Have you seen the photo of the actual wave pool from the DM, Jason? Do you think a woman would wade into the pool you linked to and try carrying a wriggling baby or feed him? Do you think women are imbeciles?
The think is, Tobysmum, women who are not fairly militant are not going to face off with people who ask them to breastfeed discreetly. It is the lactivists as a group and women who are generally unbothered by what lifeguards or zoo attendants or shop employees or managers of McDonalds think of them who are going to pave the way.
Math - maybe they're not worried about 'doing favours' for other women, maybe they're just concentrating on feeding their babies?
That is what all women are doing when they breastfeed. Those who are doing it in the ladies room and those who are sitting poolside and those in the pool doing it. The point is, nobody has a right to 'offer a woman a seat elsewhere' when she is minding her own breastfeeding business in a place she has decided is suitable for her and for her baby.
The point that lactivists are making is that breastfeeding is no business of anyone else, and it is not meant as a sexually provoking act any more than walking down a street in a short skirt or any other clothing while female is meant as a sexually provoking act. Sadly, breasts have become so fetishised in our culture that it is necessary to remind society at large that not every single thing that women choose to do with their bodies is meant for titillation or can be assumed to be designed to titillate.
I cannot understand how people are so sucked in by the word 'offered' that is being put forth by the pool management and by the midwife (no less). Do you really believe this was nothing more than a kind 'offer' -- of a seat away from where the woman was originally minding her own business (without apparently being knocked over and in a place where there were undoubtedly others who were holding babies, or were pregnant and susceptible to being upended by the waves in the case of the pool), and away from where other people could maybe see the appalling sight of a little bit of boob, in the case of the hospital waiting room.
childrensleisure.co.uk/images/pendle_wavelenghts.jpg This is Pendle Wavelengths wave pool, which is the actual pool in quiestion. As you can see, there are women and small children sitting in the zero depth area. They are up to their hips in water..
www.pendleleisuretrust.co.uk/images/news/thumbnails/51.jpg Same section of the pool. How deep would you say this is?
I am assuming this is where the woman was breastfeeding. You are assuming she was out of her depths in some sort of tsunami waves.
lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4GT3ySrYWx4/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAACM/vwSiG_cEsTI/photo.jpg You can clearly see how shallow it is, and that there is a gradual slope.
www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/family-fun/Pendle_Wavelengths_Swimming_Pool/2158
From the online brochure:
'The 25m swimming pool at Pendle Wavelengths has a gently sloping beach which edges into the warm water, ideal for young children and a nice place to sit and watch them play.
For the bigger jobs the leisure pool also has a ceiling high water slide (that's mainly open flume but includes a black hole feature!) plus a wave machine that fills the pool with swell at regular intervals! It's pretty strong so be sure to start out in the shallows when the waves start and get the hang of things before progressing, especially if you're not the only body that you're having to keep up! And be sure to wear a costume not a wetsuit as there are no zips allowed on the slide'
-- So they accept that parents will be bringing babies and small children who may need to be held. They state that there is a place that is nice for babies/small children/parents to hang out, and they suggest that for those wishing the wave pool experience starting out in the shallows is a good idea for those holding someone else in their arms. Quite clearly they do not forbid holding of others even in the area where the waves are strongest.
I would disagree with the fundamentalist 'breast is best' element of lactivists' general agenda. But I applaud their refusal to countenance anything but complete freedom when it comes to time and place of breastfeeding, and in the case of Pendle Wavelengths pool, unless it can be proven that the wave pool was a dangerous place to (a) hold a baby of eight months and (b) everyone who was doing the same was 'kindly offered a chair at the side of the pool', and (c) knowing it was dangerous to hold eight month old babies in the water there were signs posted asking patrons not to, then the wave pool hasn't a leg to stand on, because clearly the lifeguard was focusing only on the breastfeeding and allowed squeamishness to get in the way of common sense.
Activists always piss people off. Suffragettes did it, Women's Libbers did it. But guess what? You get to vote and to work and to drive a car and fly a plane and become a doctor and divorce your husband and still see your children afterwards because of activists who stood up for the rights of all women.
Women should be standing up for the rights of all women, not just for those who are breastfeeding.
Should campaigners against FGM be upbraided because they focus just on this one issue?
How about my old school friend whose job is in the area of improving pre natal care provision in a certain region in Africa? Or the women who are campaigning for sanpro for schoolgirls in underdeveloped parts of the world?
Are they all wrong because they are not picketing for better maternity leave policies in the US and the right to an education in Afghanistan and the right of women to drive in Saudi Arabia and [fill in the blank here] as well as all the rest they do?
The right that we have to breastfeed has to be continually policed by us because nobody else is going to do it for us. Lactivists have their niche just as all the rest do. And actually the right to breastfeed in public has a huge bearing on efforts to combat the toxic sexual objectification of women that causes immense damage to us all, young and old, rich and poor. The fetishisation of women and all of our body parts and all of the clothes and shoes we wear has harmful effects, both physical and psychological, on all women.
The perception that most of the things we do constitute 'flaunting' of ourselves (to use a favourite DM term) to titillate and gratify men contributes to rape culture. Reminding society that boobs are for feeding babies is a much needed reality check for our society. Insisting that this purpose is not sexual and that women can do it in public and it is not 'indecent' requires frequent visible demonstrations of breastfeeding. Woman lifts top a bit, latches baby onto boob, feeds baby, world doesn't come to a screeching halt in its orbit, men learn to see women's bodies in a way that the sexualised culture we are awash in does not teach -- public breastfeeding is a positive for everyone.
The right that we have to publicly breastfeed comes directly up against all the elements of our culture that use our bodies against us. Our bodies are too thin, too fat, not tanned enough, too tanned, our faces are not made up enough, or we have gone overboard with foundation and false lashes and scouse brows, we are ageing badly, we have overdone plastic surgery, female candidates for public office are judged by their fondness for pantsuits and also by their policies (and yes, there is comment about the hair and orange skin of one particular male candidate but no others have been subjected to that scrutiny and his appearance is not causing the outright disgust that greets females whose appearance falls foul of opinion). We starve ourselves and diet and put up with workplace regulations on acceptable hair texture and wearing makeup and wearing high heels that only apply to women, whether we are the receptionist or the executive. Lactivists assert that our bodies are functional and that only a small proportion of the functions is to do with relationships with men. The world needs the reminder that our bodies are primarily for ourselves, and for our babies and children too.