On Tue, 4 Jul 2000 [log in to unmask] wrote:

It is my belief that the sexual obsession with breasts in Western culture
(especially in American) and the insistance that they be hidden away is
the single factor that interferes the most with breastfeeding.  It is a
cultural fetish that IMHO America needs to get over, and I do think that
it is a human rights issue here, women and babies are being oppressed.
Any sort of "right" not to be exposed to it is tissue thin compared to the
human right that women have to be able to use a part of their body for
what it was intended to in order to feed their babies properly whenever
and wherever.

I want my daughter to live in a society where she is no longer expected to
cover her breasts for any reason and the only way to get there is to not
buy in to the "well, okay, but only if it's discreet" mentality.  Things
will change only if they are challenged.  I'm sure you would not like to
go back to an era where you were required to wear a long sleeve ankle
length dress all the time "for modesty's sake" and so as not to be
"offensive".  There are still many people living who grew up during a time
when the current mode of dress would have been considered offensive, and
they may still consider it offensive, but I see no reason why we should
have to dress to suit their sensibilities.

As for what this woman should have done, sometimes we realize only in
retrospect how we have been "snookered".  I have been offered a "better
place" on occasion, usually that means a place with a better chair, or
less noise, or fewer distractions, not a place where no one will see me,
although less noise/fewer distractions often means someplace private.
Occasionally, it is apparent that I am being "hidden away", and given that
we are already part way through the nursing already and older babies and
toddlers can nurse fast, we may be done by the time I figure out the place
is not suitable and would have moved back.  It's become fairly rare here
for women to be hassled about public breastfeeding, even when they make no
attempt to cover up or be discreet, so being "put away" is not usually
something I suspect.

And it isn't just women who "won't stand up for themselves".  My husband
is from a culture that would generally rather have their toenails pulled
than to get into a personal confrontation, in our case, I would end up
being the one to get in people's faces.  This is not to say that he would
just sit and take it, it's just that he would simply do something like
change doctors or engage in passive aggressive behavior instead of a
direct confrontation.  This woman didn't just "sit and take it," she went
to her support network, marshalled her forces as it were.  The same sort
of thing my husband or his family would do.

> I feel that the
> breastfeeding policies that have been enacted so far have been placed to
> protect a woman's right to breastfeed her child and to keep her from being
> harrassed and I applaud these laws, BUT we also have to remember that
> EVERYONE has rights... not just breastfeeding women and babies.  There are
> some people who would prefer NOT to see breastfeeding done in public and
> while I do not agree that women should have to hide themselves away, I do
> agree that discretion is not a bad thing either.  Are we trying to make a
> point or feed our children?  I know breastfeeding gets "sacrificed on the
> altar of ignorance" quite a lot, but I also don't want to see it placed on an
> altar to prove a point.  I think radical behavior begets other's intolerance.
>  Personally speaking, I would not want to see someone totally bearing their
> breasts to breastfeed in EVERY situation.  Perhaps that's MY "problem," but
> just as people have rights NOT to have to look at pictures they consider
> sexual in the workplace and they could be fired for displaying them (even
> though the majority of people don't find them offensive), it would be the
> rights of that ONE person who did find it offensive that the courts would
> probably side with because THEIR rights were being violated.  Again, I
> believe in breastfeeding in public and I am not saying it is a *sexual* act,
> but there are those that would disagree and they have rights too.  I just
> don't feel breastfeeding needs to be done in the "in your face" fashion many
> on this list seem want to see happen.  I feel feeding our children in the
> issue, not forcing people to accept bare breasts in public.  I would hate to
> see people who are just beginning to believe in the breastfeeding issues and
> causes start thinking we're all just a bunch of radicals with a cause to
> hammer home and have their support swing the other way.  Again, this is ONLY
> my OPINION, and you are all entitled to yours also, but I don't feel the
> focus is on the right angle in this case (IMHO).
>
> Veronica Scott,
> Breastfeeding Peer Counselor
>
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