Why is breastfeeding in public such a controversial topic?

Question

I don't get it. Someone please explain

Answer 1

Because we in America are a bunch of prudes when it comes to using our bodies for the natural reasons they were made. If it has to do with making money, hey, that's a different story.

Answer 2

Most people, such as myself do not wish to see some ladies b***s out in public. And I'm a mother. There's many of places to go or just cover up with a blanket. Your not going to suffocate the baby with a blanket covering him up. I had no problems in public places. I either covered up or found a place away from people.

Answer 3

It's controversial in Western society mainly because we have for such a long time been removed from the practice of breastfeeding in general. Around the turn of the century, bottles and baby formula were touted as being modern, and a great improvement over the primitive act of breastfeeding and self-respecting women (meaning those higher up in society) would do well to replace the breast with the man-made stuff.  Of course, this was was alot of c**p invented by the manufacturers, but it worked.  Until the 1960's or so breastfeeding was pretty much thought of as something only the poor or lower classes did because they had no other choice.  Combine that with the Victorian puritanical "ethic", teaching women that anything of a remotely private or sexual nature was to be hidden (pregnant women in Victorian times were kept indoors as much as possible), and you have a society that very mistakenly believed for a long time that nursing was "disgusting" and "gross" and too private to have anyone around when doing it.

It's taking a long, long time for attitudes to turn around and it's very hard work.  There are still alot of people out there who just react emotionally but when you discuss the logic and rationality of nursing, even public nursing, they get angry because really, they don't have any kind of logical answer for the debate.  Because nursing is a pretty intimate thing, I think it's not actually the nursing tha makes people feel uncomfortable, but the intimacy.  I also think that there is an unrecognized fear in alot of people that the mother will carelessly flash more flesh than she should, putting them in the uncomfortable position of having to try not to stare--which perhaps they don't believe they'll be able to control.  I think alot of attempts to control where women nurse is actually attempts by society to control their OWN behavior by eliminating tempation.  Somewhat like women in middle easter countries who have to cover every inch of their skin because the men there can't control their own behavior.

The fact is that nursing all over the world, especially in third world countries, is just a matter of plain fact.  It's part of life and no one thinks a whole lot about it.  It's feeding babies.  So what.  Keep in mind, though, that another thing about Western society is that we tend to think of women's b*****s as sexual objects first (think about every magazine cover you've ever seen), as present mainly for foreplay, and then nursing becomes an interferance with that.  There's a big difference between something that's just plain sexual and something that's intimate, like nursing; intimacy automatically makes something very personal, which makes alot of people uncomfortable (odd, since intimacy is much healthier, I think), as opposed to just viewing something as sexual with all humanity and respect removed from it.

I'm completely confused by people who claim to be very religious and spew alot of God-talk and yet say nursing is disgusting and unnatural.

Answer 4

I don't know why but I think it so so stupid! a baby should be able to eat when ever and where ever he or she gets hungry. But I think it partly has something to do with the fact that we live in a very perverse society, and there are also alot of young and immature mothers. I was at the mall the other day and my son and I were in the play area and this young mom came in sat down and plopped her baby on her lap. He was going uuuu....uuuuu while lifting up her shirt so the way she reacted to him was and I quote "Ohhhh, little man you wanna suck on my t*t?" I can understand why its a big deal to see that cause even i was offended, but if the mother is respectfully feeding her child and some one thinks something bad of it then they should just pis$ off! some people are just ignorant,  

Answer 5

don't know what happened

when i was young

wemen brest fed ther babys in public

no one thought about it

Answer 6

I really don't get it either. I guess some people are just completely closed-minded. I don't understand how feeding a baby outside the home can put some people into such a rage. There is nothing obscene or indecent about it.

Answer 7

In my opinion it is controversial because, especially in this day and age, b*****s are oversexualized (if thats even a word).  

Answer 8

You got me.  Men don't seem to mind looking a all the girls with their skimpy Little outfits on but when a mother is breastfeeding a baby they get all bent out of shape.

I say as long as you are discreet than go for it. I breastfeed my baby in public but I did cover with a blanket.  I didn't just throw it out there.  If people had a problem with it they never said.

Answer 9

because it riles people up on YA and makes other people ask the same type of question over and over....

Answer 10

I think that, like many contraversial topics, it's a small number of people making a huge amount of noise.

Most nursing  moms feed their babies quietly and discreetly (with or without a blanket or cover-up, and most people never even notice.)  

And most non-nursing people don't care a bit if a woman feeds her baby, as long as she is reasonably discreet about it.  (Because most of them don't even notice that it's happening...)

It's only 'controversial' when high profile cases hit the news. (i.e., women being asked to leave stores and airplanes to feed their babies.  It almost never happens, so when it DOES happen, it becomes 'news.')

Answer 11

Because for the most part we, in the US, are a modest society and frown upon public display of genitalia which female b*****s are often considered.  We consider b*****s something private to only be shared in private with significant others or for feeding babies in public.  I, personally, never felt comfortable breastfeeding in public and never did it.  I always found a quiet, discreet place.  I know they have nice covers and discreet tops, but frankly you never know who is walking out there, what types of pervs are out there and I'm not the one to create confrontation about it.  I once saw a woman tell a breastfeeding woman in a mall that she needed to put herself away and find somewhere else to do her business.  

Answer 12

In our culture b*****s are considered to be sexual objects. It is not legal in most places to bear one's b*****s in public.

   The rationale might well have to do with the fact that a sexual predator could well get aroused by the sight of a breast and that arousal could well be the catalyst to his next crime.

  

Answer 13

some people just aren't comfortable with it

(i was not comfortable nursing in front of people, i would go in a private room, i understand it's just feeding your child but that's just how i am, i hope with my next baby i won't be so uncomfortable with it...)

also, some people make you feel very uncomfortable if you nurse i front of them, like my in-laws would probably run out of the house  if i went to nurse in front of them...this is why with my next baby i will try to do it all the time when they are here! ha

Answer 14

I WAS ASKED TO LEAVE MCDONALD FOR BREAST FEEDING!  

Answer 15

Its really not.

In almost all places its protected by law; in some places its even illegal to harass a woman for breastfeeding in public.  Its kind of sad that they need a specific law for that very small percentage of the population that is nuts.

Also its a lack of education.  There was a study out of New York I believe.  They did a survey and found how many people supported public breastfeeding, then they ran ads about it  for a bit, then resurveyed people and a lot more supported public breastfeeding.

Frankly if you want to bother me for breastfeeding in public I am more than happy to go to the human rights tribunal.  I've had to do it before over workplace harassment and I am more than happy to do it for something that actually matters.

Answer 16

Because unfortunately, if we live in America, b*****s are seen as a private sexual object.

Come on, turn on comedy central for half a program, and you'll be bombarded with Girls Gone Wild commercials. Almost all men have at one point or another fantasized over women's b*****s, perhaps even masturbated to them.

But they get repulsed when we use them for a practical natural purpose, like, feeding our babies.

While I agree, b*****s can be used for sexual purposes, and can be a stimulating part of sexual play, b*****s are undeniably made to nourish children.

and while I don't think we should all be around to walk around topless feeding our children, there is nothing wrong with a woman breastfeeding in public.

People get so worked up about it, because they work THEMSELVES up about it. If you're uncomfortable, look away. I doubt there is a circle of women all around your entrapping you, breastfeeding.

And if you are, stop crashing La Leche League meetings. Haha.

In America, we love to complain. We sue when we spill hot coffee on ourselves for not being warned that coffee is a hot beverage. We win billions of dollars when we try and break into someones home using that homeowners ladder, and the ladder breaks, and we end up paralyzed.

I get very sad when I see people who are so rude to breastfeeding mothers. Especially men. In a country where so many women choose to formula feed because they're afraid of damaging their b*****s or feeling sexual with their baby, or just frankly, don't want to breastfeed, we should be lifting up women who choose to breastfeed. (nothing against formula feeding moms!)

Really, I just find it quite sad.

Answer 17

Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to show topless women on tv, flaunt it even but when we do something so natural it is repulsive.  People are ignorant.  

Answer 18

It's because society is insecure and immature. I honestly was incredibly offended when I would get these horrible looks from people when I would breastfeed my baby. It made me feel like I was the one doing something wrong. Which is so stupid. The most disgusting thing is that a woman would get more accepting looks if she were sitting topless, with no baby. I could never grasp the whole discrimination on breastfeeding mothers. Men can grab their crotch in public, women can wear revealing clothes, kids can run around uncontrolled, but women can't breastfeed their children. If people could put as much effort into the small little things that are not important, as they do into 'world peace' to sound all clique, the world would be a much better place.