Thanks, Tina.  I think "phobos" and "misos" are two reactions that are usually bound up 
together, aren't they?  Most of us would agree that misogyny is typically inspired by, 
among other things, fear of women.  In any case,  I sense that some who have responded 
to my post are concerned that I wish to let bigots off the hook, which is not what I want 
to do at all.  On the contrary, I am exploring ways of talking about this phenomenon that 
place responsibility for this discomfort squarely on the shoulders of the discomfited.  

Nor am I proposing that we call up the people who write the DSM and tell them we have 
a new clinical diagnosis, or that we should mollycoddle people who spew nastiness 
regarding breastfeeding.  Rather, I am exploring what might be going on when people 
respond with fear and loathing to something so normative. 

I am also looking for a discourse that is less black and white, and less "you are either 
with us or against us."  I grew up seeing very little breastfeeding, and there is still part of 
me that finds it strange to see a woman breastfeeding -- and I've been breastfeeding for 
9 years now and spend a great deal of my time with other breastfeeding mothers. I 
brought this up in this forum, because, historically, lactnet has been a place where we 
can discuss ideas such as these in a spirited way, but without being shouted down or 
mocked. 

Nikki just wrote very beautifully about how to approach the difficulties new mothers face 
when they have little or no experience with babies or breastfeeding.  I guess I am asking 
a similar question on a cultural level.  I certainly did not mean, and am a bit disheartened 
that I was taken to mean that places where public breastfeeding is legally protected 
would be filled with people overcome by the sight. 

In any case, I am optimistic that very soon, in many societies where they still exist, 
those who can't bear public breastfeeding will die out, and this discussion will be 
unnecessary.  In fact, on the "Have Your Say" forum I originally cited, most posters 
strongly supported a breastfeeding dyad's right to be anywhere other people are free to 
be.  

As a scholar, I have always been less interested in taking sides than I have been in 
understanding what fuels debates, as well as what can be learned by getting inside the 
perspectives of those on all sides of issues.  As a human being, I do, of course, take 
sides, but I always strive to understand my adversary.  I guess I ask these questions in 
the spirit of that inquisitiveness.

Kerry Ose

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