My husband just sent me an article that made my nipples stand at attention… and perhaps they lactated a few tears of pride.
Again, it all started with a picture. Is it just me, or are these recent breastfeeding photos causing a lot of ruckus? As was the case with the TIME Magazine cover, I like the controversy.
In a nutshell, some women on a military base are coming under figurative fire for breastfeeding in public in their military uniforms. I could go in a thousand different directions with this one, but instead I would like to only point out two things I noticed in this article:
1) "A lot of people are saying it's a disgrace to the uniform. They're comparing it to urinating and defecating [while in uniform]." It seems like such a waste of time that every time soldiers need to poop or pee, they must remove their uniforms! I remember in the movie Saving Private Ryan when that soldier had to pee, so he took off all his clothes and peed in an alley, but before he could get his uniform back on he was shot and killed. Luckily he didn’t disgrace the uniform, though.
Guys, I am really not good at being sarcastic, but I feel like this concept warrants an ugly tone. No, that Saving Private Ryan thing I just said never happened in the movie, and the reason it didn’t is because it’s just ludicrous. Soldiers do urinate and defecate while in uniform, and it is likely that there are many situations where they have no choice but to do it in public! Now, if they are being inappropriate in how they are behaving while they are performing normal bodily functions, that is another matter to be discussed. I highly doubt the nursing mothers are trying to be inappropriate while breastfeeding (which is a normal bodily function, mind you). Anyone who has breastfed knows that multi-tasking in an inappropriate way while breastfeeding is difficult and unlikely.
2) “We are warfighting professionals. Women before us have worked too hard to earn and retain the respect of their male peers. I don’t want my Marines to look at me any other way than as a Marine.” First of all, what happened to your motherly instinct? That’s wonderful and much appreciated that you are a “war-fighting professional”, but why does that professional title mean that is it expected that you suppress the first and most basic natural instinct of a mother, which is to feed your child, and turn it into something that needs to be made more difficult and inconvenient and done in the shadows, out of fear of what SHALLOW MEN will think of you? I am not a feminist, but I am a realist. Lady, you seem to be worried about the opinions of the wrong men, and if that’s the case, I seriously question your ability to make adequate decisions in combat. Have you considered that? Have you considered that now you not only have many women giving you the stink-eye, but also the men who are actually respectful of women for who they are and not for their ability to become like Ken-Doll-crotched men? I’m guessing no.
All that to say, my question of the day is this: What uniform do you believe is ‘too sacred’ to be worn while breastfeeding? And why?
If anyone says the Hooters tank top, I’ll sic that war-fighting professional lady on ya. I’m sure she’ll gladly take you down.
Signing off.
BKB
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