Letters to the Editor
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Erm
Well, actually, breasts DO also serve to attract males. Most other mammals don't have permanently enlarged mammary tissue, and certainly NO other primate does. But human women do - because breasts are sexually attractive to men, and so the more breastage a woman has (as a general rule), the more sex she has, and the more offspring she can then produce. In an evolutionary sense, anyway.
Why it evolved that way, I dunno. But it's clear, scientifically, that the human female breast is bifunctional: food and sex, both. No entitlement issues required to see it.
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Two kinds of people
Listen, there are two totally different issues here. There are people who object to accidentally seeing a naked breast pop into a normal social context, because they're not used to that. Then there are people who object to knowing someone is breastfeeding in the same room with them, regardless of what body parts they can or cannot see.
Here is an anecdote for ya. I went swimming with a friend; we had three toddlers between us. When we got to the locker room, a middle-aged woman was standing there completely naked. Stood there several minutes preening, doing her hair, rubbing powder on her crotch, etc. Meanwhile, my friend's toddler decided it was time to nurse, and my friend let him, even though she was in the middle of getting dressed.
Guess what? For some people, casually preening and doing your hair and rubbing powder on your crotch while nude in a women's locker is OK, but BREASTFEEDING WHILE HALF-DRESSED in a women's locker room isn't. There is way more to this societal complex than accidental nipple sightings.
I do have sympathy for those who would rather not see a woman waving her breast around trying to get the nipple and the kids' mouth together. I don't like seeing that either. But I have a standard response to this EXTREMELY RARE behavior: I look the other way until the mother and child get situated.
I have less sympathy for those who are creeped out by nursing going on in their presence, even when the mother is being discreet. I know that is not the way they were raised, and I understand they have issues. But the issues are entirely their own. Time to get used to the new reality.
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Not as grim as it sounds
An exclusive breastfeeding statistic is misleading. It took me a while to get the hang of it, so my son got formula in the hospital...so what, he was excluded right out the gate? That's ridiculous. I assume they at least count the women who pump.
How about measuring how many infants get less than, say, 2-3 bottles of formula per week? Nothing wrong with letting your spouse get up at night and not have to bother with reheating etc.
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My isolated world
I nursed two kids for 10 months each and I nursed them EVERYWHERE - without a blanket or something covering them - and no one ever said a single word to me or even looked at me funny. I guess I lived in the right place.
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Also, on breasts as sex objects...
Personally, I think breasts are sex objects for men because nipple stimulation turns women on. People are generally turned one by the idea of their partner being turned on. It's called being a social animal.
And frankly, the reason they turn women on is probably related to the fact that the let-down reflex that squirts out milk for babies is enabled by the same hormones that enable sexual stimulation. Also why nipple stimulation encourages labor to progress. In fact, nursing - and breast pumps - can stimulate a physical sexual response. Maybe that's what scares people about nursing, I don't know. But it's a stupid thing to be afraid of. Men can get totally random erections from things like their penises rubbing against their underwear while they walk, and nobody has a hissy fit about how they shouldn't walk or wear underwear in public. There is a big difference between an automatic sexual response to something and a mental/emotional sexual response.
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sorry?
Can someone explain to me the "sexual function" of breasts? Where does the penis go on or in a breast to create an offspring?
And then, what about the "ass men" and "leg men" out there who don't particularly care avout breasts? Do butts then serve 2 (or 3) functions? 1 to attract a mate, 2 to sit upon, and 3 to defecate? Should we ban shorts and bathing suits in public? I mean, since nice legs serve a sexual function similar to a good rack, aren't we all a little grossed out by seeing women expose their bare legs while ... walking?
IMHO, breasts are attractive but serve no "sexual function." The more people get unconfused about that bit of physiology, perhaps the fewer nincompoops will complain about public nursing.
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My experience: Nincompoops are rare
The fact that nincompoops are rare is what makes them news, I would imagine.
I've nursed kids through toddlerhood in private, in public and in the great outdoors, and my experience has been very positive. Almost no one has ever hassled me, and in fact people seem generally approving and friendly about it all. That goes for men as well as women. The only people who did hassle me were, at different times, some much-older women. What's with that?
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To anonymous from "puffed up entitlement ass"
Are you serious? Or are you funning me? Are you a woman? No, you aren't serious, you're putting me on. All those years of enjoying the look, the taste, and the feel of a nice set of knockers must have been my distorted imagination. Tits come in all shapes and sizes, and even the smallest can adequately produce plenty of milk for the kid. Mostly they are all pretty attractive, but we human males are programmed that way, just like the girls who love to have their tits noticed.
I'll continue to enjoy my wifes tits, even thought they are way past the age of being useful to a baby. She's 65, has C cups and can still pass the pencil test. I have always believed that suckling babies is good for maintaining healthy attractive breasts.
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To the editors, enough with the monologue.
It's really disappointing to me that the editors overlooked a few thoughtful middle-of-the-road posts that acknowledge the good of breastfeeding but also show a little respect for the "nicompoops" point of view.
One thing's for sure, humans are not simply animals as some like to pretend--if only because nothing is "simply" anything. Part of the complex totality of being human is inheriting a culture and a language.
Case in point, public defecation is par for the course in the animal kingdom. Wouldn't it be more practical if we just drilled holes in the floor so we didn't need cloistered rooms devoted to this basic human necessity? You could just take a shit in a hole in the mall foodcourt and go on about your shopping. Anybody find this proposition agreeable?
Honestly, what's the great harm in expecting nursing mothers to make all reasonable efforts to cover up in public? That's a far cry from relegating them to a bathroom stall. I'll propose that because breastfeeding is specifically a woman's issue it resonates differently. The case for discrimination seems to rest solely on the lack of a male equivalent.
Also I'm no flag-waver, but I get really annoyed with the condescension this column shows toward conservative American values. A tremendous number of good and thoughtful people adhere to these values, and to dismiss them out of hand is to choose to perpetuate "culture wars" rather than aim at real progress. For the Euro-philes out there, this reminds me of reading French Existentialist writers lambaste Bourgeois society from the comfort and security that others' industry, commerce and consumption afforded them. The hypocrisy of the argument is pervasive. Americans' traditional (and conservative) values of liberty and equality created a space for feminism.
One of my chief complaints with some of the louder strains of feminism is their unequivocal disregard for norms and (non-minority)cultural heritages. Even liberal societies have codes of ettiquette, and these are important to preserve because they facilitate communication.
Coincidentally, I met a really bright girl last night who had just finished a research project on why Americans don't identify with feminism. Essentially, she and her colleagues concluded from the data they collected that most Americans equate feminism with the ideologies of its more radical advocates.