I have often wondered if the reason people don't mind seeing a breast on 
a billboard or at the beach is that nothing is coming OUT of it!
I did a survey of attitudes to BF in public for the breastfeeding 
counselor's course I took years ago in Victoria, British Columbia. 
The public place in which people were most likely to find breastfeeding 
"inappropriate" was a restaurant or coffee shop. 
A church or temple or cinema or theatre or park was considered more 
"appropriate".
The MOST appropriate place was a public washroom!!!!  (And we all know 
how we breastfeeding advocates feel about THAT suggestion!)
My hunch is that breastMILK is classified (subconsciously of course) 
with all the other substances that come out of the human body and is 
found "disgusting" which is why it is less appropriate in an eating 
place than anywhere else.
The discomfort people express about human milk and its consumption by 
adults (jokes about Dads putting it in their coffee for example) makes 
me think there is a strong taboo about it, that while we believe it is a 
pure substance for babies, we feel (and I re-iterate that this is NOT 
conscious) that it is IMpure for older children and adults.
What do the rest of you who work with milk and breasts think about this?

Eva Bild

Eva Bild, MA, CD (DONA)
Certified Doula, Childbirth Educator, Breastfeeding Counsellor
Mothering Touch Centre
1562 Fort Street 
Victoria, BC
250-595-4905
www.motheringtouch.ca



Regina M. Roig-Romero, Bs Ibclc wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:23:48 +0200, Marit Olanders 
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>   
>> He quotes Oscar Wilde:
>> A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is  
>> exquisite, and leaves one unsatisfied.
>> And this is why, states Nordlund, pornography may exist in public -  
>> it makes us hungry, it urges us to consume more, increases our  
>> desires and makes us commercially exploitable.
>> A breastfeeding mother shows what satisfaction is and reminds us of  
>> our own vulnerability. She demonstrates our exposedness and how  
>> hopelessly lost we are in our striving for satisfaction of needs.
>> Thereforethe breastfeeding woman is anti-commercial. That's what  
>> makes her provocative and not that she brings someting private into  
>> public space.
>>     
>
>
> Very interesting.  She makes a good point.  My own theory on the subject lies 
> with the sexualization of the breast.  Our culture sees the *primary* function 
> of a breast as being sexual.  To nurse in public isn't just to "bring something 
> private into public space".  It is (in their eyes, IMO) to bring SEX - a sexual 
> act, the use a sexual object - into public space.  I believe that beneath all of 
> this upset about nursing in public lies a visceral and somewhat unconscious 
> reaction to incest.  Think about it: IF the breast IS primarily a sexual object, 
> then what is breastfeeding?  What is it that we're doing every time we 
> breastfeed  (in the eyes of someone who sees the breast exclusively or 
> primarily in that way?)
>
> I live in Miami Florida.  On any given Saturday you will see much more breast 
> on our local beaches than you will during the average public nursing.  But no 
> one gets upset about that.  Why?  My theory is that because when a breast 
> is exposed at the beach, it is being exposed for its "proper" and "correct" 
> purpose.  As long as breast exposure is sexual, it is accepted.  Our society is 
> clinging tenaciously to its preferred definition of the function of a breast.
>
> I agree with Nordlund that breast exposure is not our society's problem with 
> nursing in public, no matter what those who object to NIP say.  Those same 
> people are most decidedly NOT opposed to Miami Beach on a sweaty summer 
> morning.  They are opposed to a sexual object being used in public.  They 
> can't see that we aren't doing something lascivious right in front of their very 
> eyes.  Just my $.02 of course....
>
> Regina M. Roig-Romero
> Senior Lactation Consultant
> Miami-Dade County Health Dept WIC/Nutrition
> Breastfeeding Program
> 7785 NW 48 ST, Suite 300
> Miami FL 33166
> (786) 336-1333 x162
>
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