Breast Feeding in Public

02-11-2012 4:10pm

iguana wrote: »

Wow! 135 posts before someone trotted out this complete nonsense! Well done thread, I think that's a record!

Ah boo, it got repeated on post 136. I can't believe anyone thinks that comparing urination and defecation with feeding a baby are in anyway comparable and can be used as any sort of argument. On the other hand the very fact that people resort to such nonsensical arguments shows just how little validity any argument against has.

Y'know, I have just skimmed this thread, because it's been done to death, but I was only doing so to see how far it'd get before someone compared breast feeding with urination! I too am amazed.

Beefy78 · 02-11-2012 4:13pm

billybudd wrote: »

One feeds a child and one expels toxins, yes quite the same.

They're not the same. They're comparable though.

iguana · 02-11-2012 4:14pm

Sorcha16 wrote: »

Members of a mature and open society wouldn't wish to purposefully inflame other people either. Breastfeeding doesn't give you the monopoly on being right nor does it make you immune from being obnoxious, as you seem to assume

I think it's worth bearing in mind that people who can appear unpleasantly 'militant' may have experienced opposition to their feeding in the past and it has influenced their attitude. I used to think that there was no such thing as what is described as a 'militant breastfeeder' and that they were all in the imagination of people who have a problem with breastfeeding. And while I still do think their existence and behaviour is massively exaggerated, I have met someone who would accurately be described as militant and I have thought that her attitude could be unhelpfully confrontational. However, she only became that way with her later children as she had a number of bad experiences when feeding her firstborn (including being told she shouldn't feed her baby in her own livingroom by a visitor). So I think that what appeared to be a confrontational attitude with her younger babies had a lot more to do with the fact that she felt defensive and had decided that the best form of defence is a good offence, than any attempt to 'inflame' anyone.

smash · 02-11-2012 4:18pm

billybudd wrote: »

As i said before you can only be offended by it if you think its wrong and yes as a society we should confront those who view it as wrong.

The point is that you are condoning the practice of purposely trying to offend people when the reality is that it can be done discretely.

billybudd wrote: »

Please answer me this, why would it make people uncomfortable?

Why do clowns make some people uncomfortable? Different strokes for different folks... It doesn't mean we should dress as IT and chase people.

Beefy78 · 02-11-2012 4:19pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Y'know, I have just skimmed this thread, because it's been done to death, but I was only doing so to see how far it'd get before someone compared breast feeding with urination! I too am amazed.

If every time this thread comes up different people make the exact same comparison does that not suggest that the two natural acts are not so uncomparable as I'm being told that they are?

As I said, the whole thing is a non-issue to me in the first place so it's not something I've ever given much thought to but I just think it's interesting to note what appears to me to be a contradiction.

iguana · 02-11-2012 4:19pm

Beefy78 wrote: »

They're not the same. They're comparable though.

Everything is comparable. You can compare horse excrement to the planet Venus if you really feel like it. It still wouldn't make the comparison anything but nonsense with regard to a discussion on breastfeeding though. The fact is that your attempt at 'playing devil's advocate' was nothing more but the trotting out of the same utter nonsense that gets trotted out time after time in this discussion by people who think they are being clever, only to be torn apart as the nonsense that it is. It's not clever, it's not original, it's not a good point. It's just silly nonsense and should just be treated as such.

kowloon · 02-11-2012 4:33pm

Babies need to be fed, it's only weird or impolite if you make it.

Beefy78 · 02-11-2012 4:33pm

iguana wrote: »

Everything is comparable. You can compare horse excrement to the planet Venus if you really feel like it. It still wouldn't make the comparison anything but nonsense with regard to a discussion on breastfeeding though.

The original point I made was that a lot of the arguments put forward in support of breast feeding in public could equally be applied to urinating in public in a way that arguments regarding horse excrement actually could not be applied to the planet Venus.

The complete denial that two natural acts involving parts of the body with sexual connotations one of which is completely taboo in public and the other clearly some people have issues with (rightly or wrongly) surprises me and, IMO, does nothing for the pro-arguement.

I'm not saying that breast feeding in public should be frowned upon and I'm certainly not saying that people should be free to plop their chap out in public and do what comes natural but perhaps the fact that some people find witnessing or the thought of witnessing public breast-feeding to be uncomfortable is because it provokes in their minds the same kind of reaction.

iguana wrote: »

The fact is that your attempt at 'playing devil's advocate' was nothing more but the trotting out of the same utter nonsense that gets trotted out time after time in this discussion by people who think they are being clever, only to be torn apart as the nonsense that it is. It's not clever, it's not original, it's not a good point. It's just silly nonsense and should just be treated as such.

Fine. Continue to stick your head in the sand. Good work.

billybudd · 02-11-2012 4:35pm

Beefy78 wrote: »

They're not the same. They're comparable though.

A toilet is used for the purpose to rid the body of waste and to make sure it is properly and in a hygenic way disposed off, linking that too breast feeding is a bizzarre statement

smash · 02-11-2012 4:37pm

billybudd wrote: »

linking that too breast feeding is a bizzarre statement

Hoping that people see you breast feeding and get offended by it is a bizarre statement too. But you condoned it.

ash23 · 02-11-2012 4:37pm

I personally think there is a middle ground. I breastfed and I would do so again. I breastfed in front of family and friends and nobody batted an eyelid. In fact, some didn't even notice.

However, I was discreet. And I don't like when people aren't discreet. That's in general. At all.

So much the same as I dislike someone wearing too tight clothing, or eating loudly, or talking loudly etc, I don't like when someone breastfeeds indiscreetly. Yeah, they can do it if they want and I wouldn't say anything but really, a bit of thought doesn't go amiss. It's natural and normal but it's not comfortable for many people to have to see your breasts, so no harm to be considerate and discreet and in turn, most people won't care what you are doing.That rings true for most things in life.

IMO, the balance is important. I have seen women who aren't at all discreet and many who are. No problem with the latter but the former make me very uncomfortable.

OldNotWIse · 02-11-2012 4:39pm

I am opposed to opposing breast feeding so long as there are still drunken idiots p1ssing on the street and vomitting and hacking up phlegm and depositing it on the pavement...oh and today I was queueing for an ATM and I saw a guy blocking one nostril with his finger and expelling the contents of the other onto the path. Lucky nobody was standing in the firing line. Where's the uproar about that? No, we'd all prefer to pick on a woman and her baby sitting quietly in a cafe feeding her child and trying to relax

pwurple · 02-11-2012 4:41pm

Beefy78 wrote: »

I'm not saying that breast feeding in public should be frowned upon and I'm certainly not saying that people should be free to plop their chap out in public and do what comes natural but perhaps the fact that some people find witnessing or the thought of witnessing public breast-feeding to be uncomfortable is because it provokes in their minds the same kind of reaction.

Unless you think that people can feed babies with a penis, I have no idea what the comparison is. Babies, or indeed anyone else eating food, is not sexual. We all eat in eachothers company in public.

Peeing is also not sexual. It's frowned upon because it is unhygenic to splatter urine all over a public area.

If you think pissing or eating = sexy-time... I might need to send you a book.

Beefy78 · 02-11-2012 4:46pm

pwurple wrote: »

Unless you think that people can feed babies with a penis, I have no idea what the comparison is. Babies, or indeed anyone else eating food, is not sexual. We all eat in eachothers company in public.

Peeing is also not sexual. It's frowned upon because it is unhygenic to splatter urine all over a public area.

If you think pissing or eating = sexy-time... I might need to send you a book.

I neither think that pissing or eating is sexy time nor did I say that pissing or eating is sexy time. Perhaps you should re-read the post you quoted?

ash23 · 02-11-2012 4:46pm

OldNotWIse wrote: »

I am opposed to opposing breast feeding so long as there are still drunken idiots p1ssing on the street and vomitting and hacking up phlegm and depositing it on the pavement...oh and today I was queueing for an ATM and I saw a guy blocking one nostril with his finger and expelling the contents of the other onto the path. Lucky nobody was standing in the firing line. Where's the uproar about that? No, we'd all prefer to pick on a woman and her baby sitting quietly in a cafe feeding her child and trying to relax

Gasp, are you comparing those things to breastfeeding! How very dare you

Just kidding. Start a thread on those and I'd say most will agree that it's disgusting and unacceptable. I don't think many(any ??? ) here have said they'd "pick" on a breastfeeding woman.

billybudd · 02-11-2012 4:56pm

smash wrote: »

Hoping that people see you breast feeding and get offended by it is a bizarre statement too. But you condoned it.

Because i believe that people who get offended by breastfeeding view it as obscene or dirty when in fact its not and to compare it to pissing is a bizarre statement.

pwurple · 02-11-2012 5:04pm

Beefy78 wrote: »

I neither think that pissing or eating is sexy time nor did I say that pissing or eating is sexy time. Perhaps you should re-read the post you quoted?

Did you not say... and I quote:

Two natural acts involving parts of the body with sexual connotations one of which is completely taboo in public

Pissing in public is not taboo because it is sexual. It is taboo because it is unhygenic to spray public areas with urine. People kiss in public all the time, no problemo, that is sexual.

Your vapid claim that things with sexual connotations are taboo in public is bull.

Kissing = sexual, not taboo in public
Pissing = not-sexual - taboo due to hygiene, nothing to do with sex
Eating = not sexual -not taboo, nothing to do with sex either.

smash · 02-11-2012 5:13pm

billybudd wrote: »

Because i believe that people who get offended by breastfeeding view it as obscene or dirty when in fact its not and to compare it to pissing is a bizarre statement.

If I walked up to you and said "show us your tits" would you be offended?

redfacedbear · 02-11-2012 6:35pm

I have absolutely no issue with it, whether the woman chooses to be discrete or not.

I did stare once - but that was because the woman was breastfeeding while walking down the street. I was admiring her dexterity (having seen my wife struggle with it while seated). It was only after she had passed that it occurred to me that the staring might have been misinterpretted

Madam_X · 03-11-2012 12:02am

Can't you people get simple logic? Breastfeeding women get their tits out fully and jiggle them around the place before feeding the baby.

And sh1tting/pissing/**** in public is a perfectly valid comparison to feeding a possibly crying baby because it's EXACTLY the same thing.

EoghanIRL · 03-11-2012 12:04am

I saw loads of it in Spain ,In restraunts etc

billybudd · 03-11-2012 12:15am

smash wrote: »

If I walked up to you and said "show us your tits" would you be offended?

Id be suprised and check my reflection.

Beefy78 · 03-11-2012 12:18am

pwurple wrote: »

Did you not say... and I quote:

Pissing in public is not taboo because it is sexual. It is taboo because it is unhygenic to spray public areas with urine. People kiss in public all the time, no problemo, that is sexual.

Your vapid claim that things with sexual connotations are taboo in public is bull.

Kissing = sexual, not taboo in public
Pissing = not-sexual - taboo due to hygiene, nothing to do with sex
Eating = not sexual -not taboo, nothing to do with sex either.

I don't understand how you're misunderstanding this unless you're being deliberately obtuse. The act is not sexual and carries no such connotations. The part of the body used does carry such connotations which is exactly why it is usually hidden away.

billybudd · 03-11-2012 12:31am

Beefy78 wrote: »

I don't understand how you're misunderstanding this unless you're being deliberately obtuse. The act is not sexual and carries no such connotations. The part of the body used does carry such connotations which is exactly why it is usually hidden away.

Breasts were for milk long before they where sexual objects.

So ive asked this a few times, would you leave a beach because it has topless sun bathing women on it?

Abi · 03-11-2012 12:39am

smash wrote: »

If I walked up to you and said "show us your tits" would you be offended?

Probably not, but expected, yes

Madam_X · 03-11-2012 12:40am

Women get aroused by stimulation of their breasts in a sexual context; men get aroused by looking at/touching breasts presented in an erotic way - that's a given. At the same time though, there are cultures where women go around topless all the time and there isn't a mass arousal, so really, it's context, not the breasts in and of themselves.

Abi · 03-11-2012 12:50am

I believe women should give up the gig about being offended by men looking at their breasts. My reasoning behind that would be this, going back to basics, guys find breasts so attractive because its a fertility thing, boobs give life-giving comfort.

If in that situation, I'd have no bother breast-feeding in public. A few sneaky moves and you're sorted, it's not like you're lifting your top and exposing yourself to all and sundry. Since the dawn of time, females have fed their babies, where the problem is, I don't know.

OldNotWIse · 05-11-2012 12:30pm

ash23 wrote: »

Gasp, are you comparing those things to breastfeeding! How very dare you

Just kidding. Start a thread on those and I'd say most will agree that it's disgusting and unacceptable. I don't think many(any ??? ) here have said they'd "pick" on a breastfeeding woman.

er no was contrasting

Matt_Trakker · 05-11-2012 12:39pm

Deleted User wrote: »

No woman actually wants her tits on display so that, quite frankly, is a load of bull

That ain't true.

Whispered · 05-11-2012 12:48pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Oh FFS, what woman have you ever seen "whipping it out" to feed their child? No woman actually wants her tits on display so that, quite frankly, is a load of bull

Boobs are for feeding babies. That's their primary function. If someone doesn't like it, they should move themselves to a better place.

Actually we were at a festival 2 years ago and there was a woman there breast feeding a toddler. She had pulled down her top from both shoulders and the top was gathered around her waist, she was sitting on the ground and the toddler was standing while being breastfed. I have to admit I found it uncomfortable. This may show a level of immaturity in me, fair enough, but it felt almost like the woman wanted to make a point. There was no attempt at discretion and it really was just "whipping them out".

Some of my friends breast feed/fed and I genuinely wouldn't think twice about it. If I ever have kids I hope to breast feed myself, so it's not like I think there is anything wrong with it. A bit of modesty is a good thing though!

Breast Feeding in Public

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