It frustrates me to see that people living in a country as progressive as Canada are still so disapproving of women who breastfeed in public. I’m from a conservative country (Pakistan, if you’re wondering), and outrage over breastfeeding there would be expected (although not justified), because a woman publicly breastfeeding there would most likely face repercussions. However, no matter the country, this disapproval over breastfeeding needs to stop.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees all those living in Canada gender equity, as stated in Section 15. This means that breastfeeding in public is legal, and according to Canadian law, so is roaming around topless for every person, as can be interpreted in Section 28 of the charter, which ensures both males and females have equal claims to rights that are guaranteed.
Yet, when you go around asking people if they have a problem with breastfeeding, many seem to think it’s inappropriate. An online poll conducted by New Jersey 101.5 asked if people were uncomfortable with a woman breastfeeding in public, and 32 per cent voted in the affirmative. A friend of mine even went as far as saying, “it’s a woman who’s exposing herself in public, and she would make others uncomfortable.”
Why this hostility towards a woman who just wants to feed her baby? If you feel uncomfortable or cannot resist the urge to give her cringe-worthy looks, there are other directions you can look in; you’re the one who needs to change your perspective.
As many women nowadays like to argue, female breasts are not a sexual organ — we merely brought them into the realm of adult sexual relations. If you look at it from a logical perspective, the function of breasts (from a mother’s perspective) is to nourish by providing food for their baby. That’s all. So why, then, are mothers frowned upon by people for choosing to breastfeed in public?
There are many online forums where mothers share their discomfort and anger over getting strange looks from people — especially men — over breastfeeding in public. Some users’ stories reveal how they were asked to move to the washroom, and some discuss how they were told that their actions were “inappropriate.” One of these discussions included a woman commenting, “I think it’s okay to do it as long as a woman does is very discreetly.”
It’s sad to hear all this while trying to absorb the reality that this is in fact the 21st century — the very century that people claim no longer needs the fight for gender equality because we’ve conquered it all.
Every time a man tells me that it’s inappropriate, I force him to imagine the same scenario with him as the breast feeder; it’s hard to see why anyone would walk up to a man because of a problem with him exposing his chest in public. This is where the issue of equality comes in. We might claim it’s all hunky dory, and that feminism has achieved its goal and that there is honestly nothing to fight for anymore.
However, when a man looks me in the eye while saying he can roam around topless on the street, but he takes issue the minute a woman tries to feed that crying baby of hers in public, there is something wrong. This double standard is what makes me believe we have a problem.
I completely agree with each and everything uv written up there but the only thing id like to add is that equality being put infront it does seem that it is right to do so but doing that in a period like 21sr century u cannot expect people to just “mind their own business” when they see a women sitting on the side of the road breast feeding her baby.
Like i think its ethically wrong because ur exposing ur body to everyone nearby, for example if im sitting at a bus stop and a women comes and sits right next to me and starts feeding her baby i would get uncomfortable and being the opposite sex i would probably look more then once, its natural like cumon! Im just saying it probably would make her uncomfortable too.!