AIBU to think that women should not have to be discreet when breastfeeding?

[lalaland3008]

I'm not saying that anyone should purposely flop both boobs out into someones dinner. But it makes me really mad that some people think women should have to be discreet when feeding their baby, sit in a corner or breastfeeding 'booth'.

I also think a breast is just not comparable to a penis to a vagina and if people are offended because they see breasts as purely sexual then that is their own problem.

Noone would object to me sitting in public drinking my coffee or feeding my baby a bottle of cows milk yet people find breastmilk offensive.

I'm not bitty mad I lasted 2 weeks breastfeeding but it still makes my blood boil that it is seen as controversial by many.

AIBU?

I'm well aware it's 'tough titty' (love that choice of words :o )

Krumbum I'm not against breast feeding :) I think it's a good thing

Shagmaud, my friends and colleagues know my username, I've nothing to hide.

I'm 26 so not young but not old either and I find it all pathetic. We were given breasts to feed babies. Not to be ogled over.

Whitewidow it's like being in favour of a multicultural society but then grimacing when you see it writ large in the high street.

Sometimes we need to really have a good look at our reactions and work towards trying to change them, otherwise even though you are in favour in theory you could find yourself undermining when you're talking to others and that drop drip effect leads to us not having a bf culture.

YANBU. Breasts are for feeding primarily. Some cultures do not have this sexualisation of the breasts which shows it isn't neccesarily biological but more constructed. Yet babies do biologically breast feed. Hence feeding should be perfectly acceptable.

shagmund i apsolutly loved reading you post thank you.

whitewidow, i often really dont like looking at people in genral however i compleatly understand that this is due to my own oddness and is compleatly unreasonable, if im having a day where this is likly to be a huge issue for me then i stay in,but mostly im able to get passed it to the point that anybody who is not related to me but knows me wouldnt notice i have the issue.i most certainly wouldnt attempt to stop the people i dont want to look at from being there or even make comment on the suituation. perhaps you may benefit from using some of the behaviour modification tools i use things like reminder social stories and perhaps some therapy it was very helpfull to me for working out whats reasonable and what isant.

other than that does anybody else this this thread has all got a bit well twatish for want of a better word

I'm not trying to change anyone, I haven't attempted to stop anyone, I was simply saying I don't like it. Thanks for suggesting I need therapy

I know I'm odd I'll freely admit that ha.

Nothing wrong with needing therapy. I'd say most people could benefit from it.

The sad things is you're NOT odd. Probably the majority of people hold your attitudes and I find that really depressing.

I've had therapy for things and it's a load of arse, for me! Sure it works for others.

nothing wrong with being a bit odd.

how would you feel about perhaps accepting that using negative language regarding it, and being consistantly negative and arguementative about it whilst apparently being in favor of the actual act but not in public especially in the current cyber enviroment may perhaps come over as just a little offensive?

if it really is that it makes you feel uncomfortable then a simple' for some reason it make me uncomfortable but obviously thats a personal issue for me and each to there own' is more than acceptable without being rude or offensive

Whitewidow what is your suggestion that women who breast feed do? Genuinely. What would solve this problem?

I don't like having to look at pictures of George Osborne, but accept that this may be inevitable.

Re breastfeeding - I hate the idea that it's only OK if 'discreet'. I breastfed wherever I needed to. And now I'm not breastfeeding any more (well, I wouldn't be, my youngest is nearly nine) I have reverted to low-cut tops in any case. Get them out on all occasions, that's my motto.

I have fed 2 babies for over a year each. I fed them wherever I was, coffee shop, library, parks, in town on a bench, in shops, at the table in a restaurant ... nobody ever objected, stared (not that I noticed) or bothered me in any way. I usually wore a T-shirt which I pulled up and a cardigan or something loose over the top. I didn't show anything and it was easy and simple to feed my babies.

Only in the first couple of weeks until the breastfeeding was established, I prefered to feed them at home or retreated somewhere because it was akward and fiddly until I got them to latch on properly.

"I don't like having to look at pictures of George Osborne, but accept that this may be inevitable."

Yes - gives me a shuddery feeling as well. Not in a good way, mind.

"I wonder if people feel equally queasy when they see Page 3/Nuts/Zoo?"
Yep, yellowraincoat. I don't like porn either, for ethical reasons, and also because I find it deeply unappealing visually.
I am not massively prudish and do like sex, so no, thanks for asking tiktok, I don't have a disorder.

I am merely stating the feeling that most people who are not militant about public breast feeding either way have about it.
Yes, I am repelled by too close, and unchosen contact with the intimate parts of strangers, just as I am when some old saddo lets his penis loll out of his trousers on purpose on the tube.
Nor do I like it when some youth devours a great big kebab on the bus seat next to me, or a toddler has a face gleaming with green snot.
This does not make me unusual, it is a fairly normal way to feel actually.
As I said, I bf'd anywhere I felt like, but did not feel the need to be agressive about it, because I don't have an agenda regarding bf-ing.

I have never seen a person aggressively breastfeed and I'd imagine that such things are relatively rare.

I hate the way that if you have a strong opinion on here, you're always accused of having "an agenda."

If wanting women to feel comfortable feeding their babies is an agenda, then yes, I have an agenda.

It's a totally meaningless word in this context.

I am wondering if I live in a deprived area. I have seen plenty of women BF in public. But I have yet to see a nipple or a woman stood on a table wiggling her tits about when about to start feeding either.

But the way some people post its as if this happens all the time.

But nowthenwreck the examples you have given aren't the same at all and shouldn't provoke the same response, the first is a crime, the youth with the kebab is really smelly so even if you look away it is still there bleugh. The kid with the snot isn't really that bad is it?

I don't feel militant about it and if an agenda is to normalise bf in our society then you can call it that but it isn't really.

How can you aggressively bf anyway? [boggles]

Krumbum I've already said, they can be more discreet. Those muslin things.

But like I also said, I ive accepted it's there right to do what they want

I was also wondering exactly what argressive breast feeding is and how one would work out the point at which it stops being normal breast feeding and becomes argressive.

Surely if it's an exceptable place to bottle feed you are not naked then it's just perfectly normal breastfeeding

no agenda either unless you count the attempt to telepathicly will the dishes to do themselves I'm currently attempting

Bollocks to discreet. If I put a muslin over ds's head he rips it away. He wants to see me. We look into each others eyes when he feeds and have a connection. Couldn't give a flying fuck if that offends anyone.

Agressively breast feeding: To sit at a table in a restaurant with a leaking tit hanging out while ordering your lunch from the waitress.
I have also seem similar types of people change shitty nappies on a restaurant table. Nice.
There is a word which describes a system of behaving which generally prevents others from feeling needlessly uncomfortable.
It's called manners.
And the key word here is "needlessly".

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.ca/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=681&tbm=isch&tbnid=kZxMRUMjP_6gBM:&imgrefurl=www.quickmeme.com/meme/36dzxj/&docid=rBb3nr5dnG54uM&itg=1&imgurl=i.qkme.me/36dzxj.jpg&w=216&h=299&ei=KeHcT_7zNKHg2gWbjOy0DQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=486&sig=115315949491539386692&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=115&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:74&tx=65&ty=90" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aggressive breastfeeding

I don't bf to make a point, I do it because my baby is hungry.