Fabulous letter, Leanne! I love the "It's OK to look!" idea. Cute.
I shared the link to this commentary with some breastfeeding advocate
friends of mine, and I think Slim's inbox will be overflowing the next
time he checks it.
Cee
On Sun, 25 Sep 2005, Leanne Soylemez wrote:
> On Sep 25, 2005, at 5:34 PM, Pam Jaiswal wrote:
>
> > please consider enligthening Slim.
> >
> > http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=48920
>
> This is what I wrote:
>
> "I think you should behave towards a breastfeeding mom the same way
> you would towards a mom feeding her child any other way. It's safe to
> assume that a mom breastfeeding her child in a public place like a
> restaurant waiting area is comfortable with other people seeing her
> do it. She doesn't consider it a private moment, and you don't need
> to either. Say hello, say "How are you?", say "Man, can that kid eat!"
>
> "I think that discomfort you felt is common, and I think it's a big
> part of the reason some people are opposed to public breastfeeding.
> They just don't know whether it's okay to look. It is okay! Look,
> comment, ask questions. When I'm breastfeeding my son in public, I
> try to keep my head up, look around, make eye contact with people,
> smile. If people know it's okay to look, they won't feel so
> uncomfortable seeing women breastfeeding their children, and maybe
> eventually public breastfeeding won't be such a controversial issue."
>
> ...
>
> I really do think that's the problem for a lot of people. They say
> they're supportive of breastfeeding and seem like they really are,
> yet they're "uncomfortable" with women breastfeeding in public. I
> think it's because they just don't know whether they're supposed to
> avert their eyes. Etiquette tells them not to look at a woman's
> chest, but they worry that avoiding looking will seem judgmental or
> rude.
>
> Maybe we need some kind of public service message campaign along the
> lines of, "It's okay to look!" :)
>
> Leanne Soylemez
> breastfeeding mom, frequent ponderer of the breastfeeding-in-public
> issue
>
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