The Other White Milk

I like to consider myself a pretty reasonable person. Logic really appeals to me. I was led to The Lactivist Breastfeeding Blog by Issylthesthlia. The National Pork Board does not seem to be behaving in a reasonable, logical, rational manner! If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to The Lactivist blog. It's always best to hear something straight from the source anyway. I get so riled up when things like this happen, regardless of whether or not it's an issue that I already feel strongly about (and breastfeeding happens to be one that I DO). Needless to say, I am pretty riled up about this! I let the heat of the moment go, and I still feel pretty annoyed. Annoyed enough that I'm considering making my own T-shirt that says "the other white milk" on it, just so The National Pork Board can see that they won't get anywhere by bullying people into complying with their understanding of what infringes on their trademark of the phrase "the other white meat". I, personally, think owning a trademark of a phrase starts to infringe on our First Amendment rights anyway. I realize that they believe they have a foothold because she was actually selling the shirt with the (similar) phrase. She is potentially making money on something that "piggybacks" (that pun wasn't originally intended) on the wittiness of someone from their company a long long time ago, and they alone should be the ones making money on that oh so clever phrase "the other white ____". Right?

Ummm... NO!!! "The other white meat" is such a generic phrase! Milk has nothing to do with meat, or pork, and while the phrase about the milk appeals to us because we already know about the phrase, it does nothing but attract attention to the existence of the phrase, in a light that every human being should see as positive! Who WOULDN'T want to be associated with the healthy aspects and benefits of breastfeeding??? Unfortunately for them, The National Pork Board probably didn't realize that messing with breastfeeding advocates was probably not a very good idea. There are few groups in this country that unite as effectively as pro-breastfeeding women, and some of the things they said in the letter they sent to The Lactivist are only going to aggravate most breastfeeding women and pro-breastfeeding people in general.

And then of course, who would I rather sympathize with, in a battle between a large profiting national company that exploits pigs and a small blogsite that donates its income to a Mother's Milk Bank? That's not a tough choice for me...