooks position breastfeeding as a ‘gender equality problem,’ and describe breastfeeding as alienating fathers because it distances them from newborns and makes them unimportant ( 125 ). Research from Norway found that some fathers felt jealous of the mother–child relationship and sad and excluded when women breastfed ( 126 ).…”