Context is crucial in comparisons

http://www.news.com.au/top-stories/hardline-counsellor-slams-bottlefeeding/story-e6frfkp9-1226458040994

Currently, the above article is being linked to on many of the Facebook boards I frequent, with the headline Australian Breastfeeding Association class told baby formula 'was like AIDS'.  Shocking, right?  Propaganda, total exaggeration, just the sort of thing that makes people call lactivists 'Breastapo', 'Boob Nazis' and pushes away exactly the people that we are trying to reach?

Well, yes and no. This sort of HEADLINE is like the Times 'Are you mom enough?' headline – it is not giving the correct impression of what is actually going on. And the headlines are what make people feel that lactivists are all judgy-smuggers (if I may borrow a perfect turn of phrase from this lovely article http://www.acornpack.com/content/exploding-breastapo-myth-once-and-all).

The simile of formula feeding being like AIDS is apt – in context. Just as the metaphor of colostrum as 'liquid gold' is apt – in context. Just as the comparison between breastfeeding and urination is apt – in context.

Lactivists often get upset/angry/exasperated by the urination comparison – and I'm sure some of my readers will be shocked by my opinion on this – but it is actually a brilliant simile, in its place.

It's not ok to do things in public on the sole grounds that it is natural. It is not reasonable to suggest that something is beautiful because it is natural. Therefore, one can easily dismiss these as reasons why no one should mind NIP (nursing in public) by using the fact that breastfeeding is like urination in that it's natural. Obviously, breastfeeding is NOT like urination in many many other ways – and often when the urination simile is trotted out, it is used to suggest that natural acts are NOT appropriate in public, because urination (a natural thing) is not. The flaw in this reasoning can easily be shown by flipping the argument and saying that since breathing – a natural act - is acceptable, and even expected, in public, so too must be urination. But I digress.

Being appalled by these comparisons, when they are used correctly, is like thinking that when people refer to colostrum as 'liquid gold' they are advocating pouring a molten metal into the stomach of a newborn. That's going to kill the baby! Clearly they are saying that colostrum is fatal!

Colostrum is like liquid gold in that it is an extremely valuable, gold-coloured liquid.  Colostrum is NOT like liquid gold in that it is not metal, it is not at least 1064 °C (the melting point of gold, according to a quick google), it does not traditionally get made into wedding rings or jewellery....

Here is the context of the simile of formula feeding to AIDS: “Nobody actually dies from AIDS; what happens is AIDS destroys your immune system and then you just die of anything and that's what happens with formula. It provides no antibodies.”

So, formula feeding is like AIDS in that it doesn't actually kill you, but it does make you more vulnerable to other things that might kill you.

It's a brilliant comparison. It refutes the idea that because no death certificate claims formula feeding as the cause of death, formula feeding does not cause deaths. (No death certificate will put 'smoking' as the cause of death either, of course.) It increases the understanding of what is ACTUALLY the problem with formula feeding – which is not that it will doom your child to definitely getting x,y and z, but that the risks of these things are increased.

Or we could use a bike helmet simile. Breastfeeding is like wearing a bike helmet in that *if* you crash your bike, you have more (but not infallible) protection from head injuries. If you don't crash your bike it makes no difference whatsoever whether or not you were wearing a helmet. Someone wearing a bike helmet who crashes their bike will be more badly hurt than someone who isn't wearing a helmet who doesn't crash.  However, please don't forget that breastfeeding is not like wearing a bike helmet in that you are not supposed to do it while on a bike!