The Times covers today "lactivists" who protested at ABC studios in response to comments by Barbara Walters that she was made uncomfortable by a woman breastfeeding next to her on a plane.
What should be the public etiquette governing breastfeeding?
It is unreasonable to demand that nursing women hide themselves out of public view for the regular, frequent and prolonged periods in which they are nursing.
Discretion, however, is often possible and when possible it is polite. There is quite a difference between nursing in public while covering up, and while not covering up. Unless there are special circumstances governing why covering up would be impractical or unreasonably uncomfortable, then I think women nursing in public should cover up.
One might hope that people were not made uncomfortable by the sight of women's bodies, or towards nursing women's bodies; however, this discomfort need not be based on any sense that women's bodies are bad or shameful. It can rather be based on the idea that the sexualized parts of the body should be displayed only in private, and not in public.
Things would be quite different if so much of the body were sexualized that that women (or men, for that matter) had to go out in public completely covered. However, if the parts of the body that require covering leave room for comfort, practicality and individual expression in dress, then I don't see the reasonable grounds for nursing women to object to covering up while nursing.
UPDATE #1 (6/8/05): I should make clear here that I think that women should be able to nurse in public, but that a certain amount of discretion is called for. If a nursing mother is reasonably discreet, and someone is still made uncomfortable that is, well, too bad. And it is quite rude for someone to ask someone these women to go hide out of public view. I should also make clear that in my experience nursing mothers do exercise an appropriate level of discretion. So, generally speaking, I think that public etiquette requires people to internally deal with any discomfort they have seeing a nursing mother in public, and should not make requests or demands for her to move, or throw looks or other signs of disapprobation.
UPDATE #2 (6/8/05): It occurred to me that the discomfort one might feel in the presence of nursing mothers may be based neither on the view that women's bodies are shameful, or that it involves a sexualized part of the body. (I should add that while the breast is a sexualized part of the body, nursing is obviously not a sexual act.) Rather, it can be based on a basic human attitude of disgust towards bodily emissions of all kinds. This disgust can be overcome (though I am not sure that it can be extinguished), but it also carries some moral weight. If a person can avoid disgusting another without undue cost, then there is a moral case for doing so.
posted by Silver @
9:07 PM
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Tuesday, June 07, 2005  |
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