Saturday, March 14, 2020
Breastfeeding in Public - Explaining Shame and Taboo
Breastfeeding in Public - Explaining Shame and Taboo On an almost weekly basis, there is a news story about a woman being kicked out of an establishment for breastfeeding her baby. Restaurants, public pools, churches, art museums, courts of law, schools, and retail stores, including Target, American Girl Store, and ironically, Victoriaââ¬â¢s Secret, have all been sites of skirmishes over a womanââ¬â¢s right to nurse. Breastfeedingà anywhere, public or private, is a womanââ¬â¢sà legal right in all 50 states. In 2018, both Utah and Idaho passed laws protecting a womanââ¬â¢s right to nurse in public.à However, nursing women are regularly scolded, shamed, given the side-eye, harassed, embarrassed, and made to leave public and private spaces by those who find the practice inappropriate or incorrectly believe it to be illegal. When we consider this problem from the standpoint of rational thought, it makes absolutely no sense. Breastfeeding is a natural, necessary, and healthful part of human life. And, in the U.S., for these reasons, it is protected by law. So, why does a cultural taboo on nursing in public hold strong in the U.S.? Usingà the sociological perspectiveà helps illuminate why this problem exists. Breasts as Sex Objects One need only examine a handful of accounts of confrontations or online comments to see a pattern. In nearly all cases, the person who asks the woman to leave or harasses her suggests that what she is doing is indecent, scandalous, or lewd. Some do this subtly, by suggesting that she ââ¬Å"would be more comfortableâ⬠if she were hidden from the view of others, or by telling a woman that she must ââ¬Å"cover upâ⬠or leave. Others are aggressive and overt, like the church official who derogatorily called a mother who nursed during services ââ¬Å"a stripper.â⬠Beneath comments like these is the idea that breastfeeding should be hidden from the view of others; that it is a private act and should be kept as such. From a sociological standpoint, this underlying notion tells us a lot about how people see and understand women and their breasts: as sex objects. Despite the fact that womenââ¬â¢s breasts are biologically designed to nourish, they are universally framed as sex objects in our society. This is a frustratinglyà arbitrary designation based on gender, which becomes clear when one considers that it is illegal for women to bare their breasts (really, their nipples) in public, but men, who also have breast tissue on their chests, are allowed to walk around shirt-free. We are a society awash in the sexualization of breasts. Their ââ¬Å"sex appealâ⬠is used to sell products, to make film and television appealing, andà to entice people to menââ¬â¢s sporting events, among other things. Because of this, women are often made to feel that they are doing something sexual anytime some of their breast tissue is visible. Women with larger breasts, which are hard to comfortably wrangle and cover, know well the stress of trying to hide them from view in an effort to not be harassed or judged as theyà go about their daily lives. In the U.S., breasts are always and forever sexual, whether we want them to be or not. Women as Sex Objects So, what can we learn about U.S. society by examining the sexualization of breasts? Some pretty damning and disturbing stuff, it turns out, because when womenââ¬â¢s bodies are sexualized, they become sex objects. When women are sex objects, we are meant to be seen, handled, and used for pleasure at the discretion of men. Womenà are meant to be passive recipients of sex acts, not agents who decide when and where to make use of theirà bodies. Framing women this way denies themà subjectivity- the recognition that they are people, and not objects- and takes away their rights to self-determination and freedom. Framing women as sex objects is an act of power, and so too is shaming women who nurse in public, because the real message delivered during these instances of harassment is this: ââ¬Å"What you are doing is wrong, you are wrong to insist on doing it, and I am here to stop you.â⬠At the root of this social problem is the belief that womenââ¬â¢s sexuality is dangerous and bad. Womens sexuality is framed as havingà the power to corrupt men and boys, and make them lose control (see the blame-the-victim ideology ofà rape culture). It should be hidden from public view, and only expressed when invited or coerced by a man. U.S. society has an obligation to create a welcoming and comfortable climate for nursing mothers. To do so, we must decouple the breast,à and womens bodies in general,à from sexuality, and stop framing womenââ¬â¢s sexuality as a problem to be contained. This post was written in support of National Breastfeedingà Month.
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