Kirstie Alley says use of gender neutral term ‘chestfeeding’ is ‘insanity’ and ‘degrading to women’

The 70-year-old actor says gender neutral language is ‘nullifying of women and their abilities’

Hollie Richardson
Tuesday 17 August 2021 16:59 BST
Comments
(PA)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Kirsty Alley has claimed that the use of the gender neutral term “chest-feeding” is “insanity” because it is “degrading to women”.

Gender-inclusive language is being used more in hospitals to accommodate trans and gender-neutral people. New guidelines by the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine are urging the use of gender-inclusive terms such as “chestfeeding,” “parent’s milk” and “human milk feeding”.

Alley responded to the news with a Twitter thread in which she claims the terminology is “nullifying of women and their abilities.”

“BREAST-FEEDING IS what WOMEN do,” Alley wrote on Saturday. “Women also bottle feed. Men bottle feed too. We do not have to buckle to the insanity of the minuscule minority of lunatics who make us feel guilty for not sharing their insanity.

“’Chestfeeding?’ ‘human milk feeding?’ WTF STOP IT!!!”

“I’m a little tired of the degrading and nullifying of women and their abilities. Breastfeeding is one of our abilities. It’s a beautiful and important ability. Knock off the nullifying of women [for] the sake of lunatics. Equal rights does not equal insanity.”

Defending her comments, Alley added: “We all have opinions. Probably the main reason social media is so popular. Especially on our own sites. I guess it’s also inviting other opinions of our opinions but I don’t feel obligated to be ‘sweet’ when people are nasty to me about my own site opinions.

“It’s our personal responsibility to agree or disagree with concepts. My only point here today is don’t let insanity force you to pretend like you agree with the insanity. It’s part of the insanity to shame you into agreement.”

Responding to a follower who said “no one asked you to speak for cis women’s breasts or bodies in general”, Alley said : “I don’t need to speak for ‘cis’ women. I am a woman and feel comfortable just calling myself a woman and having a woman’s point of view. I don’t need to be ASKED to speak Deb. We handled that pretty well in 1920.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in