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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to want this presenter fired...

324 replies

Princess28 · 12/08/2015 20:07

I'm all for freedom of speech but I think as a radio presenter on BBC you do need to have some standards. He describes (from minutes 9-12) how breastfeeding is 'unnatural' and 'guys' don't want to see it in public. He describes a situation on a bus with a larger lady breastfeeding. He's not a rent a gob guest- he's the presenter. So aibu to want him off the airwaves?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02y4dz4

OP posts:
woollytights · 13/08/2015 19:43

Almond the assault aspect was just an example. I'm confident that the overwhelming majority of women would feel sexually violated at someone touching their breast without consent regardless.

I would strongly challenge your point of view that seems to be breasts are no more sexual than any other body part. I'm only pondering the issue myself, and haven't really come to any conclusion personally. I just think it's extremely important to examine the issue from a realistic perspective.

limitedperiodonly · 13/08/2015 19:45

In a society where no one bats an eyelid if a woman goes out in hotpants and a low cut top (no judgement from here people can wear what they want imo).

What? They judge all the time. And sometimes that judgement can get very nasty. I know, because I've worn those things. Those judgements come from all colours, creeds and sexes.

Yes tobysmum I would take it more seriously if he was making similar disparaging comments against people of other races or people with disabilities.

I think he would be sacked for that. I don't put breastfeeding women in the same league.

CaptainHolt · 13/08/2015 19:46

He's wrong of course but I get equally peed off at those who go n and on about how great BFing is

He wasn't going on about how great formula feeding is, he only mentioned it as being available and containing the same calcium as bm. He was saying breastfeeding is 'not a good look' and shouldn't be done by chavs or fat women, was only acceptable in the stone age people didn't have they own teeth (presumably meaning beauty standards were different) , and women who bf should stay at home or go in a locked toilet because men don't like it. It was sexist and classist and would never have occurred as a reverse. Nobody ever says bottle feeders are too fat and chavvy to feed in public, or that their partners secretly hate it.
I accept that some people get over-enthusiastic about bf (can't say I've ever met these women, but I accept they exist) But this was more about keeping women in their place than infant feeding.

ILoveToLaugh · 13/08/2015 19:54

OK, I'm from down Solent way. I haven't read the thread so apologise if someone's already pointed this out. Alex Dyke has form for trying to boost ratings. Google "Alex Dyke Red Squirrels". You couldn't make it up and it caused a right old hoo-ha! Grin

tobysmum77 · 13/08/2015 19:59

but this was more about keeping women in their place than infant feeding exactly.

Limited we will have to agree to disagree because I think sexism is an equal form of discrimination to any other.

badooby · 13/08/2015 20:02

Yes, I think the bit that was really viscerally shocking for me was when he started musing about whether bfing women should have to wear 'warning signs' around their necks. Always a bit terrifying when men feel quite so free to express their misogyny.

NickiFury · 13/08/2015 20:04

He's been suspended now. It's on BBC news.

AnotherTimeMaybe · 13/08/2015 20:05

YANBU... People like this make wanna breastfeed at the toilets

By the way who cares that guys don't like it?

tiredvommachine · 13/08/2015 20:10

Don't know what his problem is.
He sees a tit every time he looks in the mirror.

CinnamonPeach · 13/08/2015 20:19

The sexualisation of women's breasts is a western thing Angry

Varya · 13/08/2015 20:22

A women in the 'I' newspaper today was pictured feeding her own and another child both over one year old.

tobysmum77 · 13/08/2015 20:25

Yeah and no doubt the Sun had a double page spread on page 3 Confused ?

It's interesting though because the more I think about it I can't recall any bloke I know ever commenting on public breastfeeding making them uncomfortable.

HomefromHome1 · 13/08/2015 20:29

There are lots of places in the world where you can't express opinion without fear of the consequence.

Please feel free to leave the UK.

TalkinPeace · 13/08/2015 20:29

THe local paper is having fun with it
www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/13595587.UPDATE___Breastfeeding_is_unnatural____DJ_suspended_after_comments_on_air/?ref=mr
read the comments

AnotherTimeMaybe · 13/08/2015 20:30

Don't know what his problem is.
He sees a tit every time he looks in the mirror

GrinGrinGrin

Gimmestrength30 · 13/08/2015 20:41

I agree, op. Yes, it is an opinion but it's not okay to slate all mothers who breastfeed.

Just because he may not like to see it, it does not mean that he has the right to say it is not normal.

It is fcuking normal to use your breasts to feed your child, if you so wish. So, yeah, he is an idiot who think it is okay to marginalise I group of people based on the fact that they have breasts.

Vile man.

almondcakes · 13/08/2015 20:49

Wooly, I never said breasts were no more sexual than any other body part.

My mouth, for example, has been involved in various sexual activities. I believe the mouth is widely considered an erogenous zone. It is much more sexual than many other body parts, such as elbows.

I also go on buses with my mouth blatantly visible to all and sundry, using it to talk to my children, eat food and so on.

And if some random person came up and used their mouth to lick my foot, or stuck their dick in my mouth, I would consider myself sexually assaulted, as per your example. If someone grabbed my mobile phone, another way of communicating via text rather than speech, I wouldn't consider that a sexual assault.

So all very similar to your but breasts are sexual argument.

And I don't believe that me having my mouth visible in public and not wanting any mouth related sexual assault to happen makes me a hypocrite, or that I should have to be understanding that some nutter can't handle me going around with my mouth visible.

Tryingtokeepalidonit · 13/08/2015 20:59

My best friend went to school with him, not bright at all so tried to disrupt every lesson by being 'class clown'. Was on IW radio for years, tries to be a shock jock without wit or intelligence.

JonSnowKnowsNowt · 13/08/2015 21:48

He's been suspended now, it's on the BBC News webpage.

Hygge · 14/08/2015 03:26

That poor woman.

Not only did she have to put up with some fuckwit with Jimmy Savile hair and an unnaturally large chin leering at her on the bus while she fed her child, she then has to put up with the same fuckwit sneering about her on local radio afterwards.

The bus was so crowded I couldn't look away? What, you couldn't physically turn your head away? There were so many people on the bus you were unable to move your eyeballs in the opposite direction? Hmm

Or did you just want to gawp at whatever bit of her breast you could see when you finally noticed it but then have a bitch about how the woman that breast was attached to wasn't skinny and classy enough for you?

He might have seen a little bit of someone's breast, but the rest of the passengers were looking at a total dick while he was on the bus.

Local bus company ought to ban him, now he's publicly admitted to leering at their passengers. They'd be doing him a favour actually, since he says they are packing people in like cattle so they can't even move an eyeball.

PegsPigs · 14/08/2015 06:32

It's unnatural

My breasts make milk which, for the first 6 months of a baby's life, is all she needs to grow and develop into a human being able to sit up, interact with the world and communicate from being a helpless little baby. That the female body can do that, for me, is a wonder of the world.

As I sit here breastfeeding my DD2 without having to get out of bed and faff with bottles I remain astonished that people still exist who have such an aversion to the natural purpose of breasts. I've never experienced it in real life. In fact, older men who ask "are you feeding her yourself?" seem to be the biggest advocates.

PegsPigs · 14/08/2015 06:42

Why do people always compare it to pooing or seeing or having sex when using the 'natural' argument? Compare it with eating in public because that's what it is. Would you have a bag of crisps on the bus? Yes. Then it's OK to breastfeed. Would the mother have given her toddler a snack to eat on the bus? Yes. Then it's OK to breastfeed your baby.

Best way to get the toddler sitting down long enough to feed the baby is to feed both at the same time.

itsraininginbaltimore · 14/08/2015 07:10

I looked at his Facebook page linked by Worra and it was heartwarming to see that so many of the people saying how stupid and ill informed he was and really speaking up for BFing women were MEN!

Longtalljosie · 14/08/2015 07:21

Why do people always compare it to pooing

I don't know. But if they don't know the difference between defecation and dinner I'm not going to tea at their house...

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 14/08/2015 08:19

I really hate that pooing argument. Would people eat their food in sometimes quite gross condition in toilets? No? So why make a baby do it. They are humans with needs like everyone else.

You wanna feed in public, then go for it. If people stare, then they needs to serious help.