Is this thing on?Follow

In case you were wondering, I've breastfed in public. Covered, but in public.

Unfortunately for you, the exposed bewb in question was triply covered. Mouth, bra, cloth.

Which I have no problem with, along as an attempt is made at discretion such as you describe. It's the women that flaunt it like they're trying to make a "statement" that bother me.

And you can breast feed in front of me anytime. :D

Okay, while I respect this sentiment and even, on a gut, Southern Baptist and (later) CRC-reared level agree with it, I find my logical self feeling compelled to challenge it somewhat.

Would you cover up a turkey sandwich while feeding it to your child, just because the sight of it offended a bystander? What about a baby bottle with a rubber nipple? Is that offensive to you?

If we accept (as I am sure most of us do) that breastfeeding is not a sexual act, and that the breast/nipple, in the context of breastfeeding, is not an erogenous organ, then why should the sight of a breast bared for the purpose of nurishing a child offend us any more than a bottle nipple, or a sandwich?

Isn't this objection to the sight of a breast bared for completely unsexual reasons a bit of a puritanical holdover when you get down to it? And isn't it possible that those women you accuse of "making a statement" are maybe just being a little more logical about it than you?





Edited, Jul 28th 2006 at 1:16pm EDT by Ambrya

So I would assume that you would be cool with me taking a **** on the shrubs in my front lawn if you were my neighbor. Nothing sexual about releasing bodily waste, so I'm sure that you wouldn't mind your kids seeing my ***** either, no? How about if I was taking a bath in a river while camping butt-*** nekkid and there were other people and children around? Nothing sexual about cleaning yourself.

Personally women breast feeding in public doesn't bother me. It doesn't even really bug me they have their ******* flopping about, but sometimes it's just a bit better to show a modicum of modesty. How very Victorian of me.

No. No. And No. But then I don't pay good money to get into a gentleman's establishment in order to see a turkey sandwhich or a baby bottle with a nipple on it.



Because breasts can be used in both contexts. A turkey sandwhich or a baby bottle usually isn't. At least, unless you're just really freaky, then good on ya.



Perhaps. And no.

As I said in my post that didn't get posted (which I realize you most likely didn't see, obviously Pikko must have) I don't personally have a problem with it in most situations. The only time it really bothers me is when a woman goes out of her way to do it in a very public place, and makes no attempt at being subtle about it. The example I used was a food court in a shopping mall. There's people flat out everywhere and when a woman sits down and makes little or no effort at being discreet then I do take issue with it. Now if she goes and finds a more quiet place and uses a blanket and whatnot to cover up then fine, a baby's got to eat when it's hungry.

I never shun women who want to show their ******* in public for any reason.

Like I said, on some level I agree with you--I would find the sight of a woman just popping 'em out with no effort at discretion in a place like the mall to be jolting as well. But (hopefully) as a person who is going to be a nursing mother in the not-so-distant future, and as a future midwife--a practice which places a very high emphasis on completely natural processes--I really feel the need to challenge why we find this so objectionable, and why we can't divorce the sight of breasts in an erogenous context (eg. the gentlemen's club) from breasts used in a context that renders them no more erogenous than a cow's udder.

The mall is a tricky situation. On one hand, most of your medium-to-higher-end department stores have lounges adjacent to or as part of the restrooms, with sofas or padded benches which are really a reasonably comfortable place to duck away and nurse, if you're inclined to duck away. On the other hand, these lounges ARE adjacent to the restrooms, and what are we saying that we include the most "appropriate" place to nurse side-by-side with the bacteria-ridden and smelly place we go to eliminate our bodily wastes? If not deliberate, isn't there at least a subliminal undertone of "it's dirty" going on there? Again, I come back to the quote I once overheard from a (discreetly covered-up) nursing mother in a restaurant who was asked by a waitperson to take her operation into the restroom, which was "My son will eat his dinner in the bathroom right after you eat yours there." So, if a woman objects to the stigma attached to providing nursing facilities in the bathroom, those lounges aren't really an option.

Why the food court then? Not being the woman in question, and not knowing the layout of your particular mall, of course, I really can't answer that, I'm just speculating. Maybe she had agreed to meet someone in the food court and couldn't get in contact with them to let them know she wouldn't be there at the appointed time. Maybe she was hungry and wanted to get something to eat herself either before or after she finished nursing. Maybe somehow in her mind, it seemed more appropriate to do it in the food court than on one of those benches or sitting areas they tend to scatter throughout the corridors of the mall where you have people walking by on either side because you tend to be right smack in the middle of the corridor. Maybe having a table available worked better for the logistics of her operation than sitting on a bench somewhere would have.

Why not make an effort to cover up? Again, I can't say with any certainty. Maybe she forgot to bring her receiving blanket she might have otherwise used to drape over the exposed area. Or maybe she finds it inconvenient to have to fumble around beneath a drape to accomplish the operation. Maybe she's afraid of having a drape over her baby's face, for fear of suffocating it. Or maybe the baby objects to having a drape over his/her face and won't nurse if she uses one.

All of these are hypothetical, of course, but my point is that there are a lot of reasons she might have made the choice she made that have nothing to do with "flaunting" it, and that even the assumption that she was "flaunting" it is part and parcel of this stigma we attach to the honest sight of a naked breast. I'm playing a bit of devil's advocate, but at this particular stage in my life, for some reason I really feel obliged to challenge some of these objections we have to women's bodies and anything having to do with the natural processes surrounding having and caring for a baby.

When I was nursing Hannah I avoided it in public if possible...just due to my own comfort level. However, if it was time, it was time wherever I was and I wasn't going to make her wait to eat. We flew to England when she was about 8 months old as well and I nursed her for nearly the whole plane ride. While the other passengers and the flight attendants may have seen a bit more of me than I would normally be happy about, I'm quite sure they were pleased that she wasn't screaming the whole trip.

Nexa

OK, that's just wrong.

/nod

Damn Brits.

Only our beloved Jophiel could make boobs so boring.

Well played sir.

Don't turn this around on me mister.