In a message dated 07/04/2000 4:11:01 PM !!!First Boot!!!,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Date:    Tue, 4 Jul 2000 09:10:04 -0700
 From:    Mary Conner <[log in to unmask]>
 Subject: Re: bf in dr office

 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. >>

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