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Feminists everywhere are probably going to lynch me for saying this but ... what bollocks. OK, of course, breast feeding is a wonderful thing. Between mother and child. But it should not be inflicted on the unsuspecting and uncomfortable. Sure, it is a natural thing. So is pissing. But if a bloke unzipped, took out his willy and started pissing in public view, he would get bloody arrested, wouldn't he? So this is totally double standards, is it not? Loads of women breast feed in public. I've seen them. They drape this cloth over their shoulder and their feeding spawns to hide their boobies from pervy or horrified eyes. It's really considerate and discreetly classy. But to demand your right to breast feed in public as a constitutional, human amendment right is a bit much. It's a trite bit unfair and what about the rights of the singletons? Maybe some of them might want the right to air their boobies too? And what about the rights of the blokes having to hold their wee in while in search of the loo? It's not as if the breast feeding mums can't go to the loo to breast feed too. I remember a girlfriend who called me up in tears years ago. It was early morning and I was in the office when a weeping woman wailed over the phone. It was her 30th birthday and she was going through some emotional depression at reaching that hallmark without anything to show for it. So she hied herself off to the nearest McDonalds to drown her sorrows in a McMuffin and dishwater coffee, when a woman and her baby sat at the opposite table. And proceeded to open her blouse, take out her boobie and breast feed in full view of my girlfriend. Who promptly burst into tears and called me in the office in hysterics. I was in hysterics myself at the thought of a woman baring her boobies with such impunity in public. I never forgot that incident and have developed a deep phobia of going to McDonalds in the morning for breakfast in case of boobies flashing. So the Italian mums protest that showgirls reveal their boobies, so why can't they? My dears, people pay money to see showgirls. I reckon some people might pay you to put yours away. And usually the telecast of gratuitous boob flashing are during the hours when kids are safely in bed. And boobies are not a sexual thing? Well, loads of blokes' willies are not sexual things too (more likely laughable things) but you'd get them arrested in a shot if they flashed those at you, wouldn't you? Come on, be fair here ... and where's your dignity? Thus, I am against the mass demonstration of rabid boob flashing by breast feeding mums with overdeveloped sense of entitlement. OK, they should be allowed to breast feed if they cover up with the cloth tent act or go to the loo but no nekkid boob should be shown. Hey, there might be young, impressionable kids besides your own around. They could be scarred for life! So ... Yes, you are entitled to breast feed where and when you wish. And yes, we are entitled to call the cops on you for indecent exposure. 06/25/2008 03:26 PM THE POLITICS OF BREAST-FEEDING Italian Mothers Hold Mass Public Nursing Whether it's dealing with the squeamish people or oglers, women often feel uncomfortable about breast-feeding in public. This week, a group of 100 women in Rome held a nurse-in to protest what they see as Italy's unfair stigmatization of women who nurse on the street. Protesting social attitudes that stigmatize breast-feeding in public in Italy, more than 100 mothers gathered in Rome on Tuesday for a public mass-nursing aimed at bringing attention to the matter. "People still give a start when they see a woman breast-feeding," Grazia Passeri, president of Salvamamme (Save Mothers), told the Italian news agency ANSA, "but they have to learn that a breast is not just a sexy object." Passeri's organization promotes mothers' rights and is currently running a campaign with the slogan, "I'll Nurse Where I Feel Like It." Pointing out the irony that Italian television is full of lightly or un-clad women, Passeri added: "It's ridiculous that showgirls can show their (breasts) but mothers can't." One of the participants in Tuesday's mass-nursing, told ANSA that, when she breast-feeds in public: "They give me evil looks, but I do it anyway." Although the World Health Organization has labeled breast-feeding "the ideal way of providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development," many societies still feel squeamish about seeing women breast-feed in public. In England, for example, breast-feeding in public can still be punished under public order laws and laws of public decency. That will soon be changing, though, as the government hopes to push through new laws by the end of the year. "We intend to make clear in the equality bill that it's not acceptable for women who are breast-feeding their babies to be shooed out of restaurants, public galleries and other public places," Harriet Harman, the leader of the House of Commons, told MPs last Thursday, according to the Guardian. A similar nurse-in was held in November 2006, when women gathered to nurse in public at 31 airports throughout the United States to protest after a flight attendant kicked a passenger off a plane for breast-feeding her daughter. In the immortal words from 6th Sense ... I see stupid people. |
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6/30/2008 11:01 am |
Consider yourself lynched by Uni. The law in England has changed this week, whereby a breastfeeding Mother may be told that some people 'may object' to her breast feeding her infant, BUT she will not be asked to leave a public venue, ie restaurant because of it. The Mother is feeding her baby in the way nature intended, giving him/her the best start in life, people stuffing their faces on McD's are not giving thelmselves 'the best food available' to support their immune system  Eating McD'ees in public is far more repulsive than a breastfeeding baby is. It's Pantomine time 'Oh no it's not' FF Pantomine:
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 6/30/2008 11:29 am |
I totally disagree. Breast-feeding in public in the UK may be "punishable" under law, but those laws are rarely, if ever, invoked. In fact, it is far more common to see mothers breast-feeding in public in the UK than it is in southern Europe. Double standards are everywhere. Women can sunbathe topless on any beach, but mothers have to shut themselves up in some piss-soaked toilet to feed their babies? Hardly fair. When sex can be used to sell anything, at any time of day, then the public at large ought to be able to deal with a mother discreetly feeding her child. As far as I can make out, the article is about changing people's attitudes, not demanding civil rights. The "breast exposure versus willie exposure" argument isn't worth responding to. There endeth the (rather pious sounding) lesson.
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6/30/2008 12:18 pm |
ditto to Uni and Gower... Every evening when I watch tv, I see ad after ad with near naked young women being used to sell cars, alcohol, beach holidays. I find those ads far more offensive than some woman feeding a child the way nature intended. I wonder if seeing ads of women's bodies being used to sell cars, alcohol, beach holidays etc riles you as much?. If they don't, I wonder why. Where would you suggest these women feed their babies? And men do piss in public...requently. And very rarely are they arrested. And thus endeth my irritable post...and lesson the second...to paraphrase Gower... Wishing you happiness Misty
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6/30/2008 5:31 pm |
Not ever having had breast fed (a child) in public, I hesitate to comment... but do anyway. I too think it's simple and courteous to cover one's self when breast feeding in public. How difficult is it to drape a towel or blanket? It can be done in public without practically anyone even knowing. I consider myself fully on the women's rights band wagon but feel we've lost a little bit of our gracefulness, for lack of a better term, along the way. (Spoken by a chick who wears sweat pants and running shoes to work.)
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7/1/2008 12:41 am |
The problem I have with this legislation is that all women are not equal. Feeding your baby is a private act and although private acts are acceptable in public they should never become spectacles. Whereas most mothers will seek somewhere quiet and out of the limelight, others actively promote their activity and then cry foul if anybody as much as casts an eye in their direction. As usual there is no simple answer to this - yes for the vast majority, being able to feed your baby in public is a sensible, natural thing to do. However, as with all things, there are exceptions and I believe legislation should cater for those women who insist on graying the distinction between feeding and performing. ** guaranteed Goody free **
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 7/1/2008 8:27 am |
It's like most things... degree. Breast feeding is natural etc etc etc yeah yeah of course. But women who make a point of doing so for its own sake are not helping. You can do anything discreetly. Unless you don't want to on purpose. And yes, thought needs to be given to why that woman ran off in tears whoever she was. Maybe the fifth failed IVF attempt last week and reaches age 40 today. Maybe her baby is with her husband in a custody battle. Maybe her baby had a cleft palate and can't breast feed. Breast feeding in one of the pet subjects of the self-righteous militia (not accusing anyone who breast feeds as being a member... often it's actually the non-mothers who are most vocal!). We had three miscarriages in the 80s. WHERE DID THEY SEND US for the follow up? Postnatal outpatients waiting room! Work out what that was like for us. Hello? Why are we here WITHOUT A BABY? You dont have to be Einstein to work it out. Insensitive? Yes people can be so insensitive sometimes whilst so tied up in making their own precious points, they miss the discofort they can cause to others. Time for some accommodation both ways, I think. It needs no more than that old simple test: Does my right to do this impare someone else's right to not see me if they choose not to? Shoving any issue in someone's face is sure to get a reaction. No surprise there. Peter
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7/2/2008 11:15 am |
Who knows what is right and what is wrong..... I just came here to see if you get lynch....  Tone. 
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7/3/2008 4:01 pm |
Funny thing--for a supposed repressed Catholic society, we're pretty tolerant of breastfeeding moms. I've seen mothers with babies whip out their breasts and plug their kids in in the blink of an eye in public places here---trains, restos, malls--then just using their shirts to cover up as much as they can. Nobody pays them any mind, because it just seems like the natural thing to do. We also have TV and print ads with images of women breastfeeding their babies, their breasts fully exposed with only the nipple invisible because it's already safely being suckled by the baby, with the CBCP (Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines), our morality watchdog, nary raising a whimper of protest about it being prurient and inappropriate. So it's not even an issue for us at all, and I'm surprised that it's caused such conflict in the supposedly more liberal West. I'm dyslexic. I scream Ho Dog instead of Oh God in the throes of passion.
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7/5/2008 7:28 am |
I don't often see women breast-feeding babies in the public areas of my city. Sometimes you will find farmer women do so on the market or in the street, but professional women seldom dare to feed their baby this way under the nose of total strangers'. We are a conserved nation after all,and an important part of our traditional education centers on the emphasis as to how to behave politely in the public areas. Therefore, the well-educated women here are more aware of such issues as their social image, courtesies to observe, and so on in terms of breast-feeding, while those not-so-well-educated women take the behavior in a more natural way without too much of such worries. I think breast-feeding in the public is a natural and respectable phenomenon, but the mother should also do it in a quiet place and in a discreet and dignified way. On the other side, passers-by should regard it as something natural and noble, not something erotic. There are many Chinese poems particularly devoted to the glorification of a mother's breasts for the nurture of their kids. So breast-feeding in public areas is quite acceptable, I think, as long as it is necessary. Agnes
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7/23/2008 1:19 am |
I breastfeed my son...only within the 4 corners of our bedroom  From my heart to yours, Love and Light! 
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8/3/2008 8:19 am |
Miss you WHF! Hope that you are on the way back! (Ooops I know this reply is far off the point of your topic. )Agnes
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9/15/2008 7:14 am |
Guess you're still not back from your trip  It's nice to be insane when No one is looking 
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