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Confused sexualisation by the media
Jacqueline Castles’ letter saying breastfeeding in public impinges on others’ human rights provoked a widespread and mainly unfavourable response
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JACQUELINE Castles’s fear of being morally molested by a pair of rogue mammaries attempting to press themselves upon her while she is out and about in a public space is entirely unnecessary, if not quite neurotic (Public breastfeeding shows contempt for others’ rights, August 27).
Most, if not all, breastfeeding mothers do the business with discretion and modesty. They do not wish to be confused with the porn industry which has reduced or should I say expanded the human female breast to an outsize seaside postcard object, a silicon-fuelled tool driver for the gratification of the single-handed DIY adult male enthusiast.
Because the breast is now an insatiable fetish with men and has become a “toys for boys” item we seem to have forgotten its primary purpose, that it’s there to feed a baby. To compare breast feeding with public urinating is to make a categorical mistake. Babies, unlike most adults, are not able to regulate or indeed defer their needs. A breas-feeding mother will have a very limited access to the outside world if she cannot leave the house in case her baby becomes hungry.
You have to look very carefully, in fact you have to stare for some time, if you are to catch a glimpse of the breast when a mother is feeding because the baby’s head is generally larger than the breast and therefore obliterates the view.
Why you equate feeding with urinating is a mystery to me. I would be very shocked if while out dining at a restaurant my female companion squatted down by the table and urinated into the sugar bowl or similarly if my male companion stood up and pissed into his wine glass. Feeding and defecating are linked but not quite in the same way that you imply in your misguided analogy.
Far better I would have thought to turn your concerns and fear of exposed breast to the porn industry, to Camden’s lap dancing clubs and this country’s media obsession with gratifying men with ubiquitous sex candy in the form of tit elation.
ELAINE CHAMBERS
Address supplied
Ridiculous concept
• TO suggest that a mother feeding her child is akin to molestation is such a ridiculous concept and hugely offensive to a breastfeeding mother.
Feeding a baby is not a sexual act. Just because it involves my breast does not make it sexy or sensuous. So to compare it to making love or playing with oneself is really not a very suitable comparison. Breast feeding is functional, basic, primitive but not sexual. I am not “getting off” on feeding my child. My child is not feeling sexual feelings in response. She is merely being fed. It is this ignorant belief that just because breasts have been sexualised by the media that they no longer hold the associations that are due to them. They were designed to feed, not to give pleasure.
Therefore, to accuse me of molesting others when in fact I am choosing to feed my child is preposterous.
I think it would, in fact, be far worse for me to starve my child in order to make narrowminded prudish selfish people like Jacqueline happy.
It is about time we stopped listening to people who think like Jacqueline. I personally will continue to proudly breastfeed – if that makes you feel uncomfortable Jacqueline, well frankly you can go elsewhere and work out why you think boobs are sexy.
LAURA HIRST
NW5
Doing best for baby
• AS a new mother, I was shocked to read Jacqueline Castles’ letter comparing breastfeeding in public space to urinating and fornicating in public.
First, women who breastfeed outside their homes usually do so very discreetly, so you really have to be intrusive to see anything shocking.
Second, the NHS advises that mothers feed their babies on breastmilk alone until they are at least six months old.
Given that newborns often need to feed every two or three hours (if not every 30 minutes) and that there are no dedicated breastfeeding areas in public places, does the author of this letter simply expect new mothers to undergo house arrest for six months? What I find really shocking is not mothers taking care of their babies, but people – especially women – who insult other women who are trying their best to care for their babies.
LESLIE IRVING
NW3
Just do it discreetly
• I QUITE agree with Jacqueline Castles.
Keep it covered, is what I say. As a mother myself I do not see why women feel the need to lob out their breasts in public… if you need to feed your children then at least give us poor people surrounding you warning – or cover yourself up.
Yes it’s natural but so are many things that just aren’t and shouldn’t be done in public. I have no more desire to watch a baby have its nappy changed in public than I do to watch a mother breastfeed.
Breastfeeding can be done discreetly anywhere, it doesn’t have to be done in full public view.
Name and address supplied
There’s nothing disgusting about public breastfeeding
• I’D like to reply to Jacqueline Castles’s letter objecting to breastfeeding in public (Public breastfeeding shows contempt for others’ rights, August 27).
She finds it disgusting, and compares it to urinating, having sex and masturbating in public.
Taking these comparisons separately: first, urinating in public has adverse public health and cleanliness connotations, which breastfeeding does not. Secondly, she implies gross sexual connotations.
The motivation for breastfeeding is not sexual.
It is good for the baby, convenient and cheap and is universally recommended by health professionals.
Men rarely find breastfeeding sexual, and for a woman to see sexuality in another woman breastfeeding is even more unusual, and perhaps reflects on her own sexuality rather than those of the breastfeeder.
DR PETER BERRY MB CHB
Address given, NW3
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