“These practices, Sears and Sears tell us, are all the rage in other, “primitive” cultures, where babies don’t cry (we know this, of course, because anthropologists have said so, but I don’t believe that any of the communities being studied have made these claims). They have supported huge businesses here in our “more developed” cultures, where, if you have the money, you can buy all kinds of fashion nursing tops, slings, and, as I mentioned above, various equipment for co-sleeping. Also, as these practices have been imported, they’ve lost their community focus. Instead of depending on, say, the other women in the village to help you breastfeed your child, just as you do for theirs, the task of breastfeeding every hour falls to you.”
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Sacrifice, Parenting, and Feminism — Feministe
This is probably the thing that galls me the most about Dr. Sears—the fetishization of child-rearing practices of cultures in indigenous communities and developing countries, because they are clearly more “natural.” And then, of course, making them all about the trappings of modern society. Icky, icky, icky.