108 CHAPTER FOUR
researchers attributed this difference to the infusion of pregnancy- related
hormones. Young interprets this as evidence that “the female rat’s brain
contained the wiring necessary for her to behave like a mother without
actually being one” (Young and Alexander 2012, 95).^7
There are several problems with this argument. Among them, the sex
dimorphism Young describes is disputed by Rosenblatt’s study of male rats,
which finds that, under certain conditions, “the basic capacity for maternal
behavior is present in both sexes” (Wong 2000, 71). This raises the ques-
tion of how behaviors are understood as maternal or paternal in the first
place. Angela Willey and Sara Giordorno (2011) argue that Young’s lab has
focused overwhelmingly on oxytocin and female maternal behaviors, while
paying relatively little attention to oxytocin’s role in male parenting; instead,
the researchers attribute to vasopressin what they see as male behaviors,
such as mate guarding and the protection of pups. Yet all male prairie voles
produce oxytocin and also nurture their young, and females exhibit some
of the same behaviors that in males are attributed to vasopressin, such as
protectiveness and aggression. Willey and Giordorno argue that a frame-
work of sex/gender difference constrains the interpretation of animal be-
havior in these accounts. Another problem is that Churchland and Young
also offer highly idealized impressions of the affective, embodied maternal
experience, as if, outside of pathological cases, all pregnant females are con-
sumed with thoughts of or preparations for future offspring, lactation is
generally calming and pleasurable, nurturing is automatically offered and
consistently feels good, and interest of mothers in offspring is always in-
tense. But this depiction does not hold up to much scrutiny.
To take just the case of lactation: While there is some evidence that lac-
tating mothers experience a reduction in stress and an increase in dopa-
mine, this fact alone does not even begin to describe the experience, for
humans at least. As even the most cursory look at breastfeeding research
suggests, the experience is widely variable and involves many social, cul-
tural, economic, physical, and psychological factors (MacLean 1988; Thu-
lier and Mercer 2009). Historian Londa Schiebinger (1993) notes that since
antiquity, many women have practiced breastfeeding as a form of domestic
labor, whereas other women have considered breastfeeding their own chil-
dren a great burden.^8 Colonials utilized the services of native women and
slaves, urbanities engaged wet nurses from the country, and upper- and