This is from Morgan Gallagher’s blog – one-of-those-women
“A common rubric now, is that mothers lactate, and babies breastfeed. This is a neat reminder that babies are the active participants, the ones doing the suckling. A vital point to make, in this world that positions breastfeeding as a lifestyle choice on behalf of the mother, thus neatly removing the baby’s needs and desires from the equation. So it’s a phrase I like, even as I rue that the mother-baby symbiosis has disappeared from ‘lactation’ to some extent.
.
And that’s not just because I’m a word geek. Or rather, it’s because I’m a word geek I rue the changes. Because some language development is good, some less so. Words embody concepts, and those concepts have power when we use them. As we grow as a culture, and find new things about ourselves, or find we need new ways to describe how we feel about old things… we make new words. Breastfeeding, for instance, is a really new word. It’s only been around for about a hundred years. You could argue, this is only since the rise of bottle, and formula, feeding. For up until then, there was no need to mention how you fed the baby other than to say you were feeding it!
.
Nursing, of course, is about the oldest we can track. We’ve always nursed babies at the breast. It’s how we got the other type of nursing, the bandages and taking temperature type, as an extension of the original meaning – to nurse a child. The actual definition of breastfeeding in some dictionaries, is to nurse a baby. I like nursing as opposed to breastfeeding. Nursing brings with it warmth, and love, and caring, and snuggles. But it can get confusing to use nursing, and sometimes you have to stick to breastfeeding to be heard. But I do invite you to use nursing for one day, everytime you’d use the word breastfeeding, and see what happens! You might like it as much as I do! But, like I said, we sometimes have to use breastfeeding, to be clear and precise.
.
.
For that reason, we didn’t hold nursing picnics, or lactation picnics on July 21st, across the UK, we held breastfeeding picnics!
.
And great fun we had at them all, and very successful they were too. A great fun day out for all concerned, whether it was milling in the mobs at Bournemouth, or fighting off the traffic in Westminster, or waving your flags for the camera at Durham, all around the country, mothers and babies showed off their suckling skills..
And others showed off less attractive skills…
.
.
Kenneth Gray wrote: Look Sorry but I dont want to see women getting their breasts out in public It needs to be done in private It makes people feel uncomfortable Not politically correct but TRUE
.
… which was, after all, only to be expected… but others, perhaps, were more forthright…
.
Posted by: jpcm24 I’m sorry, but it is a ‘restaurant’ where people are eating. If I am in a restaurant I don’t want to see that. I don’t care how great you think it is that you have a kid and how great and special you think your kid is.
.
Posted by: jpcm24 I’m sorry, but it is a ‘restaurant’ where people are eating. If I am in a restaurant I don’t want to see that. I don’t care how great you think it is that you have a kid and how great and special you think your kid is.
.
Comments that most mothers have seen and heard during the past couple of years in the UK, when feeding babies is discussed. These sorts of comments are common, and mothers get pretty fed up of hearing them. And when we tell others that we get fed up with it, they tell us not to be so sensitive, it’s not like people are meaning to be nasty….
.
Posted by: Tom I do not object to breastfeeding, i do object to seeing it when i am walking through a park though.What next….. Sex in public in front of children because it is a human right????
.
or offensive…
.
Posted by: women I think they are a bunch of perverted women who get turned on by a baby sucking on a tit in public and men watching and when they are still letting the baby suckle at 1 year plus should be classed as paedophilia
.
or just racist…
.
Posted by: Mr Britain Walking naked down the high street is also natural if you live in darkest timbuctoo – but in Oxford one would be locked up – why is it one law for the native and another for the law abbiding citizen , personally I think women should be allowed to breast feed in public , in the toilets of restaraunts , but not at the table sat next to me whilst i am tucking into my scoff- what about my rights to the enjoyment of my meal without some unwashed old baggaage feeding their spewing brat at the table
.
or simple misogyny…
.
Posted by: Hugh Breast feeding in public will involve ever increasing degrees of nudity from the aggressive mother who will use this power of public exposure to discomfort and drive away those who are not in their family group.
.
or just simply perverse…
.
Posted by: John Thomas What about my rights – I want to be able to have a swift one off the wrist on a bus – masterbation is a natural act so why am I discriminated agianst make you voice known vist wankingonthebus.com and vote to petition governemnt
.
All of which would be funny, if it wasn’t so serious. Two of the Mums were harassed on their way home from the London picnic, for instance. Both on their own with a baby, both on the Tube. Emily Pulling, whilst feeding her son, was actually shouted at loudly by a male commuter, telling her he didn’t want to see that sort of thing. She responded vigorously, but reports she was shaking like a leaf at the time. Others sat back in the carriage and let this man abuse her and her son.
.
It’s no shock to us, of course, we who ran the picnics and organised the press coverage. we’re used to this sort of lactaphobia. Daily, obscene and aggressive comments are made about breastfeeding babies and their mothers, particularly in the UK and the USA. I often feel that what they say isn’t as shocking as the fact that they feel safe to say it. Would such comments be made about colour, race, religion or sexuality?”
Check out the full post at Morgan’s blog:
Recent Comments