Posted on by stormy

No breastfeeding on airplanes!

In the news: Woman kicked off plane for breast-feeding – Travel News – MSNBC.com.  A similar situation happened in my backyard last year.  A mother from my gym was breastfeeding her baby at the lake and got a ticket for indecent exposure!  When I was nursing my baby I ran into a few people that were uncomfortable with it in public – mostly people I knew – but I never was asked to leave or stop.
Why do people have such a problem with women breast-feeding in public?  Is a woman’s breast that offensive or is the sight of a baby eating offensive?  Or is it the fact that a baby sucking on a breast brings up sexual imagery in their minds and that makes them uncomfortable?  I think it’s the latter and that happens because our society has made breasts (and the bigger the better) into pure sex symbols.  We’ve forgotten what they  are really there for – feeding babies!
Can they be both?  Sex symbols and for feeding babies?  Or does the one taint the other?

Related posts:

  1. Deciding to Stop Breastfeeding
  2. Stray Dog in Kenya Saves Abandoned Baby – Yahoo! News
  3. Am I bad mother if I don’t breastfeed?

15 Replies to “No breastfeeding on airplanes!”

  1. While I think it is silly hearing about people reacting to breastfeeding in public, I wonder how often it actually happens under normal circumstances. The first article you site is a woman breastfeeding a 22 month old on an airplane…hard to imagine that would be possible to be discreet considering the size of the seats! It’s kind of a unique situation.
    I have breastfed each of my boys for the first 13 1/2 months of their lives and have never had a glare or comment. That’s a lot of breastfeeding considering I have never supplemented any of them with a bottle. The only uncomfortable situation has been people coming over to see the baby they think is “sleeping” – that is actually latched-on.
    I credit much of that to my doula who suggested avoiding the “tent” measure (aka huge blanket thrown over mothers shoulder and entire baby), and rather snuggle a blanket around the baby and under my arm. That said, I do think that women should exercise modesty when breastfeeding.
    Then again, maybe Californians are exposed to so much already, that breastfeeding just flies under the radar here.

  2. I agree – 22 months is a big baby and people in the US are not as comfortable with toddlers breastfeeding as they are babies.
    I should also mention in all fairness that the park ranger that gave Dorian a ticket was very young and inexperienced. The park voided her ticket in the end but I’m sure it was still very upsetting and embarrasing when it happened!
    I think women should be modest but they shouldn’t be required to be discreet by arbitrary standards. I have always hated the idea of covering a baby’s head with a blanket while they are eating. We would never eat alone under a blanket! That said, the time I had to nurse Caleb at Sam’s Club, I hid him under a blanket. There was just way too many people around for my comfort level.

  3. I lived in the middle east and women with covered faces are breastfeeding uncovered in public. It is disgusting to me the ovesexualization of our society! I have nursed 4 babies, anytime anywhere, I do try and be discreet, but I have never had a problem.

  4. Wow, that really does show how hung up we are. Women in the middle east who won’t expose their faces, will expose their breasts to nurse their baby … and in our country where we bare faces, legs, arms, stomaches, … don’t think babies should be fed in public if it exposes a breast!

  5. i happen to oppose breastfeeding in public, in fact i would love to see breastfeeding in public illegal in all 50 states due to the fact i support a strong moral ethical society

  6. Oh my gosh! I cannot believe you, Sean. I have 4 kids and none are bottle trained! It isn’t easy for babies to swith nipples! ANd for nursing mothers, we get clogged with milk if the breast isn’t empty. Nursing isn’t immoral. SORRY! Maybe your momma should have nursed you.

  7. this is what you said Gigi “Oh my gosh! I cannot believe you, Sean. I have 4 kids and none are bottle trained! It isn’t easy for babies to swith nipples! ANd for nursing mothers, we get clogged with milk if the breast isn’t empty. Nursing isn’t immoral. SORRY! Maybe your momma should have nursed you.”
    umm Gigi…i never said nursing is immoral or indecent, i strictly said that open breast are indecent and lewed conduct so dont put wors in my mouth. Public breastfeeding means open breast feing shown in this act

  9. why do you keep deleting my post Stormy…? whats a matter does that truth hurt Stormy? Stormy your lowclass and have no manners ok!!!, if your deleting my post because you dont like my conservative veiws on public breastfeeding, then your ignorant and your parents are probably too

  10. No classy, upscale, well mannered women public breastfeeds, public breastfeeding is down right lowclass, shameful and it creeps out customers in restaurants or stores. Plus it makes business look bad

  12. Sean,
    First of all, you do not come off as a high class person when you cannot use proper grammar and punctuation. I have a hard time taking what you say seriously because of how it’s written.
    Secondly, how about a compromise? If it’s exposed boobies that bother you, why can’t a breastfeeding mother use a cover? Babies need to eat when they need to eat, and it’s society that’s changed, not that fact. What used to be accepted is now not acceptable because of what society has ‘decided’ is moral and acceptable behavior. It’s all in how you see it.
    But anyway – a cover is an easy compromise. The baby gets fed what he/she needs to eat, and people who can’t handle the boobies are content. Or else, they should be content.
    Also, I doubt all the publically breast feeding mothers are against a moral and ethical society. I would think using God’s given food for the baby would be an easy way to be moral and ethical.

  13. Jenny says “Sean,
    First of all, you do not come off as a high class person when you cannot use proper grammar and punctuation. I have a hard time taking what you say seriously because of how it’s written.
    Secondly, how about a compromise? If it’s exposed boobies that bother you, why can’t a breastfeeding mother use a cover? Babies need to eat when they need to eat, and it’s society that’s changed, not that fact. What used to be accepted is now not acceptable because of what society has ‘decided’ is moral and acceptable behavior. It’s all in how you see it.
    But anyway – a cover is an easy compromise. The baby gets fed what he/she needs to eat, and people who can’t handle the boobies are content. Or else, they should be content.
    Also, I doubt all the publically breast feeding mothers are against a moral and ethical society. I would think using God’s given food for the baby would be an easy way to be moral and ethical.”
    Umm Jenny…any women with UPSCALE CLASS, DECENCY AND SHAME would breastfeed there baby in either a bathroom, a car, a nursing facility, or in the privacy of there home like they are supposed to be. You cannot use nudity as an acception Jenny to feed your child ok!!!, there are other ways of feeding your newborn baby child in public rather than using exposed breast. A way of feeding your newborn baby in public would be to use either a formula, or pumped breastmilk inside a bottle. Just so you know Jenny that we are not a bunch of lowclass ignorant savages ok, public breastfeeding is a primative behaviour that makes human beings no different than animals. If you have any UPSCALE CLASS AND THINK SOPHISTICATED Jenny, you would already know that by now that public breastfeeding should be a private matter between the mother and child like either a bathroom or a car to show some class, politeness and respect for the customers. When you expose your breast out in public to public breastfeed, then it no longer becomes a private matter Jenny between the mother and child. It then becomes shared with the rest of the public which means that in this case the mother should have nothing more but to blame for herself if she has onlookers staring at her, pointing and laughing at her or stalkers. Public breastfeeding does become a public nuissance which shows a sign of disrespectfullness, it shows your rude and inconsiderate

  14. Jenny says “Also, I doubt all the publically breast feeding mothers are against a moral and ethical society. I would think using God’s given food for the baby would be an easy way to be moral and ethical.”
    Wrong again Jenny, public breastfeeding mothers are against a moral ethical society since they are exposing there boobs to try and showoff. God gave us food to eat Jenny, just like God gave us urine in our system to urinate, but that doesnt mean we should cross the line to pull out our penis in public to urinate now do we??

Comments are closed.