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The Office star Rainn Wilson recently received flak for his dig at transgender people chestfeeding their children. The actor proceeded to delete the tweet in question, which he had posted on Wednesday, June 15, following backlash from the trans community.
Wilson, who is renowned for portraying Dwight Schrute in NBC's iconic sitcom The Office, apologized for the now-deleted tweet a day later. In the original tweet, the 56-year-old actor had quipped about the term 'breastfeeding' being replaced with the more socially-inclusive term 'chestfeeding.' However, in his apology, Wilson stated that he is 'educating' himself with the help of his transgender friends. The actor also labeled his earlier tweet as 'mean.'
Rainn Wilson apologizes after his joke about trans and non-binary people receives backlash
On June 15, Wilson tweeted about the recent prevalence of the term 'chestfeeding.' The term refers to the act of feeding milk produced from lactogenesis (the process of milk generation) in humans to an infant. 'Chestfeeding' is a more inclusive term for trans or non-binary individuals who feed their milk to their infants, as opposed to 'breastfeeding.'
Rainn Wilson's now-deleted tweet mentioned:
"TIL you can no longer say 'nursing or breastfeeding mother' you have to say 'chestfeeding person.'
In case you are unacquainted with the term, TIL is an abbreviation for "today I learned." According to Cyber Definition,
"'Today I Learned' is the most common definition for TIL on Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok."
The tweet sparked much scrutiny and criticism from transgender and non-binary people, after which Wilson decided to delete it and issue an apology.
In his apology, Wilson said:
"Yesterday I tweeted a mean crack about breastfeeding vs chestfeeding. After speaking with some Trans friends and educating myself a bit more I want to apologize for the tweet."
The actor further added how his tweet added to misinformation regarding the subject, and was 'mean' in nature.
Netizens are divided over Rainn Wilson's apology for 'chestfeeding' comment
The actor's apology sparked further debate on whether the term 'breastfeeding' is offensive to individuals other than women. While a few people praised Wilson, others opined that the terms 'chest' and 'breast' were no different from each other. Some tweets also claimed that Wilson's comment did not warrant an apology. Here is a mixed bag of reactions on Twitter.
Medically-induced lactation in transgender and non-binary people is experimental. In a recently reported case, a trans-woman received much flak for chestfeeding an infant. According to the mother, who took to Reddit to showcase the journey, they used the domperidone drug to trick the body into lactation. The drug reportedly tricks the body into thinking that it is in a pregnant or post-pregnant stage which reportedly induces lactation.
It must be noted that all these claims are now under study, and research is being continued on the effects of such. The United States Food and Drug Administration has also warned against the use of domperidone to induce or increase milk production.
