American Culture Supports Breasts, but Not Breastfeeding

If you're an American breastfeeding mother, you may have wondered why it's not only okay, but encouraged, to show your womanly curves and cleavage...

...except when you're breastfeeding.

We live in a culture where a breastfeeding mother is chased out of Victoria's Secret, a bra store.

This phenomenon may apply to women in other cultures as well, but my experience comes from American culture, not to mention the comments I've received from women from other cultures that go something like, "Americans, how ridiculous!" or "The men think the breasts are for them? Ha ha ha!"

After posting the article about Head Start banishing nursing moms to accommodate uncomfortable bystanders and purportedly to acclimate the children to a non-breastfeeding culture, one mom sarcastically said something to the effect of "Sure, it's okay to go around in a push-up bra and a see-through shirt, but breastfeeding is inappropriate!"

At that moment, I hit upon the solution to our problems: Immodest clothing for breastfeeding mothers. Forget the discreet nursing attire. Our mistake has been ignoring the cultural message. Show more, not less.

I was wearing a discreet nursing top when a sports-bra-wearing jogger took offense and called the police. If I had been dressed more like her, perhaps she would not have felt so uncomfortable.

I was struggling against my baby to keep my cleavage covered, with my eyes downcast in the expected shame, when a woman suggested "Someone needs to get that woman a bottle." Perhaps she mistakenly thought that I wanted to stay covered and a bottle was the obvious solution. If I had worn a much more revealing top, my baby would not have felt the need to wrestle it out of her face and I would not have appeared to need a bottle.

When Kim Kardashian said breastfeeding was "EWW," perhaps she would have felt more comfortable and have been able to relate to the breastfeeding mother if the woman had been wearing a fashionably immodest outfit. What do you think? Am I on to something?

Source:Seattle Breastfeeding Examiner