I have breastfed four babies. I’m a big fan. I know all the arguments to support it. But I’ve never heard anything quite like this.
Listen to Hollie McNish, a published UK poet and spoken word artist, expose what it is like to be publicly shamed for breastfeeding in this You Tube video. Then tell me women don’t have a right to breast feed in public.
“I thought it was OK.
I could understand the reasons.
They said: there might be a man or nervous child seeing this small piece of flesh that they weren’t quite expecting.
So I whispered and tiptoed with nervous discretion.
But after 6 months of her life sat sitting on lids,
Sipping on milk, nostrils sniffing on piss,
Trying not to bang her head on toilet roll dispensers,
I wonder if these public loo feeds offend her,
‘Cause I’m getting tired of discretion and being polite.
My baby’s first sips are drown-drenched in shite…”
3 Responses
Awesome.
Nearly 3 years of breastfeeding now and still nobody has hassled me for doing it in public! Is it bad to be disappointed that I haven’t had the chance yet to flatten someone who’s tried it on?
I fed both my babies for 2 years that was 26 & 22 years ago.
Censorship is much more liberal now than then & STILL people can’t cope with breasts when they are exposed in a non sexual, natural way.
20 plus years ago when in a transit lounge I saw a woman in a black hijab breast feeding. Nothing was exposed of her except her breast & her hands, her husband sat nearby totally relaxed with the natural nurturing of his child.
I thought then how the western world had such a warped view of breasts.
Still breastfeeding my one year old, often in public, and never had a negative word. I agree with the comment above – would love to put anyone in there place if they dared. Breastfeeding in public still doesn’t show much flesh.