The "Cover it up" controversy.. Why its rediculus. (PIOG)

[RedRowsMommy]

 

I copied this from PIOG to share. This is not my writing, I'm just passionate about this sort of thing.

(This started as a response to women in a thread that were talking about "Well it's fine to breastfeed in public as long as mom meets requirements A, B, and C" and sort of became a post in and of itself.)

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I always find it amazing that breastfeeding mothers are willing to attack other breastfeeding mothers or place their own personal comfort level onto the shoulders of another mom at the possible expense of her breastfeeding relationship.

My personal stance:

If you feed your baby in a bathroom and you see a nursing mom who is not feeding her baby in the bathroom...

If you feed your baby while hiding in a corner and you see a nursing mom who is not hiding in a corner..

If you feed your baby under a blanket and you see a nursing mom who is not feeding her baby under a blanket..

If you carefully arrange your shirt ad you see a nursing mom who has not carefully arranged her shirt..

Smile. She's feeding her baby.

Ask yourself how you feel when someone shoots you a dirty look for doing something that they disagree with. For feeding your baby a french fry, for formula feeding or bottle feeding on occasion. For swatting your child's butt after he tries to run into traffic, if your child screams in a restaurant (even if you are obviously in the process of getting him the heck out of there as quickly as you can), if you use a harness, if you bring your asthmatic child to the park and everyone assumes that he has a cold that will spread to their children... Ask yourself how you feel when your mother in law criticizes you for wearing a shirt that shows even a bit of cleavage. Ask yourself how you would feel if someone asked you to sit somewhere else because they found the sight of your eating to be gross because they have issues with overweight people. Ask yourself how you would feel if someone was rude to you for any reason at all.

Then ask yourself how... HOW it is at all right or okay for society to be so over-the-top rude to a mom that is breastfeeding her child. HOW is it okay to determine under what circumstances she is allowed to feed her child?

Breasts are sexualized, yes. But even with the sexualization of breasts we recognize that there are certain exceptions to the "boobs are sexual, keep them hidden" rule.

Artwork can be displayed in windows that shows full frontal nudity if it is art. Advertising shows far more breasts than even a more flagrant breastfeeding mother might show.

I'd love to see what would happen if everyone stopped harping on their own personal discretion argument and pushed for better breastfeeding rights in all states. If women pushed to help other mothers feel okay about feeding their babies in public.

The mother that "lets it all hang out" is RARE. TINY. TEENIE. Almost non-existent. Heck, breastfeeding moms in this country are rare. Do you know how many moms actually make it to breastfeed to 3 months? To 6 months? To a YEAR? To the American Association of Pediatrician's RECOMMENDED MINIMUM... MINIMUM of breastfeeding? THAT is ridiculously tiny. On top of that, the number of moms that breastfeed in public... Even more ridiculously tiny.

Think about it for a minute. What "damage" is caused by a mother that flashes a nipple for 15 seconds while trying to get her infant to latch on?

Now think about this: What damage is caused when mothers are made to feel ashamed of the way that they feed their children?

We have yet to see any actual damage caused by the flashed nipple of a breastfeeding mother.

We are seeing the damage of breastfeeding shame and society-imposed inconvenience EVERY SINGLE DAY. We see it in the pediatric ward of hospitals. We see it in the number of babies that die from SIDS which could potentially be CUT IN HALF by breastmilk. We see it in the number of children with allergies and digestive disorders. We see it in the astronomical amount of childhood (and adulthood) obesity.

Isn't that something more worth being passionate about than *gahsp* OMG a theoretical woman somewhere might theoretically have her nipple exposed for a few fractions of a theoretical second while FEEDING HER BABY?

The way I see it is this:

My son WILL grow up with knowledge of breasts. It's inevitable. They're everywhere.

He can grow up thinking of breasts as the hyper-sexualized version that he sees in advertising, on TV, in magazines, and even on the bodies of the twelve and fourteen year old girls that imitate this tripe and strut around in push-up bras and too-short shorts.

Or he can view them as nourishing comforting body parts that provide life to babies.

Sadly, society sees no problem at all exposing him to the sexualized version of breasts. The surgically augmented, silicone-enhanced, artificially gravity-defying, rouged and oiled-for-his-pleasure bouncy-toys for boys.

I wish more breastfeeding mothers would just NURSE. I'd love for him to grow up in a society where people feed their babies, and where he could just see women feeding their babies as casually as he will see women in bikinis and low-cut tops.

A child today is more likely to be exposed to pornography than a breast being used for its sole biological purpose: FEEDING A BABY.

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Because I've been asked... Feel free to take this and post it in your journals here or on other sites, or send it along to anyone. I don't mind. A link to where you post it is appreciated of course. :)

 

[Kari777]

Dec. 1, 2008 at 5:02 PM

Bravo!!! Great post!!

[Xakana]

Aug. 7, 2009 at 8:22 AM

Or he could see them as both, like my husband, who is both joyous in my boobies themselves and their ability to nourish and comfort our children. It really doesn't have to be one or the other. There's no reason they can't be used for all of their purpose and it's horrible that so many women feel ashamed of nursing or embarassed, whatever.