Letters to the Editor
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bullshit
He didn't say "don't breastfeed in public", he said "be discrete". What is wrong with that?
Gimme a fucking break.
Proud father of two children who were occassionally breastfed in public
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Maher's a Dope
If Dennis Miller is a 10 on the scale of obnoxiousness and Colbert is a 1, Maher is an 8.5
He pulled punches and was soft on his stupid talk show. I figured he would be freed to become a sharper commentator on cable and quit pulling the punches, but on Real Time, he still sounds like a twerp.
As for breastfeeding, I agree that some women just like the privileged status of being able to free a breast in public, but so what? Baby needs feeding.
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Relax Katharine
It was a joke. Did you know that Bill Maher isn't exactly Walter Cronkite? No? You didn't?!? Wow.
The left cannibalising the left. Didn't Maher write for this web magazine not too long ago?
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Nah, it's all bad
I'm sorry, but baring a breast in an Applebees isn't "100 percent socially acceptable", whether it's intended to titillate a lascivious middle-aged man or meant to breast-feed a baby.
You know you have a baby, you know that baby will need to breast-feed at some point, it's not asking too much to do a little planning ahead and have a blanket in the car (or in a baby-bag) in case baby gets hungry while you are out in public.
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Not entirely accurate…
Katharine wrote, "A joke that really only proves the lactivists' point that breasts are considered 100 percent socially acceptable when they're intended to sexually titillate lascivious middle-aged men but 'Ewww, gross' when they're used to feed a kid."
To my knowledge, Hooters customers aren't invited to suck on the waitresses' bulging breasts in the middle of the restaurant. Such a sight would undoubtedly titillate middle-aged men, and yet it's 100% not allowed in Hooters, Applebee's, or any other restaurant that doesn't feature a stripper pole. So yes, there are double standards at work here. But the lactivists are mistaken if they think exposed breasts are ever 100% socially acceptable in U.S. society.
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I normally really like Maher...but the babies and me like boobs on BART better
Okay here's what goes through my head when I'm on BART (subway) and a mother begins breast feeding. In this order.
1. Whoah wasn't expecting that...
2. Oh she's feeding the baby, that's cool.
3. You go sister, you've powered through the silly American cultural attitudes about bare breasts for the benefit of your child.
4. Ahh silence. This means I get a quieter commute, babies are a lot quieter with a boob in their mouth
5. Nice! Always gotta appreciate a healthy boob. Brightens my day more than the sad ass headlines on my paper. - Yes I'm male and feel no guilt for appreciating the female form in a mature "sex is part of life" attitude.
Grow up Bill and get to know your target audience. Boob jokes? Come on...
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Newsflash - Maher is a comic!
Can we all take a deep breath here and remember that at the end of the day, Bill Maher is a comic first, politico second? I found nothing offensive with what he said (I am a woman) and agree that breastfeeding moms can find a way to discreetly breastfeed in public. There is no need to make a huge show of it, and if the outfit that the mother is wearing requires a degree of stripping, then a blanket to cover or a nearby restroom is as valid an option as any. These are *public* spaces, which means that they are shared by, gasp, the public. My mom had five kids and breastfed us all without having to flash anyone or alternatively feel like she was shunned. There are happy mediums which I believe many of these 'lactivists' are going out of their ways to ignore.
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Enlarged prostrate? Pee anywhere!
Yeah, I could wear Depends or something like that, but why should I. Peeing is a natural right and if I want to carry a bottle and just go whenever and wherever I want, I should be able to. Maybe it's too much trouble to interrupt my meal and go to the restroom, I'll just use a cup on the table. It's only biological!
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eating in public
Isn’t Applebee’s all about people eating in front of each other?
I think the people who are so against public breastfeeding are obsessed. Comparing a child eating to urinating all over a public space? A sexual act? Young mothers should just stick close to home? That’s just crazed and it makes you sound loony.
And Bill – his career is dying. He’s just trying to get attention. I doubt he even believes what he’s spewing.
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again, let me explain
1. Breast-feeding is not the same as sex, masturbating or excreting urine and feces.
2. Many babies refuse to be covred up when eating. (What adult would eat with a blanket over their head?
3. Most nursing moms know how to breastfeed discreetly without covering up from a blanket. In my experience of nursing 2 babies, average time of exposed boobage was <5 seconds. Drunks at the Appleby's bar are far more distracting than me in a booth nursing.
While I often think Bill Maher is funny, (and I have defended his misquote regarding Dick Cheny and death), I am disappoineted in his attitude here. He says that nursing moms are doing it for attention. That attitude is sophomoric.
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It's not about the public
I really don't see this as people saying that women cannot breastfeed in public, but rather than some common sense and discretion should be employed whenever possible. How is that saying that nursing mothers cannot publically breastfeed? It's not at all.
What Maher was saying (with much snark) was that he sided with the restaurant manager...a person responsible to the whole and not just to the one.
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I don't get it...
...and I never have. The fact that so many people, men especially, seem to find the act of breast-feeding so repulsive, has never ceased to amaze me. I remember watching the mother of my children breast-feed our babies and marveling at the wonder of it all. What a beautiful, human moment. But I was also left with the knowledge, that at those moments, I was insignificant and not a part of the process. It was like I didn't exist. I was watching a bonding of mother and child that I knew I could never share. I think in some respects, that understanding may have made me a better father. I might not be able to feed them with my body, but by god, I could bond with them in other ways, and I did. I suppose to some folks, the sight of a nursing baby is a bit unsettling, but for me, the sight of a mother feeding her child in a modest manner in public is more an affirmation of my own life, than a threat to my fragile senses.