Breastfeeding

Today I read yet another article about how controversial women breastfeeding their children is. I don't know that I will ever understand where the controversy is in this subject. Maybe it's because I am a woman, though not a mother, that I don't see anything wrong with breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding is part of who a woman is when she is a mother. It is a body's natural response to the creation of life. Believe it or not, there was a time that it was the inspiration for art and statuary. How is it that after the sexual revolution and decades of women's rights and feminist movements that we have come to this?

Who exactly is offended by breastfeeding? I have yet to hear a woman say it should be banned in public. So it must be men that are so offended and outraged. These would probably be the same men that enjoy slim, busty women bouncing around on a beach in a string bikini. The logic here seems to be a bit backwards: Something that is completely non-sexual is offensive but something that is overtly sexual is perfectly acceptable.

This one is going to be short, but I'm hoping to get some comments about this, explaining the logic and helping to understand why a woman should feel that she has to hide herself away simply because she is a mother.

To recap:

This is ok,

By Oscar One [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This is controversial.

By Fábio Pinheiro from Natal-RN, Brasil [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons