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Actually, Amber, it's legal for a mother to nurse in public and any store that kicked a woman out for it is opening themselves up to a pretty major lawsuit.
The only reason this is an issue is because woman have been viewed as something to control for centuries. Men have nipples but it's legal for a man to walk around without a shirt. If a woman walks around WITH a shirt on but you can see her nipples, she can be arrested for indecent exposure. It's "dirty" only because we're constantly told that it's something that has to be controlled by someone other than the person in question. The fact is, it's denying that a woman's breasts are a source of caregiving that's unnatural. Trying to claim that feeding one's own child is a public sexual act, THAT's unnatural.
And really, what's a mother to do? She's told on one side that you have to breastfeed or your children will not be healthy, that if she can't or doesn't want to, that she's less of a woman. And then she can't exactly leave her new child at home when she goes to the store or out in public. For most women, they also do not have the option of staying at home continuously, never to see the light of day until their child is old enough to east solid food (and really, who would want to be completely cut-off from the world beyond the front door -- including even going out into her own front yard -- even if they could financially?). So, when the baby is hungry, you feed the baby. If you refuse to feed the baby a) you get ugly stares because your child is screaming and b) you're neglecting your child. Frankly, a woman who breastfeeds who refuses to do so when her child is hungry, whether she's in public or not, should probably not have custody of any child. If she neglects its needs as an infant, what's she going to be like as a parent when it's older?
But I think this whole "your body is an evil thing!" is nonsense. Clothing should be protection from the elements and a way of expressing yourself and nothing more. Naked human skin is no more obscene than the bark on a tree.
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I have a unique relationship with Lady Luck. She smiles on me often. Usually it's with derision.
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