Sorry for the rant, but to compare breastfeeding to masturbation is both logically flawed and seriously twisted.

Also from the department of new things, last month DC adopted a law to guarantee the right of mothers to nurse. It’s actually pretty strong: it prohibits discrimination against breast-feeding women, allows a woman to breast-feed anywhere she and the child are otherwise permitted to be, and requires employers to provide break time and a clean and private place (not a bathroom stall) to breast-feed or pump milk.

http://www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us/images/00001/20071015114725.pdf

Uh, lounge?? Not sure what the laws protecting nursing moms are in VA — they are pretty non-existant in DC — but afaik this is a new thing.

I’m more than a bit amazed that there is only one reference in all these comments to Bill Maher’s infamous tirade against lactivism last fall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa696L6M6Sw

(fast forward to 7:13)

Proof positive (in case anyone needed reminding) that fear of the breast is a bipartisan condition.

I’d heard some of those writers and the crew talk about her “behavior” on set, of just “whipping it out,” and how that made them uncomfortable. Maybe she’d heard that do and didn’t want to “offend” any of them. I really don’t know, I never asked her directly I just thought it was odd.

I had a friend say something similar to me once, while I was feeding my son. We were at a party and were sitting around outside talking/drinking and I was breastfeeding. I did have him covered up, more because of the mosquitoes than for modesty, and my friend went on a little rant along the lines of why were other women as discreet as me and why did they all feel so comfortable just ‘whipping it out’ just to feed the kid. Like how dare those women not take His!Personal!Comfort! into account before feeding their babies. My husband just got that look on his face, like he felt sorry for the poor guy, because he knew what was coming next. I came down on him like a ton of bricks and he never said anything like that in my hearing again.

Other than him (and a few of the husband’s older relatives–all of mine knew better than to say anything to me), I never really had any issues when I was breastfeeding. It isn’t something I particularly enjoyed, as I’m not a cuddly person and I’m very territorial about my body, but it is best for the kid and it’s much cheaper than formula (that stuff is very expensive). But I did it and I wasn’t about to let anyone tell me that I couldn’t do it anywhere I was that the kid was hungry.

I like bathrooms that are clean and have couches on them in a little room to the side. I forgot which mall had that, it’s really neat looking, gives me a comfortable place to rest mid-shopping, away from The Male Gaze that are totally there. One of the washrooms at the university I go to have that too, and sometimes people nap on that couch.

Our mall recently had major renovations done and one of the improvements was to add a ‘family lounge’ near the food court. It’s really nice. They have several couches and armchairs, a tv playing nonstop cartoons, toys and a large rug for a play area, some curtained areas with comfy chairs and magazine racks for breastfeeding, a kid sized bathroom and an adult one, and a couple of microwaves and bottle warmers available. Both moms and dads take kids in there, but it is mostly women. There should be more of that sort of thing in public spaces, as far as I’m concerned. Not that feeding in there should be mandatory (and it isn’t), but it is a really nice space to get away from the crowds and let the kids and the parents have a breather.

I’m not going to be very articulate here, because this is an incomplete thought. But I don’t think the disgust over breast-feeding has anything to do with bodies or secretions or sex per-se. I think people (especially misogynists) have a distinct fear of mothering, which translates to distinctly feminine power. What more naked act of mothering is there other than feeding a baby from the breast. Just as the penis is a symbol for raw male power…

Bahhh! I’m sounding all new-agey and old school feminist but I do believe there’s something in there.

Maybe, but surely breastmilk is among the most inoffensive bodily fluids we secrete? It doesn’t smell bad, doesn’t pose a health risk to anyone else etc. I don’t see what the problem is.

Anyway, it’s milk. All milk is a bodily fluid of some kind, whether it’s from a human or a cow. If bodily fluids are disgusting in public, then so is a bottle or a glass of milk.

Yeah, but as wacky as these people are, I don’t notice any of them advocating that menstruating women should eat in the restroom.

Very few Americans think that one ought to retreat the the restroom to blow one’s nose, or that you shouldn’t leave the house if you have an allergy flare-up and think your nose might run a little.

Nobody’s ever been kicked out of a restaurant for crying.