Even though this entry is going to provide more opportunity for porn spam in my comments, I still felt the subject was worth noting.
This editorial raises some interesting questions on privacy. The topic, breastfeeding, is so personal to women it is often hard to separate emotion from reason. My take is that if business owners don’t have the right to tell women to be discreet about nursing, then it won’t be long until more of their rights as private property owners go out the window.
In the editorial I linked, there was a mention of Starbucks’ policy for women to either cover up when they nurse or to go to the bathroom to do it. This seems reasonable to me, although I might suggest that if Starbucks hasn’t already done this, for their own customer relations, they should provide at least a comfortable chair in the bathroom. For the most part, women I know who nurse do not have a desire to expose themselves in public. I think most women are reasonable about it. I think this is a case of the extremests getting in an uproar because they feel personally constrained.
Here’s my last thought, which may sound contrary to my other comments, but it it still comes to mind: breastfeeding mothers who occasionally expose themselves in public are not nearly as offensive as the rest of the half-dressed population we see in public everyday.
Good point there at the end. (Not that the rest of it didn’t make sense, too!)
Hey Jennifer!
As a nursing mother, I completely agree! I am more than willing to cover up in public–I don’t particularly want anyone to see “the goods” anymore than they would want to see them! At the same time, if we are out and about and it’s time for him to eat, I’m sure most people would rather have me feed him than to hear him scream….
Just another reason I love my minivan with tinted windows (feeding is easy)!!
After several email correspondences with the organizer of the “Nurse-Ins at Starbuck’s Campaign”, Lorig Charkoudian, it has been discovered that the Nurse At Starbuck’s protest is a scam to gain publicity and research. Charkoudian is using the group’s website and email to underhandly gain research by not telling people who email her that the correspondence will be, according to Charkoudian, used as “fascinating fodder for a planned book about cultural intolerance of traditional parenting and misogynistic and self-hating (in the case of women who can’t come to grips with the basic true function of their breast)attitudes.” Charkoudian has also been using the real names of people who correspond with her on television shows and in interviews without notification or protection of the individuals’ identities.
If you agree that these tactics are an outrage, PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THIS ORGANIZATION!!!!
If you have corresponded with Charkoudian (good or bad correspondence), PLEASE CONTACT A LAWYER IMMEDIATELY TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS!!!