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A Lot of Straight Cis Men Need To Be Keeping Their Opinions About the Baby Formula Shortage To Themselves

Store shelves are mostly empty, with just a few packages of baby formula on display.

An extreme shortage of baby formula is currently having dire effects on families nationwide. There have been reports of parents having to drive hours to find stores with formula in stock (at a time when gas prices are still near record-highs no less) or feeling forced to dilute the formula they do have—which, to be clear, is incredibly dangerous and not a thing anyone should try doing!

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The shortage is a failure on pretty much every level. Supply chain issues were already causing a problem and then in February, a major formula factory was shut down amid an investigation into a bacterial outbreak that saw at least four babies hospitalized. Two of them died. If you’re looking to be absolutely consumed with rage, there’s a whistleblower report you can read that details the irresponsible practices in place at the facility and the FDA’s impossibly slow response.

The baby formula industry is extremely consolidated, with pretty much the entire country’s supply coming from only four companies. This Abbott facility in Michigan that was shut down is the largest plant in the country. So when it shut down, the already existing shortage exploded in scale, which likely also led to understandably nervous parents hoarding what they could, which would have exacerbated the existing shortage.

This is a devastating and terrifying experience for so many people. So naturally, a lot of straight, cis men who have literally never had to think about these things in their life are extraordinarily eager to wave their ignorance like a giant flag, proclaiming that this isn’t actually a big deal because, according to them, “breastmilk is free.”

This is such a staggeringly ignorant take. In terms of male audacity, it’s right up there with believing they should get to be the arbiters of who deserves access to baby formula and in what order—which, yes, men are also doing right now:

The claim that “breast milk is free” leaves so much out of the conversation. First, there’s a whole host of reasons why breastfeeding does not work for many, many parents, from physical limitations to the fact that not every parent is a birth parent.

This is a great thread (though too lengthy to post in full here, but I’ll be referencing throughout):

The people hit hardest by a formula shortage are, unsurprisingly, poor people and people of color and the “breast milk is free” argument ignores the history of racism and classism baked into the foundation of this subject and the ways in which those issues still manifest.

Even for parents who can produce milk and babies who have no issues taking it, it is not “free.”

As Erin Gloria Ryan wrote in an essay earlier this year:

Imagine a job that required you to work a half-hour to hour-long shift every two to four hours, around the clock, with no days off. Imagine that if you tried to do the job in public, you would be chastised by some and lasciviously gawked at by others. What if this job exposed you to the possibility of pain and serious infection? Oh, and if, for whatever reason, you’re not interested in the job or not able to take it and hold onto it for at least a year, you will be told you’re a selfish asshole by random people. Even “success” at the job can devastate you psychologically. You must provide all your own supplies. You are lucky to have this job, and if you don’t see that, you’re ungrateful. It pays $0.

That’s breastfeeding.

On top of all of this, the “what did people do before formula” crowd really seems to have no idea that, in addition to the fact that people have always found alternative sources of nutrients for babies, one of the obvious answers to that question is “sometimes they starved.”

It’s not surprising that so many men have been so quick to proclaim themselves experts on something they have no idea what they’re talking about. What is more disappointing is seeing the lack of action from those in power who let the formula industry get to this point, and don’t even seem to have any idea how many people are currently suffering.

(image: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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