I accidentally sent a partial draft the other day.  Here is the rest:

I don't see the idea of encouraging and helping mothers to nurse discreetly in public as imposing on them the responsibility of educating the public.  I see it as a consolidated effort to make the waters safe for nursing moms and babies, both as individuals and collectively.  I am not talking about trying to hide the fact that one is nursing, nor going to the extent of using blankets and other cover ups (unless that is the way a particular mother is comfortable).  For most moms, helping them to be able to nurse so that THEY are comfortable will just naturally have the effect of increasing the general public's comfort and tolerance for it.  

To me, the goal is to have breastfeeding return to being one of the many, many acceptable things that people do in front of others, as it has always been in some cultures, and as it was in Western culture, until about a century ago.  It is not to eliminate the possibility that anyone might see a little bit of the mother's breast, just to take reasonable measures to avoid becoming a spectacle.  I also think that, although many moms who make use of easy-access clothing for nursing will  just naturally not be noticed by most people, the goal is not to make sure that no one notices, just to avoid unduly embarrassing both the mom and the passersby.  In fact, we WANT the public to be aware that women do breastfeed their babies in public, but that it can be done without exposing the entire breast.  If there are a few people who still choose to be offended and act like something horrible is happening, that is their own problem!   

Perhaps someday we will have the situation that exists in other countries, where uncovering the entire chest in the process of breastfeeding is acceptable by the general public but, for now, we need to give people a chance to get used to it a bit more gradually than that.  There are some strange things going on in America, as far as breasts are concerned.  Exposing everything BUT the nipples, even on breasts that have been blown up like balloons with implants, is acceptable for general viewing, but seeing even a little bit of a nipple is not.  I have seen scenes from "girls gone wild" videos for sale, which have shown one girl in the process of putting her mouth on the breast of another girl, with no effort to cover the scene, EXCEPT for having the image of the nipple obscured.  I have even seen, on the same station, a close-up of someone's entire backside, with a thong that was not covering a thing, one day, and the image of some African women in native costume, with the image of their nipples obscured, the next!  It is really absurd, but is, nevertheless, the situation that exists!

Aloha,
Darillyn


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