forbidden word: chestfeed + people

chestfeed v. the process of feeding a child human milk from a person’s chest. It’s is a term that can be used by anyone, but often is used by transgender and nonbinary people for whom the words breastfeeding or nursing are not an ideal fit.

from – Cnm, D. S. (2021, December 14). What is chestfeeding? (And why it’s so important). Motherly

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people n. pl. 1 Will people ever live 200 years?: human beings, humans, mortals, men and women, individuals, human kind, homo sapiens, mankind, humanity. 2 The people of the city want better schools. My people came from Ireland: citizens, citizenry, inhabitants, population, populace; family, ancestors, relatives, kin, kinfolks, Informal folks. 3 A politician must appeal to the people: the public, the common people, the little people, the rank and file, the masses, the multitude, the millions, the man in the street, John Q. Public; commoners, the common run; the lower classes, the lower orders, the working class, the working man, the mob, the rabble, the herd, the crowd, the great unwashed, the hoi polloi.
Ant 3 nobility, aristocracy, gentry, upper classes, blue blood, silk stockings.
Word origin: People comes from Latin pǒpulus, people. (Latin pǒpulus — pronounced with a long o — means “poplar.”)

from – Family Word Finder: Reader’s Digest. The Reader’s Digest Association, 1975.

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example sentences: chestfeed + people

Here are a few examples of people who may choose to chestfeed:

• A transgender man may choose to use the term chestfeeding if they had surgery to remove breast tissue, known as a ‘chest masculinization surgery,’ ‘top surgery’ or ‘male chest-contouring surgery.’ A small study done in 2017 found that this was the most frequently cited reason for preferring the term chestfeeding.
• A non-binary person (someone who does not identify as having a particular gender) may not be comfortable using the terms breastfeeding or nursing as these have historically been thought of as “female” acts. Chestfeeding is a neutral term that may feel more comfortable.
• A cisgender woman (a person whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth) may have experienced breast-related trauma and feels better using a more neutral term (especially given the hyper-sexualization of breasts in our society).

These are just a few of the many possible reasons that someone may prefer to use the term chestfeeding. While ultimately it’s not anyone’s business but the person who chooses to feed their child by chestfeeding, it’s important for all of us to better understand people’s stories so we can increase our empathy and decrease our judgment.

from – Cnm, D. S. (2021, December 14). What is chestfeeding? (And why it’s so important). Motherly

April 13, 2025
Hudson Valley, New York

This is one of the words / combination of words you can’t say in the new Trump Administration. See a comprehensive list at the Forbidden Words Project.

image: mom and me © Holly Troy 01.2024