I received a comment on yesterday’s post from someone who felt strongly that I was being overly dramatic in my treatment of the breastfeeding issue.
I’m ashamed that you consider this harassment or a human rights violation. At most it is upsetting.
I agree that you should be allowed to breastfeed when/where ever needed. That being said I believe that in this politically correct world we are getting ridiculous. It’s not a human right to never be upset or offended. If the flight attendant had insisted on having her cover up that would be another story but nothing I’ve read on this incident said that is the case.
Comments such as most of those I’ve seen on this incident only cheapen those who actually do have human rights issues.
I mean the very idea that the right to nurse in public could be treated as a human rights issue when people around the globe are being physically mistreated, forced into unethical and unfair situations and going without basic necessities like food and water seems laughable, right? I imagine women shrieking “FORGET STARVING CHILDREN! THEY’RE MAKING ME COVER MY BOOOOOBIESSSS!!!” Laughable! The very idea!
Give me a little credit, folks! I did actually spend some time thinking about that very issue before and while writing my post. So let me address the problems suggested by the commenter.
First, that it is wrong for me (or anyone) to consider this incident harassment or a human rights violation. Â I suppose it might seem like that if you take this situation on its own. The fact is, it’s becoming increasingly common for women to experience this kind of hassling by people and businesses when nursing in public. I’ve never been a big “crusader” for breastfeeding rights. I’ve never really considered it my “cause”. But Catherine isn’t the only person who has experienced this reaction to breastfeeding in public. Â She’s not the first to blog about it. She’s not the only one to be judged or treated like she’s behaving indecently. And while her treatment isn’t the same as physical or verbal abuse, it was still an ugly judgment on her as a person and a slap in the face of her dignity. I don’t know about you, but I consider dignity a basic human right. When women are treated like they are violating indecency laws while breastfeeding in public their dignity is violated.Â
Second, it’s not my right to never be offended. Well yes, of course that is true. And no doubt there have been many people who are too easily offended over trivial issues throughout Canada’s (and America’s) history. What I have to ask is why aren’t more people offended by the way our country treats nursing mothers? Â Why are we still so wrapped up in our prudish heritage that we take offense at a bare breast for the purpose of feeding a child and yet not at the subtle attitudes that pile the pressure on to women who are already under incredible pressure with the physical and emotional demands of a nursing child. If we really believe that a person who expects a nursing mother to be completely covered in order to be “decent” is wrong, then why is our first reaction often to go ahead and ask that mother to cover up?
Third, that the flight attendant didn’t actually do anything wrong (ie. forcing a nursing mother to cover up) so I (and others like me) should shut our big yaps. Well, in my humble opinion, the flight attendant did do something wrong and you don’t have to follow the scenario to it’s most extreme conclusion (physically forcing a woman to cover herself while nursing) to recognize that something needs to change here. I am not the only one who believes that this is gender discrimination which IS protected by the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms.Â
Maybe it is reaching to call this particular incident a true and blatant violation of human rights. But the attitudes portrayed by the players, especially the lack of appropriate response by WestJet, is a telling sign that our culture does not practice what it preaches, not to mention that we have fanatically juvenile preoccupation with sexualizing breasts.
Does a call to treat nursing mothers with dignity cheapen the much more dramatic injustices many people in the world are suffering? I don’t think so. As the saying goes, charity starts at home. As it turns out, so do a lot of other important things like sensitivity, respect, empathy, compassion, dignity and tolerance. If we can’t treat one of our own citizens, nursing in an airplane, with respect what makes us think we can do so with the citizens of other countries? Freedom in word means nothing unless it’s accompanied by deeds.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:31 am
I don’t believe this woman was treated as if she was violating indecency laws, if she had been treated that way the police would have been there to meet her on arrival. I’ve read of cases of that happening for other indecency law violations (not breastfeeding)
yes this does cheapen real human right violations. The person who can’t find housing/work because they are the wrong colour/religion. Those whose lives are in danger for nothing more than being different. Those who can’t get the education to pull themselves out of their situation.
Heaven forbid, you had to say “no, I won’t cover up”. And that was the end of it. Will you survive the trauma?
September 17th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Well, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. But one has to ask, have you ever nursed a baby? Because you don’t sound like someone who has gone through the experience. And if you are, you must be one of the very lucky few who has had no opposition, no difficulty in the transition to motherhood, no frustrations and are just practically perfect in every way. How nice for you. But not everyone has this experience. And it’s attitudes like yours that make those of us who have a hard time feel like shit because we do. Why are you wasting time on silly little blog posts when there are so much bigger battles to fight in the “real” arena of human rights?
September 17th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
So you feel like shit. Again I wasn’t aware that it’s a human right to always feel great. I posted originally because I feel that this is a symptom of what is a problem in our society, political correctness. No matter what you cannot say or do something that could offend someone as that impinges on their human rights. I happen to disagree with that philosophy, I firmly believe it is not a right to have everyone agree with you. You are right about one thing, this will be my last post on this subject as it’s obvious this situation will not be resolved anytime in the foreseeable future. Once everybody agrees on everything we’ll all be happy.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Once again, it’s clear you’ve missed the WHOLE POINT. To be clear, I do not expect the world to take responsibility for my feelings. In general I am not easily offended and it’s clear you are making gross assumptions about me and others while having no real understanding of the situation. As I said before, you are clearly entitled to your opinion. But unless you are willing to approach a situation from the perspective that you are willing to LISTEN and that you MIGHT be wrong, you are certainly right, you will not get anywhere with your arguments.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I don’t understand how efforts to educate people about the rights of nursing mothers diminish other human rights issues, but I’m trying to work out the logic. Say I read Shannon’s blog and learn that there is a group of people who feel that breastfeeding in public is a human right. I don’t really understand what they’re getting at or why they’re so upset. It doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. So I conclude that all human rights issues are baloney? And stop my monthly donation to my favorite human rights cause?
Or maybe I’m a person who has REALLY had my human rights violated. I just lost my job because of my religion and I got kicked out of my apartment because the new neighbors are afraid of me and told the management lies about me and then the police arrested me and beat me because they didn‘t like the way I looked. Then I read Shannon’s blog and think HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE? THAT’S NOT A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES. Perhaps this hypothetical person feels like their problems are being lumped together with what seem like trivialities (and it would be hard not to sympathize with them). But this situation can’t be what AS is talking about, because AS believes that we don’t have the right to never be offended, and this hypothetical person is clearly only offended by Shannon.
The only other angle I can think of is that if the human-rights-breastfeeding issue really takes off, and some non-profit organization or even public organization takes steps to educate people about it, then money and time which might have been spent on other issues is spent on breastfeeding education instead. Well, perhaps. It’s hard to imagine a situation where everybody agrees what the best causes to spend time and money on are, though.
I don’t like boobs, and I’d rather not see boobs. However, thanks to Shannon’s posts, I’ve learned that being a mother is hard, that breastfeeding is hard, and that breastfeeding in public is far from a mother’s idea of a dream come true, but sometimes circumstances conspire to make it necessary; that mothers who don’t breastfeed are stigmatized, and that mothers who breastfeed in public are stigmatized too. Thanks to Shannon, the next time I see a breastfeeding mother I will at least partly understand why she’s doing it, and I’ll try to avoid making her life any more difficult than it already is.
Educating people is good. Learning other points of view is good. Seeing a problem and saying “hey, that’s not right†is good. I don’t see any diminishing going on here.