Public Breast Feeding

[Z]

This isn't a subject I feel passionate about or anything but the debate started up at work today between two of my coworkers and I figured I'd bring it in here.

How do you feel about public breast feeding?

Along with the new charge of littering, you can get charged with indecent exposure for relieving yourself outside of your home. When it comes to breast feeding, however, you apparently hit a grey area in the law.

Some people say breast feeding should only be done in private because no one should be forced to see a female strangers' bare breasts while others say it shouldn't matter and that it's a natural thing.

What do you think?

[chefTENGU]

I think it's silly that it's up for debate. It's a natural and necessary function. And I don't think it's like women are going out of their way to show off how they nurse their kids to strangers, most women still have some amount of modesty.

When a baby needs to be fed, it needs to be fed. When my cousins were born, my Aunt would just find somewhere she could be alone outside. That way she didn't have to be in front of everyone, and anyone who did come by could easily avoid her if they seriously had a problem with it. No big deal.

[Killer_Man_]

It's a natural thing to relieve yourself outside of your house(Of course especailly if you have a fence). :P

Eh I really do not care really. I just think it's common courtesy to just put a blanket over your child and breast.

[chefTENGU]

It really comes down to American hang-ups about bodily functions. Most people in other parts of the world tend to care very little about public displays of bodily functions.

Except for the Middle East.

[Seegtease]

Having a wife that did this for awhile, the debate of whether or not it should be done is silly in my eyes. When they baby needs to eat, the baby needs to eat. You can't always go hide, nor should you have to.

But ladies should really have the decency to carry a blanket or a feeding blanket. Women who just flop their boobs out and feed in the open with no concealment at all are quite discourteous and look kind of trashy and indecent.

It's really not hard to carry a blanket.

One time, when I was at work, some lady was outside with her 4 year old, and she just pulled her boob out and the kid, standing upright, just stood there suckling. It was pretty immodest and icky.

People just need to have some decency.

[Z]

For the sake of a devil's advocate, I'll present the argument against public breast feeding that my co-worker gave:

When they baby needs to eat, the baby needs to eat. You can't always go hide, nor should you have to.

Using that same urination example, "When you have to pee, you have to pee" and, unlike breastfeeding, you do have to hide . That in mind, why [I]shouldn't mothers be forced to go into bathrooms or secluded areas when they breastfeed?

The breastfeeding blanket is a reasonable compromise but should it be made into law that mothers must have a blanket or concealing contraption available? Or should they be legally forced to go to the restroom or secluded areas designated for such acts?

As for my own personal feelings, like I said, I'm happily going to a mardi gras celebration so seeing bare breasts in public is not something that bothers me in the least, hehe

[Arainach]

You're urinating on something else; I look at it as wrong more in the vandalism sense than the exposition sense. Breastfeeding harms no one.

[Seegtease]

Not to mention it takes a little more time to breastfeed than to pee, and you don't exactly want to FEED a baby in a BATHROOM.

A law for blankets would be unreasonable. The government doesn't have any business enforcing such a law. I just think it should be encouraged (and perhaps nursing blankets could be given to low-income families).

But if some mother is nowhere near a private place, forgot her blanket, and her infant is screaming, it's a little silly to expect her to starve her child or be arrested/fined.

Also, to add on to what Ary said, most people can hold their need to pee until they find a suitable place to do so. Infants do not understand what "in a little while" means. They want to (and need to) be fed almost immediately when hungry. They have stomachs the size of chic peas at first.

[chefTENGU]

And the flip side of that is that since infants get hungry often, they don't eat very much at each feeding, so it's not like the process will take much time.

Not to say that peeing takes a longer time (I know it doesn't), but I don't think people should jump on people's asses for pissing outside, either. With everything, it's the circumstances surrounding how the action is being performed that really determine if it's fine or wrong.

The only problem is that you can't write a law saying "depending on X, this action is wrong to do in public."

[Arainach]

The only problem is that you can't write a law saying "depending on X, this action is wrong to do in public."But you CAN abolish mandatory minimum sentencing laws and fix a huge part of what's wrong with our justice system - the lack of discretion afforded to judges and juries.

[chefTENGU]

Good point.

It might be a good start to stop branding anyone who is prosecuted for public urination a SEX OFFENDER for life.

[deathofcheese]

How do you feel about public breast feeding?Moar plz.
Along with the new charge of littering, you can get charged with indecent exposure for relieving yourself outside of your home. When it comes to breast feeding, however, you apparently hit a grey area in the law.What "new charge of littering"?

Haha, you just reminded me of that debate we had about relieving yourself in your backyard is apparently now indecent exposure. I want to get smashed in public now and urinate in an alley.

[Z]

What "new charge of littering"?
Because police began having trouble proving indecent exposure (because they have to prove that the incident was done in a 'public' place) they added littering as an applicable charge to someone who urinates in or on any property not belonging to the violator.

Many people joked about what could happen if you peed in a trash can, heh.

[deathofcheese]

Sooooo....disposing of a liquid that isn't harmful at all to the environment it is released into is considered littering? I can see how taking a dump in the park could be charged that way, but piss? You step in worse every time you walk into a semi-seedy bar.

Unrelated story follows.I was in a bar once where people stopped aiming for the toilet altogether. They'd just walk in, find a spot along the wall that wasn't occupied, drop trou and let loose. Of course, by that time, there was also half an inch of accumulated fluids and I couldn't see straight beyond three inches in front of my eyes, so I didn't really care, or notice at the time. It wasn't until the next morning when my clothes smelled like an uncleaned litterbox that I'd realized what had happened the night before.

[Z]

Sooooo....disposing of a liquid that isn't harmful at all to the environment it is released into is considered littering? I can see how taking a dump in the park could be charged that way, but piss? You step in worse every time you walk into a semi-seedy bar.And also 'defacing public property'. Cops really don't want you pissing on anything but porcelain for some reason, lawl

[Seegtease]

Defacing it about as the wind and water erodes. Maybe we should arrest nature.

[Arainach]

Nature does a lot of things humans aren't allowed to.

[Bloodcinder]

Like burn down entire forests.

[chefTENGU]

Like burn down entire forests AUSTRALIA.
Fixed for topicality.

I know they've got at least one person in custody who's learning that lesson the hard way.

[Gareth]

Good point.

It might be a good start to stop branding anyone who is prosecuted for public urination a SEX OFFENDER for life.
I'm sure if it's peeing in public and they arent really intending on "offending" anybody, then they can appeal to have that status taken off.

You can also get labeled a sex offender for having sex in public.

Also, I agree with the blanket idea, infact it's the same one i had when I read the first post :P

I think that waving your mother issued nightstick around is a lot more of a problem than a kid sucking down milk, We don't give a shit when we see a cow feeding it's young, or any other milk-giving animal.
Hell, we don't even care that animals don't wear clothes, so Why give a shit about a woman breast feeding. (This really only is meant towards the ladies that don't have decency and use a blankey)

I don't even give a damn if a lady breast feeds her kid if she has some decency and uses a towel or blanket to cover it.

[Z]

Apparently in England or Scotland (can't remember which) it is actually illegal for restaurant owners/employees to prohibit you from public breast feeding. They were talking about it on The F Word (another Gordon Ramsey show). They even showed a lady's bare breast on TV as she just flopped it out for her kid, lol.

[deathofcheese]

I don't think my mom ever fed my sister or I in public, but if we were out and about and wanted to/needed to feed, either she had a bottle of milk with her or she'd find a private room somewhere where she could duck away for a little while.

[Gio Takahashi]

I really think that America really need to chill-out when it comes to breastfeeding, let alone peeing in public.

Also I should mention that the other day at the Mall, I found a few alcoves that are used for breastfeeding.

[dinowoman]

It's certainly perfectly legal to breastfeed in public here. I did it occasionally, though I usually tried to be reasonably discreet and not sit in full view of everyone, because I know some people find it embarassing. I see no reason at all to ban breastfeeding in public, but I'll accept that using a nursing blanket could be a good compromise where people might feel uncomfortable at the sight. I admit there were odd occasions when I felt a bit awkward because I could tell that some people were trying to pretend they were ignoring me. I was delighted one day when I was breastfeeding in my brother-in-law's presence and he actually came over for a closer look. I thought it was great that he was quite openly interested.

As for peeing in public, that's been illegal over here for a very long time. Personally, I see no reason why it should be, so long as a person doesn't do it in the middle of the street where people have to walk, or anything like that. Again, I think it's more a matter of some people finding it embarassing to see than anything to do with "littering" or hygeine.

[Sunflower]

Last night I went to Michaels, and when I was leaving parking place I saw the woman in the car next to me was breastfeeding a teeny tiny baby They were all bundled up trying to stay warm. I pretended not to see because she probably didn't want anybody too, but I thought it was kinda cute... don't know why people are offended by it.

[Killer_Man_]

Last night I went to Michaels, and when I was leaving parking place I saw the woman in the car next to me was breastfeeding a teeny tiny baby They were all bundled up trying to stay warm. I pretended not to see because she probably didn't want anybody too, but I thought it was kinda cute... don't know why people are offended by it.

I don't think people get offended by it, I think people are just ashamed of it because it's the *gasp* human body.

[Seegtease]

As for peeing in public, that's been illegal over here for a very long time. Personally, I see no reason why it should be, so long as a person doesn't do it in the middle of the street where people have to walk, or anything like that. Again, I think it's more a matter of some people finding it embarassing to see than anything to do with "littering" or hygeine.

The thing is, most of the places people would pee (on the side of a building, for example) will leak to places people walk. Also, pee doesn't exactly smell good. Not to mention the fact that when you pee, your genitalia is fully visible. If you breastfeed, it's covered by a baby.

I mean there's not many places in a city you can pee without being seen and without doing it in a place that people walk. Side of a rural highway, sure.

[Bloodcinder]

Not to mention the fact that when you pee, your genitalia is fully visible. If you breastfeed, it's covered by a baby.
Unless you get a buddy to cover it in similar fashion.

[Z]

Not to mention the fact that when you pee, your genitalia is fully visible. If you breastfeed, it's covered by a baby.
...I've never peed in public where my genitals were fully visible to any passersby. Like you said, if someone is peeing, it's in a bush or on a secluded side of a building or just anywhere that obscured from vision with the pee-er's back facing the greatest amount of population.

You'd have to directly position yourself just to the side of me or in front of me to fully see my genitals and the latter is generally not possible unless I'm peeing directly on you.

[Seegtease]

Well, as long as they aren't visible, that's fine. But the side of the building is still going to mean I step in pee.

[Bloodcinder]

You'd have to directly position yourself just to the side of me or in front of me to fully see my genitals and the latter is generally not possible unless I'm peeing directly on you.
PLEASE BABY GIMME SOME OF THAT HOT GOLDEN LOVE PUNCH