My .02 worth on this topic:
1.  I think men are much more comfortable being naked or half-naked around
other men because they do it all the time -- they urinate next to one
another in restrooms, they participate in sports and then shower afterward
in front of other men.  I think women are much less comfortable being naked
or half-naked around other women because they don't do it all the time --
all bathroom activities are done in private stalls, and most women don't
participate much in sports beyond what they have to in public schools, and
even then are often very uncomfortable.  So part of a woman's reluctance to
pump in front of other women is just that we aren't used to looking at other
women's breasts (LCs are the exception, of course, and LLL leaders who help
moms).

2.  The sexualization of the breasts in our cultures makes it not OK to
watch or look while someone is pumping.  You feel like you are invading
someone's privacy, and must cut your eyes away or look in the corner or at
the ceiling.  The person pumping could perhaps give permission to others in
the room to look all they want -- most people are curious.

3.  It is the case that humans are immensely adaptable and get used to new
situations very quickly.  The first time or two that you see someone
pumping, it is new and unusual, but the novelty wears off extremely quickly.
Same with showing students slides of women breastfeeding -- a few titters
and giggles with the first few slides, but soon it is just old hat.  Seen a
few breastfeeding babies, you've seen them all, and it ceases to be
interesting or titillating.  That's one reason why it's hard to make an
erotic attraction out of anything that is in plain sight all the time.

4.  When Peter was in NICU and there were four of us at a time pumping
around a card table, in a private room set up for that purpose, we were all
much too consumed with worry about our sick babies (Down Syndrome with
duodenal atresia [me], baby with a tumor on her liver, baby with
transposition of the great vessels of the heart, and a fourth whose problem
I can't remember) to give any thought at all to baring our breasts to these
other moms.  We pumped and exchanged stories about our sick babies, getting
support and care from total strangers.




Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University