Ah, the female breast. A beautiful
piece of female anatomy, marveled by many and lately the cause of great debate.
Recently there has been a string of
incidents claiming employees of large corporations have publicly shamed women for
breastfeeding their children in public. One of these incidents was
on a United Airline flight from Houston to Vancouver. The mother claims she was
nursing her 5-month-old son when a flight attendant threw a blanket at her
husband and instructed him to, “Help her out,” insinuating that her husband
cover her baby and breast.
The mother claims she was shocked and embarrassed
that an employee would do something so rude and hurtful when she was just
trying to feed her hungry child. She was so upset she posted a picture on
Twitter of her United Airline experience. United Airlines has responded with a
general statement and apology, but incidents such as these seem more and more
commonplace.
This incident of public shaming is
not the first time a woman has been chastised for breastfeeding her child in
public, and will certainly not be the last.
Why is the female breast so provocative
in our culture?
The breast represents many things; feminity
and nurture, sexuality and fertility. For centuries society has been entranced
by the female form and has made great efforts to shield others from seeing the
female breast. Television networks will show murder, rape and violence but are
banned from showing a female nipple. There was a huge uproar a few years back
when Janet Jackson accidentally showed her breast on live television. Some
claim that by shielding children from seeing a breast, they are protecting
their innocence. But those that are the most uncomfortable seeing the female
breast, particularly in the recent stories in the media, are grown adult men.
Why all the fuss?
The mechanism that ties the
breastfeeding shaming incidents together is the simple fact that individuals
can’t separate the sexual from functional. The function of the female breast is
of course to attract mates, but its imperative purpose is to feed a baby.
Without breasts, the human race would simply not exist.
The visual image of a female breast
may be too much to handle for those attracted to females. There is much scientific
evidence that men are highly sensitive to visual stimulation and become
physically turned on when they see a provocative image, such as a woman’s breast.
This increased sensitivity is most likely due to more connections in the
subcortical reward pathways. 1(https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolution-the-self/201205/the-triggers-sexual-desire-men-vs-women).
The biological process of being turned on explains why there has been tension
relate to breastfeeding in public. Men simply have a difficult time not being
turned on by the sight of a female breast, even if it is being used to feed a
child. The evolutionary role in all of
this may be too strong to get past, even for those who support a woman
breastfeeding her child.
Encourage instead of shame
Women are under intense pressure as
mothers to do everything right. Being in charge of keeping a young baby alive
creates immense stress for mothers, when they are told that feeding their child
in front of others is not acceptable, it creates a large amount of undue anxiety
for them. Those who are uncomfortable with women breastfeeding in public place
a large obstacle in the way for those simply trying to feed their child. This
anxiety creates self doubt in a new mother and can lead to depression and
anxiety.
There has been a push in the last
few years to increase the amount of women who breastfeed and the amount of time
that a woman breastfeeds her child. In 2011, the Surgeon General created a Call to Action, ‘to make it
possible for every mother who wishes to breastfeed to be able to do so by
shifting how we as a nation think and talk about breastfeeding’. (http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/promotion/calltoaction.htm).
Breastfeeding has been proven time and again to be the best form of
nutrients for a baby, as well as beneficial for the mother. It is logical that
society would want to propagate something that increases the health of both
mother and child.
Because of recent incidents where
women are shamed or asked not to nurse their child in public, the government
has begun creating laws protecting women and their right to breastfeed in
public. Virginia has been the most recent state to do so with Governor Terry McAuliffe
passing a law making it legal for women to breastfeed in public places and
privately owned businesses as well.
(http://www.wsls.com/story/28358884/new-law-protects-breast-feeding-mothers-in-public).
Where do we go from here?
There are two sides to this disparity
regarding breastfeeding in public. Those uncomfortable with it say, ‘cover up
or feed your child in an alternate locale’, while pro – public breast feeders
say, ‘if you do not like what you see, do not look’. The whole point of a
mother having her breast out of her shirt is to feed her baby, not to excite.
Perhaps one solution to these
ongoing breastfeeding-shaming incidents is to increase employee training
regarding this issue. Making others more sensitive to a woman and her child
will benefit all those involved and may prevent unfortunate incidents such as
the recent quarrel on the United flight from occurring again.
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