Basic Trope: The artificial version of a product is more affordable, accessible, or convenient than the natural version.
- Straight: Alice is trying to decide whether to feed her baby breast milk or formula. She opts for formula, because she has to work and can't be home all day long to feed the baby, or afford the extra food needed to produce sufficient quantities of good-quality milk.
- Exaggerated: In the Dying Town of Troperville, breastfeeding went the way of the dodo decades ago, because the women who used to stay home (and therefore could do on-demand feedings) just can't.
- Downplayed: Even adjusting for Ridiculous Future Inflation, natural products haven't become much more expensive (and may even have become slightly cheaper), synthetic substitutes became so disproportionately cheap that the natural version looks expensive by comparison. If a cup of synthetic coffee substitute costs the local equivalent of 5 cents, and a cup of Stellar Buck coffee costs what you'd expect from a major modern-day coffee shop brand, it's going to look more expensive.
- Justified:
- On average, breastfeeding takes 35 hours a week. That's great if you're a stay-at-home mom, but not so great if you work outside the home, like Alice.
- Producing good-quality milk isn't free, either; the food bill stays high because Alice needs extra food. If she doesn't get enough food, her milk will be poor-quality (which affects her baby's growth and development, and overall health), or will fail altogether. Formula is always there for Alice, no matter what happens.
- In Alice's culture, breasts are considered private...but the nipple on a baby bottle isn't. So formula feeding is more convenient if she's out and about.
- Inverted: Alice can't afford to buy baby formula, so she opts to breastfeed instead.
- Subverted:
- Alice decides that she'll return to work, but that she'll pump her milk into bottles instead, for convenience.
- Alice hires a nanny who will act as a wet nurse.
- Alice wants to breastfeed, but (for one reason or another) her milk never comes in, or she developed mastitis, or her baby can't or won't latch. So she has no choice but to formula-feed.
- Alice takes her baby to work with her.
- Alice is a Housewife.
- Alice breastfeeds while on maternity leave.
- Alice is low-income, and is on an assistance program such as WIC
. She is strongly encouraged to breastfeed, and if she does choose to use formula, there are only a few kinds that are approved for purchase through the program.
- Double Subverted:
- The formula would actually be more convenient, because she doesn't have to worry about finding a private place to pump, or eat extra food to keep the milk flowing.
- Only because she can afford it; if she were poorer, she wouldn't be able to hire a wet nurse or a nanny.
- She still formula-feeds, because it's more convenient than having to leave her desk and go to the bathroom to breastfeed.
- She chooses to formula-feed because it's more convenient, in case she wants to have company over, or run errands during the day.
- After that leave period is up, Alice must return to work, and therefore switches the baby over to formula.
- The program only gives her so much per month to use, and it's not enough to keep up with her growing family's needs, so Alice must work to make up the difference. She breaks down and buys the formula.
- Parodied: Everything in Alice's town is artificial.
- Zig Zagged: Alice feeds her babies in different ways, depending on what her finances are like when they're born. If things are good, she'll breastfeed full-time. If things aren't so good, she'll feed them formula.
- Averted:
- Alice is not a mother.
- Alice's children are adopted, or foster-children, or stepchildren.
- Alice is physically incapable of breastfeeding.
- Baby formula doesn't exist in this setting, and therefore, there's no choice between breastfeeding and formula-feeding.
- Alice's "breasts" aren't actually breasts, but egg sacs.
- Alice lives in a country that provides paid family leave for one year. She doesn't have to return to work right away, and in fact has plenty of time to breastfeed or pump.
- Enforced: "Ooh, make it so that the 'natural' way is more expensive! That's some great irony!"
- Lampshaded: "I can't afford not to go back to work...I guess it's formula for you, Little One."
- Invoked: Alice is pregnant, and finds out that Bob lost his job. She has been picking up the slack ever since, and can't afford to take a lot of time off after the baby is born.
- Exploited:
- A religious group that believes that women must Stay in the Kitchen decries baby formula as being of the Devil, because it allows women to work outside the home, do errands, etc., and allows men to step outside of their "natural" boundaries and help with the baby.
- Wealthy women can afford to use formula, pump, or hire wet nurses, in order to a) keep working and stay wealthy or b) become fertile again that much faster, to have more children. Poorer women simply can't, leading to Slobs Versus Snobs.
- An activist group pushes breastfeeding, by spreading the idea that formula is artificial, and therefore toxic.
- Defied: Alice decides she'll make it work, come hell or high water, because she believes it's better for her baby if she nurses.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
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