Smell the Onion

I suppose I should’ve expected this kind of
response.  Of course I’m not mad at anyone.  Or offended or
whatever.  Honestly, I’ve heard every objection before that was raised,
and I understand them all.  In fact, there was a time when I was pretty
squeamish around nursing mothers.  Mostly because I didn’t know how to
act.  I didn’t know if I was *supposed* to avert my eyes, or pretend I
didn’t notice, or look intently to show I was not embarrassed or what.  I
think, given the society I was raised in, and the fact that the last nursing
mother/child duo I spent much time around was my mom and sister when I was
four…it was pretty inevitable.  I appreciate that many of you mentioned
that you may feel differently when you have your own children.  I would
venture to say that you very likely will.  I do. 

Here is the reason: Breastfeeding is not *supposed* to make anyone
uncomfortable.  When you begin to spend a lot of time around a nursing
infant you become more comfortable, realizing it is a necessity, and it really
isn’t that big of a deal.  It is not only natural, it is normal,
perfectly modest, and completely non threatening to anyone’s purity.  (Ok,
so there may be some actual male out there who gets turned on by watching a
mother nurse her child–though every man I’ve ever talked to about it (even
those who admit to being uncomfortable with women nursing in public) has
assured me that this would be a terribly strange and unfathomable response–and
if it’s that abnormal, I have to feel about it like I do about feet fetishes–I’m
all for modesty, but I’m not about to wear socks and tennies around all summer
in case I run in to a man who might be turned on by my toes). 

Imagine with me, for a moment, that there is no such thing as a bottle or
formula, and that every babe is breastfed, just as God has designed them to be
(and indeed, just the way it is in many parts of the world, and was in this
country for a long time).  This would not be such a horrible thing. 
If this were the case, you would have grown up seeing babies
breastfeeding.  Nursing children would’ve been in books and movies (even G rated
ones), and when you bought a doll, it wouldn’t have come with a bottle, but as
a child, you would’ve pretended to nurse your doll yourself.  You would’ve
seen mothers nursing in church, out shopping, in restaurants, in your
home…you would’ve watched siblings, cousins, neighbors, strangers, all
breastfeeding or being breastfed.  You would not have to wonder *how* to
act around a nursing mom because it would be a non issue.  It would be a
baby eating.  In fact, you would probably react exactly as you do now,
when you see a baby being fed a bottle.  (Sigh).  I don’t want to get
in to an argument about breast vs. bottle right now (that’s for another
day)…all that is just to say…

While everyone is entitled to their (understandable) feelings of discomfort
regarding nursing in public, the only way that we as a society will ever become
comfortable with something we ought to be comfortable with, is if people make a
conscious decision to not let a twisted perception of God’s design for breasts
color the way they feel around an eating child, and if they have chances to be
around those eating children.   So, no, I will not go in to a
bathroom to feed my child, I will not cover her head with a blanket, and I will
not stay home because she might need to eat–consider it my public service to
you.