Let’s talk about breastfeeding
“I don’t want my kids to see that!” “I don’t want my husband/boyfriend to see that!” These are things I’ve heard people say when discussing breastfeeding in public. Some of you seem to think there is something wrong with the act of breastfeeding, especially in public. You think it’s obscene or sexual in some way and you wish people would just go into the bathroom or do it at home.
So, is it really breasts that make you uncomfortable?
This photoset shows how breasts are portrayed in media (specfically advertisements) vs. what breastfeeding looks like.
The ads can be seen in magazines, on the web, on billboards, posters, etc. Your children or SO can encounter them every day and yet I don’t hear the outrage or disgust that is directed at women who breastfeed.
Why are some of you more offended by breasts being used to feed children, which is not a sexual act, but are fine with breasts being presented through the lens of the straight male gaze in order to sell products that have nothing whatsoever to do with breasts? What is it about using our mammory glands to feed our young, like all mammals do, that deserves your admonishment and offense?
“Yeah, well, pooping is a natural biological function too!” Except, how can you even compare pooping to breastfeeding? Breastfeeding has nothing to do with eliminating waste. A better comparison would be that breastfeeding is like when you sit down to eat a sandwich. You eat in public, right? Why can’t babies?
I’m ok with public breastfeeding so long as you cover up the critical baby-breast interactions. Much like how I would appreciate it if you cover up your critical mouth-to-sandwich interactions.
i just wouldn’t feel comfortable breastfeeding in public but i also wouldn’t feel comfortable starring in one of the ad campaigns. i don’t know, i just think that breastfeeding is an intimate act between a baby and a mother.
/earlymorningrant.
Ah fuck, why do I keep doing this. Anyway, no offense to you, Meghan, I sort of get that view, BUT ….
If I wouldn’t have breastfed in public, I’d have never left the house. Ever. My son was a very cranky, needy, whiny baby who wanted to be on the boob ALWAYS. For the first three months of his life, I literally had to feed him every half an hour. Breastfeeding is so much more than just nutrition to babies as well, it’s a major factor in their comfort level (that’s why pacifiers were invented), and some babies need more of it than others.
Giving birth and adjusting to having a newborn is REALLY FUCKING HARD. Physically, mentally, emotionally, it was the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. Now if I would’ve been restricted to sitting at home with no adult company beyond the rare visitor and my husband because I’d have been judged, teased, kicked out of places and told to cover up, I’d have snapped.
Additionally, while breastfeeding *can* be an intimate, bonding activity, it mostly isn’t. It’s just a fact of life, a convenient and fast way to feed and shut up a baby and a relatively easy way to get enough sleep at night to function. I rarely sat and stared into my baby’s eyes while he ate, I’d mostly read, browse the net or watch TV and take a mental break from the insane energy output a baby takes. Rarely was there anything intimate and special about it, and I wish more people would see it as just an act of feeding/comforting a baby and not something special and wonderful that they can’t intrude upon.
In our society, people are uncomfortable with breastfeeding for one reason mainly - they didn’t see it growing up. I was lucky enough to be in Russia when my son was little where I got little flack for breastfeeding him in public (in fact, women *and* men see no problem with getting into the baby’s face and coo-ing at it WHILE HE’S ON THE BOOB, lmao). In countries other than the US (mostly in ‘less developed’ countries), breastfeeding is just a fact of life and kids grow up seeing it and thinking nothing of it. American men and women are just not used to it and it makes them uncomfortable but the ONLY way we can change that is by making it visible again, not by hiding it under blankets, in toilet stalls (!!!! the FUCK) or by telling mothers to stay at home or take a bottle to an outing. Many babies who are exclusively breastfed won’t even take a bottle.
Well, as you can see, it’s a bit of a touchy subject for me, and I’m gonna shut up now …
(via memoirsofapizza)
