Letters to the Editor
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The world does not stop for you while you breastfeed.
Once I was on vacation in Washington D.C. I was at one of the Smithsonian Art Museums. A mother sat down in the middle of a bunch of paintings and started to breastfeed her infant. So, I had to decide whether to walk over near her in order to see the paintings I wanted to look at or to just walk away. These paintings were by an artist I love and I wasn't going to be back in D.C. or at that museum again any time soon. So, I decided to walk over. I studied the paintings and made an effort not to look directly at the mother and child. A minute or two after walking over, I heard from behind me "it would be nice if we could have some privacy" from the mother. Her husband chimed in, "move along buddy." I left, found a guard, and she asked them to leave. I was able to enjoy the paintings in peace.
Mothers need to realize that the world does not revolve around them just because they managed to procreate. If you want to have a kid, then that kid comes with some sacrifice on your part. You might not be able to go where you want, whenever you want. The world does not stop for you while you breastfeed.
No one I know has time to be a "lactivist." What world do you people live in?
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Tom70, I Think You Misunderstood My Post Also
I really don't have any objection to public nudity in theory, but many people do. That is a cultural thing, and I don't think cultural arguments can be totally discounted.
You said you had no objection to breastfeeding in public, so you SHOULD have no objections to any topless behavior. Why? If practical nudity (if you can call breastfeeding nudity) doesn't bother you, but exhibition nudity does, I see no problem with that. That's the way many people feel about it.
You say standards for nudity are arbitrary. Of course they are. Cultural attitudes can be a flexible or arbitrary, but laws and rules are usually very arbitrary, which is why I wish the breastfeeding issue could have been fought on the cultural level instead the law having to step in. However, certain states have decided to legislate the issue, bowing mostly to public lobbying, mostly by the AMA which thinks breast feeding will help reduce our embarassing infant mortality rate.
I am well aware that there are still cultures that tolerate almost total nudity, but they are also in tropical or warmer climates, so there is not the ying yang of clothes/no clothes to adjust to. Also, even those cultures strive to cover their genitals, mostly for practical reasons, which, I assume is also why athletic cups and sports bras were invented.
However, the whole public nudity thing is probably a moot point. If the ozone really is deteriorating, we'll be going for more clothing, not less, unless we want to be constantly slathering ourselves with lotions and potions every hour on the hour. What a picture!
Sorry if this post is not totally coherent, but it is late and, ironically, i have one more load of clothes to put in the dryer.
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@ gradysu
I am curious. When you managed to breast feed your children so privately were you at anytime a stay-at-home mom or working from your home? Did you ever travel with your children during the time period in which you were a nursing mother?
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Now Mike_in_NM,
You know perfectly well that that nursing mother had no right to complain about privacy in the museum. I really don't think that is the point of most people here. Obviously people who are nursing in a public place should be able to contend even with some stares.
You did right to complain, but you would have been wrong if you had complained merely because she was nursing her child.
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Juliebird, thanks, can you post some more links please?
Seriously Juliebird, it was a bit boring at work tonight, and you really helped me out (if you know what I mean) with your links.
You seem to keep more abreast of teh Intart00bs than I.
Mor links pleze!
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To Leftychris
Do you realize that you have put almost all of your focus and energy into ridiculing and criticizing me?
I at least have offered a theory. You haven't offered one yet.
Back to my point (I thought you and I were having a converation, but obviously were not); the list of American peculiarities I gave was meant to start a greater narrative that I thought you might pick up on, but you didn't.
The list of American peculiarities I gave gives evidence that America is the most conservative democracy on the planet (or at least one of the most conservative democracies).
Why is America so conservative?
Actually Americans are not all that conservative when you talk to individual Americans. So in truth we are only conservative because our nation is run by conservative politicians.
Why do not-so-conservative Americans keep electing conservative politicians?
Well, I think it has a lot to do with our system of government. In a nation where it's winner-take-all in popular elections for the presidency, voters are forced to choose between 2 sides, with nothing left in the middle. If we didn't have a popularly elected president, I am sure that we would have a lot more then 2 political parties to feel comfortable giving support to. Coalition politics does not exist in America. Since we only have 2 parties to choose from, everyone flocks to one party or the other, and due to this scenario in America we have the populist/progressive Democrats vs. the alignment of fringe extremists known as the Republicans. On the global scene the Republican party is rather bizarre political entity to behold. Republicans have managed to bring together anti-separation of church and staters, Corporate interest/anti-unionist, tax haters, gun freaks, segregationist, State's righters, anti-abortionists, American imperialists, immigration haters/nativists, porn industry haters, religious puritans, creationist/evolution deniers, global warming deniers, and anti-feminists all under one umbrella. No way could such an umbrella group be formed in a parliament system, and conservatives outside of America can only dream to accomplish what the Republican party has accomplished within America.
Thus, harassing a breastfeeding woman, which everywhere else in the world would be considered rude and insensitive, is consider appropriate in America, because harassing breastfeeding women, is the puritanical/conservative thing to do.
What do you think of that theory?
In any case Leftchris, I am flattered that give me so much attention, even if it's negative attention.