Roman Breastfeeding: Control and Affect

Abstract

Despite the fact that breastfeeding was a vital gesture in Roman times since milk substitutes endangered the life of infants, the occurrences of literary and visual representations of ordinary, domestic breastfeeding are very few. This article offers hypotheses concerning this dearth of representations, firstly postulating a real disinterest, related to male disgust of, or distance with, female physiological processes, and, secondly, a strategic disinterest, which may be accounted for by male envy of power and pleasure. Lastly, it investigates various male strategies of depreciation and appropriation of breastfeeding, and the subsequent female internalization of negative messages about it.