Did you see the asshat on page three of that who says the woman shouldn't have expected privacy in the first place, and she should be pumping at home? And then goes on to say that they know nothing about lactation, and still tells everyone why they're wrong? I almost burst a vessel.
Yanno....somewhere around six or seven months in the life of my first baby I decided since I didn't eat my lunch sitting on toilet seats I was not going to nurse him in the fraking ladies room like some kind of pariah. So thereafter (two more babies thereafter, in fact) we all had lunches together in restaurants, on park benches, on the beach, anywhere I damned well pleased. My only concession was a discrete receiving blanket draped over both baby and boobies. Today I don't think I'd even bother with that (not that I'm makin' babies today.) But what the hell do people think these things are for, anyway??
When I was riding the bus one afternoon, I was sitting in the disabled seating next to a young woman who was holding a very tiny infant, I'd say around one month, maaaybe two months old. The baby started whimpering, so the woman carefully and discreetly opened her blouse, pushed aside her bra, and began nursing the baby, who drank hungrily. Across from me sat a middle-aged woman who gasped in horror and clapped her hands to her eyes. Occasionally she would peek from between her fingers, blush, and moan quietly. After a couple of minutes, she leaned over to where the driver was (her seat was behind the driver). And she loudly whispered, "That woman is breastfeeding! Make her stop!" The driver had stopped at a red light. He turned and looked at the woman with raised eyebrows. He looked over at the young mother, still nursing. He said something in Spanish, and the mother replied. He replied back, and nodded. He looked at the offended woman, shrugged, and said, "Sorry. Baby's gotta eat." And he turned back to the wheel and kept driving when the light turned green. The baby finished eating. The young mother carefully put her blouse back together and settled back to burp the baby. The horrified woman across from me kept her head down for the rest of the trip. Her fists were clenched in her lap.
Breasts are food receptacles attached to mammals. That's the fucking point. They also just happen to be an erogenous zone because they're sensitive because they're designed to be for babies. What the HELL, people?
You know, I once had a friend who was a professional dancer. She didn't have an ounce of fat on her body; she was completely muscle, due to years and years of various kinds of dancing. She had no breasts to speak of -- totally flat. She had nipples, and obviously mammary glands, but the actual breasts -- the lumps of fat and tissue -- were not visible. She and her husband had a powerful and fulfilling sex life, because guess what she had a vagina and a clitoris and labia!
Win, full stop. And anyone who's allowing themselves to get bent out of shape over it might as well go back to pretending their furniture doesn't have legs. Keep your children cloistered and hermetically sealed and on first contact with our decadent oh-so-naughty! society they'll make up for lost time, believe me.
Of course, they probably realize that, have already experienced that, and just want to vent their frustrations. That's what talk radio is for.
According to those hysterical people, children shouldn't even be aware that there are breasts in the world. Ever. Not even as the things that gave them food in the first several months of life.
Yeah, that was honestly frightening. You just can't go around biting people because you love characters in a book. This is what I mean when I talk about how much screaming fangirls and fanboys bother me.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 01:22 am (UTC)It was a private area, with a privacy curtain. And a nursing woman needs to either express milk or feed the infant. A LOT.
GAH.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 01:40 am (UTC)Eeesh.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 12:58 am (UTC)Today I don't think I'd even bother with that (not that I'm makin' babies today.)
But what the hell do people think these things are for, anyway??
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 01:30 am (UTC)Across from me sat a middle-aged woman who gasped in horror and clapped her hands to her eyes. Occasionally she would peek from between her fingers, blush, and moan quietly. After a couple of minutes, she leaned over to where the driver was (her seat was behind the driver). And she loudly whispered, "That woman is breastfeeding! Make her stop!"
The driver had stopped at a red light. He turned and looked at the woman with raised eyebrows. He looked over at the young mother, still nursing. He said something in Spanish, and the mother replied. He replied back, and nodded. He looked at the offended woman, shrugged, and said, "Sorry. Baby's gotta eat."
And he turned back to the wheel and kept driving when the light turned green.
The baby finished eating. The young mother carefully put her blouse back together and settled back to burp the baby.
The horrified woman across from me kept her head down for the rest of the trip. Her fists were clenched in her lap.
Breasts are food receptacles attached to mammals. That's the fucking point. They also just happen to be an erogenous zone because they're sensitive because they're designed to be for babies. What the HELL, people?
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 01:43 am (UTC)You know, I once had a friend who was a professional dancer. She didn't have an ounce of fat on her body; she was completely muscle, due to years and years of various kinds of dancing. She had no breasts to speak of -- totally flat. She had nipples, and obviously mammary glands, but the actual breasts -- the lumps of fat and tissue -- were not visible. She and her husband had a powerful and fulfilling sex life, because guess what she had a vagina and a clitoris and labia!
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 06:36 am (UTC)I get sick of hearing people saying "They're sexual ORGANS!!"
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 02:41 am (UTC)Win, full stop. And anyone who's allowing themselves to get bent out of shape over it might as well go back to pretending their furniture doesn't have legs. Keep your children cloistered and hermetically sealed and on first contact with our decadent oh-so-naughty! society they'll make up for lost time, believe me.
Of course, they probably realize that, have already experienced that, and just want to vent their frustrations. That's what talk radio is for.
But most importantly:
Breasts are awesome.
This cannot be emphasized enough.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 02:44 am (UTC)According to those hysterical people, children shouldn't even be aware that there are breasts in the world. Ever. Not even as the things that gave them food in the first several months of life.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 06:33 am (UTC)*shudder*
Also, this DEFINITELY makes me NOT want to read those books now!
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 02:17 pm (UTC)This is what I mean when I talk about how much screaming fangirls and fanboys bother me.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-31 04:11 am (UTC)