Babies who are bottle-fed or suck dummies are “more likely” to develop rubber fetishism including gimp suits, a leading feminist claimed today. Antonella Gambotto-Burke - once played by Amber Heard in a film - said newborns who are not breastfed are at greater likelihood of becoming fetishists in later life.
She says it is because they draw comfort and gratification from the smell, taste and feel of the synthetic teats they sucked on as infants. Breastfed babies, on the other hand, are less likely to be kinky in adulthood and more likely to bond with their mothers, she says.
Gambotto-Burke's 2015 book Mama: Love, Motherhood and Revolution is seen by some as one of most seminal feminist works of the 21st century. The new claims are made in Apple: Sex, Drugs, Motherhood and the Recovery of the Feminine, her controversial new book which aims to strike a “devastating uppercut to a patriarchal ideology that has marred billions of lives”.
Gambotto-Burke claims to be the first person to link rubber fetishism to bottle feeding, dummies and the hospital environment. Gambotto-Burke, a MENSA member with a genius IQ above 150, said: “For decades, psychiatrists have tried to explain why some people fetishize rubber and have entirely failed to do so.
“The link between bottle feeding, dummies, and rubber fetishism, however, is entirely obvious. Babies who suck on, smell and fiddle with rubber or synthetic rubber-teated bottles and dummies will quite naturally crave the same sensations in later life.
“This can manifest in various ways, which includes them eating it, watching fetishistic pornography, wearing it, or otherwise using it in sexual BDSM (bondage, discipline or domination, sadism, and masochism) practices.”
She also claims pregnant women who are given anaesthetics during childbirth or who have caesarean sections, meanwhile, are increasing their children’s chances of becoming lifelong drug addicts with mental and physical health problems, and relationship issues.
Gambotto-Burke, 56, was recently identified alongside Virginia Woolf, Hillary Clinton and Nobel prizewinner Malala Yousafzai as one of the world's most inspiring feminists. In 2020, she publicly claimed to have had a five-year relationship with married author Martin Amis and to have been the inspiration for his 'Nicola Six' character in his 1989 bestseller, London Fields.
Nicola Six, a femme fatale, was later played by the American actress Amber Heard - in the 2018 film adaptation of the same name. She is also a widely published journalist and former music critic at the NME, known for “saying the unsayable” – and for coming under fire from notable musicians.
Gambotto-Burke’s conclusions about bottle-feeding and dummies follow three years’ research into the impact of modern birthing practices and what she believes is their link to a variety of sexual and relationship problems. She says rubber and latex fetishism evolved as a widespread phenomenon in the 20th century after the materials began being used for lifelike teats in the first widely available baby bottles.
Since then, one-in-five adults worldwide are now believed to engage in regular BDSM according to studies, most of which use masks, suits, blindfolds and other fetish tools made of rubber. There are also believed to be millions more adults with non-sexual addictions to rubber-based products.
They include people who love its taste and can’t stop eating or chewing it, and those who cannot leave the house without clutching part of a raincoat, rubber band or condom for comfort. Gambotto-Burke, who was bottle-fed herself, said: “People feel comforted by rubber. I know I do. I’ve always been drawn to it and love the smell and the feel of latex clothing.
“Now I understand why: it’s because I was bottle fed with those really thick rubbery teats.”
She also believes that there is an “indisputable” link between modern childbirth practices and skyrocketing rates of anxiety, drug addiction and relationship breakdowns. Women who are given drugs to induce labour, as well as for pain relief during labour or elective C-sections, for instance, have been shown by multiple studies to be significantly more likely to give birth to apnoeic babies (babies who experience a temporary cessation of breathing at birth), she says.
Gambotto-Burke believes that the current vogue for sexualised choking – the intentional restriction of oxygen to the brain for the purposes of sexual arousal – is due to drug-related oxygen deprivation at birth. Those children are, she believes, also more at risk of becoming recreational drug users later in life because when stressed they will seek the same sensations they experienced at birth.
Mothers who refuse to breastfeed their babies, meanwhile, create anxieties in their babies that may culminate in later mental illness and family breakups, she says. These children may also face chronic and potentially life-threatening health problems later in life including allergies, asthma, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.
Gambotto-Burke, a mum-of-one, blames the ongoing NHS gender divide – women remain underrepresented in senior leadership roles – and the fact that modern obstetric practices were designed by men. She said: “Babies have literally been born tripping – or oxygen-starved – through the administration of obstetric drugs for well over a century and the impact of this obscenity has never been addressed.
“Childbirth is still largely overseen by patriarchal men and women who exercise their power over feminine territory during all stages of pregnancy and birth for the purposes of profit. The poisoning of infants at birth is reframed as a maternal choice rather than as a direct by-product of misinformation or a complete lack of information.
“As my book, Apple, makes clear, there needs to be a revolution in the way the NHS approaches birth. Whether it’s pain relief that ultimately leads to drug addiction or bottles that increase the likelihood of rubber fetishism later in life, patriarchal obstetricians —I would guess mostly unthinkingly — have and continue to abuse mothers and babies through their practices.
“There is no man or woman alive whose life has not been distorted by brutal obstetric practices, whether directly or indirectly. This is leading to dangerous societal problems that will literally destroy the world if we allow these abuses to continue.”
