Do you look or look away?

The scratching of one's balls isn't comparable to feeding a baby though.

It's obvious where I got this from. The lack of mothers breastfeeding in public areas, considering there's roughly 50k babies being born each year in Ireland. Breastfeeding in public is still not a common sight.. so it's obvious that these mothers are performing the action elsewhere. (I also asked a few female friends/family members what they did... and that's exactly what they did. ie. go to the bathroom or private area)

You're doing it again. I didn't object to breastfeeding in public. I didn't criticise it. I didn't suggest that women should or must do the breastfeeding in toilets or non-public areas.

Should I keep going with what I didn't say so that you stop seeking an argument over what I didn't say, as opposed to the position I did take (through a discussion with another two posters, which you've taken completely out of context, and misrepresented).

Actually, most of the objections have nothing to do with the baby or the feeding of the baby itself. It's with the public display of a woman's breasts. Hence all the idiotic/childish crude comments earlier in the thread, and then, all the subsequent claims that none of it could be sexualised.

However, the last time I saw a woman breastfeeding, she didn't do it subtly, and both before/after she let herself hang pretty exposed. Her breasts, that is.. not the baby. I think that's the general focus here.. the display of nudity, rather than the act of breastfeeding itself. There's been a lot of effort by posters to push the attention away from that display, and instead focus on the act of breastfeeding, to show how those who don't immediately accept it, are unreasonable or some kind of creeps.

And to repeat, as I guess some posters will take this as my position. It's not. I couldn't care less that a woman breastfeeds her child in public. Doesn't bother me even slightly. I'm simply interested in understanding the perspectives of those who are uncomfortable with it happening in front of them. We've had decades of social conditioning resulting in many people being uncomfortable with public displays of nudity, which would include breastfeeding in some cases.. There seems to be this attitude that we can snap our fingers and all that conditioning will instantly disappear, and that anyone who doesn't conform must be unreasonable.. and yet, public breastfeeding still isn't the norm. Hence, I would guess, the reason the OP made their original remarks..

If breastfeeding is not a big deal, and should be accepted in society, then so too is looking not a big deal, and shouldn't be considered something to be uncomfortable over. You can't have it both ways.

I don't mind someone feeling uncomfortable with a woman leaving her boobs hang out when breastfeeding - I certainly don't think people should be insulted for feeling that way. I'd find it a bit awkward too. "They're just breasts" is disingenuous. In this culture, we're - rightly or wrongly - used to breasts being exposed in very different contexts, and we can't just switch that off.

However (and I know you're not saying this, Klaz) - if a woman needs to breastfeed her hungry baby in a restaurant, cafe or on public transport (I can't think of other places where it might happen) because there's nowhere else to go, and uses something to cover the baby's head, this is not "female privilege" or comparable to one scratching one's arse or balls, or inconsiderate, or something that puts out other patrons significantly (lots don't care - even if her nipple accidentally slips out for a split second).

Go where? There isn't always somewhere else to go.

Who said that woman should not have to adapt to anything?

Which is what I said earlier. It is uncommon. I did not say that they were hidden away in bathrooms. That was the attempt by others to make my comments sound unreasonable. I said that, based on those I'd spoken to, they used bathrooms or private areas to breastfeed. I didn't make any claim beyond that.

I can't recall anyone disputing that right on the thread. Do you?

As for sexualise it, I haven't. Not the act of breastfeeding but the display of nudity associated with the act, which connects to the conditioning many in society have received about said nudity. I haven't even suggested anything trivial about breastfeeding, nor have I said anything to stigmatise it.

This keeps happening on this thread. It's like the very idea that someone might not immediately accept your positions, requires you to jump to positions that weren't suggested (except by those so in favour of breastfeeding in public).

In any case, I'm done. I wanted to discuss why people were uncomfortable with breastfeeding in public, and instead, I keep getting hit with positions I didn't state, or arguments unrelated to me while quoting me.

Thank you. Finally someone who reads a post, and deals with it directly, while seeking to understand the pov of where it comes from.

Cheers. Night night.

"If the option to leave isn't there then fine" - exactly. And that's what I'm saying too. There usually isn't somewhere else to go to. That's why mothers have to breastfeed in public at times. It's not to make people uncomfortable - or female privilege.

I don't know if you mean me or the general you. I don't have children. There are certain things mothers and fathers can't plan for when they have very young infants. Babies have their own schedule.