-this beautiful picture courtesy of the Fresno county Breastfeeding Friendly Campaign website.
I wish I was joking, or exaggerating, but sadly these are the exact reactions that people have been posting lately on twitter. I follow some pretty kick-ass people on twitter. Some of which make it a point to RT these disgusting and ignorant tweets about breastfeeding. I try not to respond. I try to control myself. But as a breastfeeding mother who lives in a country that actually has several laws to PROTECT breastfeeding mothers, I can't help but respond.
If you read something that said: "Breast feeding in public is detrimental to my health, therefor should be banned!" wouldn't you feel compelled to respond? I can't find the source of that tweet but it was some idiot.
I do wonder if I'm wasting my time arguing with idiots on twitter, but I can't help but confront some of these people and their ignorant attitudes towards breastfeeding mothers.
In case you don't believe that people can be so stupid, here are some actual tweets I have seen in just the last few weeks that will convince you humanity is screwed.
But first here is a cool campaign in the UK to help promote and normalize breastfeeding.
And now. The ugly truth:
Seriously. The above tweets are real and have not been altered in any way shape or form, except that the tweets have been copied and pasted into this blog post and the responses to the tweets have not been posted. Hey that's the beauty of a PUBLIC forum like twitter right? Your ignorant comments can be memorialized on the internet FOREVER.
I'm done for today.
Happy breastfeeding. In PUBLIC. Or wherever and however you should choose to feed your baby.
Thank you for posting this. I can't believe how outraged people get when women dare to feed their child in public. Would they like it better if I let my hungry child cry? I breasfeed my 5 month old wherever we happen to be, and like you, I f(*&ing dare someone to same something negative about it to me.
ReplyDeleteI never knew how strongly I could feel about something until I became a mom. DON'T mess with a mama feeding her baby! So far, thankfully, I haven't had anyone confront me at all in public. Seems like people take the "easy" route and just post about it on the internet!
DeleteI just want it become completely NORMAL to BF in public. Hopefully one day we'll reach that point?
This is so sad. I formula feed due to low supply, but I wish I had been able to breast feed successfully. I don't understand how such a sexualized society can be so upset by a woman's uncovered breast. You can rarely see a nipple anyways. Women expose more cleavage at a night club or the beach on a consistent basis. But use your breast to feed a child instead of for the routine purpose of just having your assets on display, and all of a sudden it's offensive? It just doesn't make sense.
ReplyDeleteI reluctantly didn't breastfeed at all past four months...I just had too much difficulty, not enough support, and the return to work at 2 months pp did not help at all. I am not sure I would have been comfortable BF'ing in public...especially given all the comments you have posted, because you know if these people have the balls (and lack of common sense) to say it, how many more are thinking it? Seriously, I cannot believe these comments. Especially from the girls (I have a hard time believing they are women with real life experience based not only on their comments/opinions, but how they gave them).
ReplyDeleteSunidaze, isn't it sad that people feel this way? I'm sorry you didn't have enough support to breastfeed past 4 months. That is a whole other topic. We need to support each other and attitudes like the ones above do a great disservice to women everywhere.
ReplyDelete