Letters to the Editor
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Anybody bored???
Don't you think your time would be better spent uniting collectively against life or death issues, at a time like this? Does anyone else think it odd that so many of these special interests are splintering concerted efforts to end war, shore up healthcare, and/or increase tools for surviving in America as a workerbee? Really PETA people and Breastfeeders? Your issues trump life or death???? Really????
And do you think Bill Maher cares what you think? It would be ironic, since he dedicated so much time to turning national attention to the "ethical treatment of dogs" and away from the ethical treatment of Iraqis and American soldier...Enjoy your own medicine, Bill!
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"Superhead" obviously has better qualifications to
be a woman than you do. Why are you jealous of her and her unique and exceptional talents? Bill Maher dated exactly who any many would date, if he wasn't foolish enough to be brought down by getting married.
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Even if parenthood were 100% a choice,
it is still a choice that people have the right make. Between the people who want to outlaw all abortion and the people who seem to want to force people to have them -- vastly different though there agendas may be -- is one ugly similarity. These groups are both made up of totalitarian monsters.
To me, the people who curl their lips and call mothers breeders are manifesting one of the ugliest traits of human nature: The desire to control other people.
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@ MilitantLeftist
Sing Johnny one-note!
Keep acting sooo boring.
So leftist by rote!
You'll soon have us snoring.
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@fetboy: No, we're not in "full" agreement
Anyone who harasses a breastfeeding woman is an insensitive pig.
No disagreement there, but asking a mother to be more discreet or go elsewhere in those RARE cases where she's being truly disruptive is not harassment.
BTW, what is it with Broadsheet posters and the word "pig"? I've seen that word tossed around more in posts on this site in the last day than I have in all other contexts combined in all media over the past year. Good grief, people, find a few other derogatory terms to use!
American is too conservative/puritanic/prudish, and the fact that applebee's deemed that is was necessary and acceptable to harass a breastfeeding woman proves that fact.
Agreed with the first part of your statement, but the latter part is a stretch. How do you extrapolate from one incident to a blanket generalization of an entire culture and people? One could just as easily argue that the lactavist "feed-in" (or whatever the hell it was called) demonstrated a groundswell of support for public breastfeeding that outweighs the prudes. Silly, huh? The point is, one can't justifiably argue from an anecdote to make sweeping generalizations and condemnations. You seem to do this frequently, however.
And men who harass breastfeeding women are displaying their feelings of inadequacy towards women.
Christ, here we go again. This statement was part of your "theory" that formed the crux of our disagreement on this thread (and still does). You have absolutely no basis on which to make such a blanket statement, other than your own meaningless and agenda-driven speculation and psychologizing. Why can't you get that through your head? Why can't you even entertain the possibility that men who object to public breastfeeding (again, not all men by a long shot) might have many different reasons or motivations for doing so? And again, what about the many WOMEN who object to public breastfeeding? You say nothing about them--deliberately, because as an ideological male feminist you must find fault with men ONLY, for all things. Ergo, objections to public breastfeeding come ONLY from men in your warped worldview, and to explain such objections, you fall back on thinly-veiled Freudianism (male feelings of "inadequacy" at the sight of nursing mothers is little more than a modified form of Freud's classic theory of "womb envy") with a heaping dose of condescending radfem man-bashing on the side. How tiresome.
As I indicated in previous posts, your "theory" blames men for the widespread discomfort with breastfeeding in the US, and falls back on gender theories of "inadequacy" and "envy" to explain them. The problem is innate--part of the male psyche. If this is a sound explanation of the problem, then discomfort with public breastfeeding should be a worldwide phenomenon. You insist, however, that it isn't--it's peculiar to America. That admission alone demolishes your theory (which for some inexplicable reason you can't seem to grasp), unless and until you can provide a detailed explanatory theory that accounts for the vast gulf separating men in America from men in the rest of the world on this issue. That you haven't done, and arguably can't do. Thus, any reasonable person is at liberty to dismiss your "theory" out-of-hand, as I've chosen to do. With your theory out of the way, the true answers to the dilemma lie elsewhere, in a complex range of factors, heavily involving religion and our culture's deeply-ingrained sexual and body neuroses, and involving explanations that include women who object to public breastfeeding, not just men. A complex, nuanced, ambiguous answer, however, won't suit your ideological, male-bashing purposes, so you refuse to even consider such an approach.
And anyone who equates breastfeeding to defecating, exhibitionism, or pedophilia is a sick individual indeed, on top of being an insensitive pig.
Well, agreed on the sick part, and I'd add sadly misguided to that description, but Christ, again with the pig metaphor! FIND.SOME.SYNONYMS.PLEASE. I assume you know how to use a thesaurus, yes?
America is (probably) the only country that harasses breastfeeding women
Yet another blanket generalization that is a real stretch. Other cultures and countries are not 100% positive on this issue, and there are undoubtedly many people in other countries who have an issue with public breastfeeding, at least in some contexts, and there are undoubtedly occasional incidents of inconsiderate or rude or insensitive behavior on the part of some people in other countries. Similarly, there are plenty of pro-feeding people of both genders in the US, and undoubtedly MOST instances of public breastfeeding even in the prudish US pass unremarkably, without incident. PLEASE get your extremist, black-and-white thinking under control! It really, really hurts your arguments.
Now, Leftychris, did you really need to make an ass of yourself with all that ridicule and criticism in your long winded letters to me to prove that you and I are on the same page?
Smugness is so unbecoming, especially given the fact that you failed miserably to prove or demonstrate your "theory" or even provide a shred of supporting evidence for it. We do agree on many things, such as the propriety of public breastfeeding in general, but the issues on which we disagree are profound and haven't changed one iota. And the ridicule and criticism was directed at your theory and your style of argumentation, not at you as a person, so get off your high horse. You seem to think that failing to listen to valid, cogent criticisms of your arguments, and repeating them unmodified and ad nauseam as if they'd become sound through mere repetition, and then declaring victory in the face of plenty of evidence to the contrary (maybe you should change your handle to "Nixon in Vietnam"?), is an effective way to debate, and means that you've won the argument. Sorry, but you're dead wrong.
Do me a favor and take a logic class. Please. Best wishes, fetboy.