on breastfeeding in public, an angry spoken word piece called "Embarassed"shared through YouTube and the Huffington Post, represents a widely appreciated sentiment, though in my view it's very simplistic and a bit misguided.
Not that it matters, but for myself, I've never had any objection to women breastfeeding at any time or place that they choose, whether exposing a breast or otherwise.
Far be it from me, though, to expect that all of society should believe as I do, regardless of my sense of the virtue of my opinions.
I live in a complex world made up of both women and men who sometimes in great number hold forth opinions and cultural attitudes that I might even find bizarre.
So I do my best under the circumstances.
McNish, for her part, displays her anger and frustration at being seemingly banished to a stinky toilet stall as if placed there by force, or as if this place is her only viable refuge for the task of nourishing her baby, away from "a man or nervous child who might see this small piece of flesh that they weren't quite expecting".
As such, I have a few suggestions for Ms. McNish, a few of her commenters, the Huffington Post and other breastfeeding moms, that I hope will be helpful:
1. Both men AND women of certain cultural persuasions object to the public baring of breasts, even for breastfeeding. While you and I may not share their values, blaming men is a simplistic cop out.
2. You, Ms. McNish, as every other human being when confronted by the opinions of others, are faced with a choice of how to cope with a world that may not share your enlightened view. A stinky toilet stall is not your only choice.
3. While we pause to "expose the irony of billboards and magazines in the UK covered in women's breasts" let's not neglect mention of the feminist champions behind those time honored establishments like Cosmo magazine, for instance, or the Huffington Post. Thank you Arianna Huffington, for your bold feminist leadership, with daily front page coverage of such gems as "Demi Moore strips down to Teeny Bikini" or "PHOTOS: Rihanna's unconventional underwear choice". So we can add to our ironic exposition the simple observation that commercial profit from the sexual objectification of women is acceptable, as long as you are a feminist like Arianna Huffington, Joanna Coles or Nicole Beland, to name only a few.
4. To the observer who "hate(s) that breasts have been so sexualized", please see number three. Add your observation to the "ironic" category, and confront the enormous task of sorting out women's individual and collective self-portrayal around this question. As to the recognition of the "original purpose" of breasts, perhaps you can identify the role of surgeries and silicone.
5. "So who says feminism is dying? Seems like some battles are still just getting started" and, it seems as though for many feminist combatants, the need of an enemy is still more important than a fair and equal assessment of self, society and the world's diversity of culture.
