1/5/12
Question of the Week: When, If Ever, Is Nursing in Public Too In-Your-Face?

After a woman was recently asked to move to the changing rooms at a Texas Target to nurse her child, she and other breastfeeding advocates organized a national nurse-in at Target stores across the country last week on December 28th. A writer-friend of ours, Amy Keyishian, went to her local store and took a, shall we say, spirited picture of herself nursing her kid (above), which caused quite a, shall we say, stir. Her writer friend, Marjorie Ingall, jumped to her defense in what we would call a spot-on analysis of why so many people freak out whenever a boob gets whipped out in public to feed a baby. So, what do you think? Should nursing be a private thing between mother and child? Is public breastfeeding okay, so long as it’s not in-your-face (i.e. not at a restaurant without a boob-burka or, say, while pushing your kid in a Target cart)? Or do we as a society need to accept the fact that breasts aren’t just sexual objects to be ogled by men and all chill the fuck out?