Will someone please think of the children?
So there was this story in the local news last week. It was "news" but at the same time didn't feel like news at all. Some minor variation of this story comes up in some Canadian city every few months.
Here's the story, in brief. Young mom - local city-run pool - breastfeeding infant - told to go somewhere else by pool staff - mom refuses.
This is where it gets interesting though. Pool staff, so threatened by the possibility of someone catching a mammary glimpse, calls the cops. You read that right: police were called to the scene. The police - and the manager of the pool - called it an unfortunate mistake. The calling of police that is, just to be clear.
Where to begin.
I consider myself about as smart as the average bear, capable of thinking to the edges of the box, if not outside it. Even so, I simply cannot understand how anyone has an issue with breastfeeding in public. I mean that, too. I'm not being melodramatic. I literally cannot fathom how offense can be taken. For those of you who don't know me, earth-muffin I am not. I do not own anything made of hemp and I rarely knowingly eat anything containing flax seed. Just want to put that out there so those who want to dismiss me as a tree-hugging lunatic will at least read the next paragraph.
Of course, I've heard many an excuse for why breastfeeding in public shouldn't be done. Terms like "indecent" and "improper" incongruously attached to the act. To my thinking, the only way this attachment can be made is if the use of the breasts is sexual in nature. Let me assure you, as a former one myself, breastfeeding mothers in NO WAY view the act of breastfeeding as remotely sexual. Unless you consider blisters, bleeding, and searing pain sexual, I gotta tell ya - my introduction to breastfeeding just didn't smack of sex to me. Though breastfeeding gets easier with time, it just doesn't get sexier.
So I'm being blunt. Well, I'm sick of all these insane (I mean that - they're all very not-sane and completely nonsensical) attitudes. And I'm not some wild, uninhibited, bare-breasted breastfeeder. I never just whipped one out for all to see. I did breastfeed in public but wasn't always comfortable doing it. But if some woman just can't manage to keep everything covered, or doesn't really want to, why does she have to worry about everyone else's hang-ups? Forget hang-ups, it seems that she should actually be concerned about a potential visit from the boys in blue. This single thought is so infuriating to me, I may just implode. Not pretty.
I am willing to bet (and I'm not the gambling type) that on that day at the pool, there were a number of females swimming in skimpy bikinis that exposed much more breast than did the breastfeeding mother. How pathetic is that?
Here's the story, in brief. Young mom - local city-run pool - breastfeeding infant - told to go somewhere else by pool staff - mom refuses.
This is where it gets interesting though. Pool staff, so threatened by the possibility of someone catching a mammary glimpse, calls the cops. You read that right: police were called to the scene. The police - and the manager of the pool - called it an unfortunate mistake. The calling of police that is, just to be clear.
Where to begin.
I consider myself about as smart as the average bear, capable of thinking to the edges of the box, if not outside it. Even so, I simply cannot understand how anyone has an issue with breastfeeding in public. I mean that, too. I'm not being melodramatic. I literally cannot fathom how offense can be taken. For those of you who don't know me, earth-muffin I am not. I do not own anything made of hemp and I rarely knowingly eat anything containing flax seed. Just want to put that out there so those who want to dismiss me as a tree-hugging lunatic will at least read the next paragraph.
Of course, I've heard many an excuse for why breastfeeding in public shouldn't be done. Terms like "indecent" and "improper" incongruously attached to the act. To my thinking, the only way this attachment can be made is if the use of the breasts is sexual in nature. Let me assure you, as a former one myself, breastfeeding mothers in NO WAY view the act of breastfeeding as remotely sexual. Unless you consider blisters, bleeding, and searing pain sexual, I gotta tell ya - my introduction to breastfeeding just didn't smack of sex to me. Though breastfeeding gets easier with time, it just doesn't get sexier.
So I'm being blunt. Well, I'm sick of all these insane (I mean that - they're all very not-sane and completely nonsensical) attitudes. And I'm not some wild, uninhibited, bare-breasted breastfeeder. I never just whipped one out for all to see. I did breastfeed in public but wasn't always comfortable doing it. But if some woman just can't manage to keep everything covered, or doesn't really want to, why does she have to worry about everyone else's hang-ups? Forget hang-ups, it seems that she should actually be concerned about a potential visit from the boys in blue. This single thought is so infuriating to me, I may just implode. Not pretty.
I am willing to bet (and I'm not the gambling type) that on that day at the pool, there were a number of females swimming in skimpy bikinis that exposed much more breast than did the breastfeeding mother. How pathetic is that?
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