Amid a culture of hyper-sexualization with billboards of Victoria’s Secret models posing in lingerie, sex scenes in television shows and movies and graphic T-shirts, one innocent act is constantly seen as more taboo: public breastfeeding.
Before the invention of baby bottles and formula, the sight of a mother nursing her child was nothing out of the ordinary. After, fewer women breastfed and instead used the bottles and instant formula as a quicker substitution during the busy days of World War II, according to Breastfeeding USA.
In our generation, a mother who nurses her child in public faces stares and expressions of disgust that she is exposing her breast. People in the mall pass by walls of advertisements of women in seductive positions and wearing very little, and they do not bat an eye. If a woman is sitting on a bench and is providing her baby with food, then the image of a breast is deemed unacceptable or “indecent exposure.”
Women should not be shamed for having breasts. Men often go in public without a shirt on, and it is widely accepted as a non-sexual image. However, if a woman has part of her breast exposed to nurse, then it is construed as a sexual image.
Society tells mothers to cover their chest and child to block the view from others; it tells them to feed their child in a bathroom or the car. The opinion of others should not dictate when is an appropriate time for a baby to eat. If a child is hungry, they are hungry. It is in their basic instinct to signal to their parents when their body tells them it is time to eat. Children should not have to wait to eat because their mother is in a grocery store or a restaurant and someone might see her breast.
The entire point of a breast is to produce the milk and nutrients that a baby needs to survive for the first six months to two years of its life, not to be a sexual object.
“Children and adolescents who were breastfed as babies are less likely to be overweight or obese,” according to the World Health Organization. “They perform better on intelligence tess and have higher school attendance. Breastfeeding is associated with higher income in adult life. Improving child development and reducing health costs results in economic gains for individual families as well as at the national level.”
If someone feels uncomfortable after seeing a mother use her body for its purpose, they can look away. If someone does not want a child to see, maybe the question should be why.
A child does not sexualize breasts until they see an adult do so. If a child asks what the woman is doing, they will simply accept that she is feeding her baby and move on with their day. What is deemed taboo is influenced from others.
Mothers who do not feel comfortable with public breastfeeding have the option to cover up or find a private area because that is their choice. Embarrassment should not be forced on them because someone is staring at the top of their breast while their baby is nursing. It is mind-boggling how society got to the conclusion that it is disgusting or in poor taste for a child to eat in public.
Let mothers feed their children without muttering under your breath, making a dirty face or ridiculing them. If you see a woman feeding a child in a restaurant, relax. Babies deserve to eat in public, too. Stop sexualizing nursing.
Photo by Maria Pericozzi | The Oswegonian
