Breast-feeding mom demands apology for indecent exposure ticket

GJsentinel ^ | July 28, 2005 - 11:33 p.m

[Asphalt]

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Never mind officials voiding a $50 ticket for indecent exposure, or an explanation from county officials that a ranger who issued the citation to the breast-feeding mother was inexperienced.

Dorian Ryan said she wants an apology for what she called a "humiliating and degrading" experience.

"This isn't right. Women shouldn't be harassed for breast-feeding their children," Dorian Ryan said.

Colorado lawmakers agree. A law passed last year gives women the right to breast feed anywhere she's allowed to be in public.

Ryan, 43, was ticketed for indecent exposure July 14 when she breast fed her son at the Carter Lake swim beach in Larimer County. She was shielded from view by two umbrellas and a towel.

An inexperienced park ranger mistakenly issued the ticket, said Dan Rieves, manager of the Blue Mountain District, which oversees the beach. Park officials have voided the ticket.

Rieves, who has been in contact with Ryan, said a written apology would be sent Friday.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Never mind officials voiding a $50 ticket for indecent exposure, or an explanation from county officials that a ranger who issued the citation to the breast-feeding mother was inexperienced.

Dorian Ryan said she wants an apology for what she called a "humiliating and degrading" experience.

I'm sorry she got a ticket, but as far as the apology is concerned, she can cry me a river.

[Tax-chick]

Heh heh! See my post #2 :-).

[Tax-chick]

Thank you for posting that. It clarified my unease.

Happy I could help.

[Tax-chick]

Your #146 - good summary, covers all relevant points.

[Asphalt]

I see you're working several threads at once. Funny how this ballooned up. I was expecting 20-50 comments, not over two hundred.

[tuffydoodle]

"This is beyond amazing. She was ticketed for breastfeeding at beach where virtually every women is exposing what they have to world by wearing a bikini???????"

It's ok as long as the breasts aren't being used for their God's intended purpose. They are only allowed to be used for men to ogle and women to complain about their own not being big enough.

[Politicalmom]

Recommended by pediatricians.

Have you ever nursed a baby?

Teeth are meaningless. Some babies are born with teeth. Are they not supposed to be breastfed in your bizarro world?

[Tax-chick]

We had FRiends over for the afternoon, so I'm catching up. Breastfeeding is a contentious issue, as you see, although I never noticed anyone in Broken Arrow cared :-).

[tuffydoodle]

"With breast-pumps available, there is no need for anyone to bare their breasts in public."

I'm so glad you said that. All those women who bought expensive breast pumps that were never able to get their milk to let town by a piece of loud, sucking plastic, well, they should have talked to you, the expert on everyone else's breast function.

[coloradan]

Well, in that case, I guess I agree with you. But, for some reason, she only wants an apology.

[Tax-chick]

It suggests that she thinks the world revolves around her.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I see "density" quite often here on FreeRepublic, so I'm quite familiar with the term. But thanks for the ad hominem attack, Publius.

First of all, I know breastfeeding is natural and it's necessary in public in some cases. I also know that at least here in Seattle there is an ulterior motive. That motive is to get society used to women walking around in public with no tops if they so choose. My argument is not against nursing mothers. It is against the Leftists who are using this issue to force a change on our culture -- one that I disagree with and think will lead to other losses in polite behavior.

Second, if you support breastfeeding with no regard to modesty, then I hope you are ready for homosexual Public Displays of Affection. It is only because the gay community has so far (somewhat) chosen to abide by unwritten laws of accepted decency that have prevented openly gay men from engaging in wet, opened-mouthed kissing and groping in public.

By disrespecting the willful, personal restraint that is the only enforcement of unwritten laws (otherwise known as "manners" have you heard that term?) in regard to exposing what are still considered private parts in public, we set our culture up for a disrespecting of a host of other unwritten laws and polite behavior. What else is natural that we should no longer be modest about? Belching? Passing gas? Men scratching their privates? Leering? Slurping? Crude comments? Make a joke of it if you want to. But I don't think any of us wants to sit in a restaurant for a pleasant dinner if the people at the next table are breaking these unwritten laws.

A large part of the gay community disparagingly refers to heterosexual couples as "breeders." Breastfeeding in public, especially by those who oppose same-sex marriage, is just the sort of in-your-face activity that will encourage the gay community to engage in PDAs. PDAs, whether between gay or straight partners, is only one example of potential behavior that individuals in a polite civilization willfully restrain in order not to offend otters. It is this willful restraint that enables us to coexist with greater freedom by not having to legislate against behavior. But this is where Libertarians and Conservatives part company. I understand both sides of the argument, but ultimately side with self-restraint for the sake of not offending others in order to prevent being legislated against.

Yes, we are a democracratic republic and the people can vote to change the laws. But part of the reason that we are the freest society on the planet is because we have had enough respect for one another to willfully restrain some of our behavior. Forsaking that restraint is the road toward anarchy and anarchies are promptly replaced by heavily-regulated states. Who would have ever thought that telling an ethnic joke at a college in Berkeley could get a student there expelled? Well, enough people violated this unwritten rule of good manners and the school regulated against it. This type of reaction is not atypical. It is the norm in societies that are headed toward Statism. That is what we are fighting against here at FreeRepublic, or at least I thought that was our fight.

To reiterate, it isn't breastfeeding in public that I am objecting to, per se, if it is done in a discreet manner and when necessary. It is the in-your-face/ I'll-do-whatever-the-hell-I-want-to attitude that I think is going to lead to cultural repercussions that many of us do not want to see.

I'm asking for willful personal restraint and working together to protect our cultural heritage so that something that is as natural and necessary as breastfeeding an infant does not get swept up in the cause celebre of America's counterculture.

As a last note, I'm a well-educated man. I'm a contributing writer to a popular political website and I'm working on an article on the topic of unwritten laws vs. written laws. My family will probably have to breastfeed in public at some point. I'll do whatever I need to to make sure I don't risk offending others. I am not a reactionary and I'm not a Puritan. So please stop with the personal attacks. Some "lactivists" have gone so far as to liken me to a rapist for daring to say that a woman's breast has a sexual connotation and that many sexual predators hunt at the public areas where women would be likely to breastfeed.

This and other personal attacks does Conservatism no good. We're here at FreeRepublic to work for what's best for America. I believe modesty is a critical part of that cultural heritage. Disagreement is fine, but personal attack is not.

[tuffydoodle]

"Why do some people have such a problem with nursing in public? AS LONG AS IT IS DONE DISCRETELY. I, and everyone I know, always nurse with covering, or in a nursing top so nothing is exposed. What is so wrong with that?"

Because people in this country CAN'T MIND THEIR OWN DAMN BUSINESS. They walk around looking for something, anything to be offended by so they can complain. If people don't like seeing a breastfeeding mother, look away. She's not doing it to offend people, she's doing it to feed a hungry baby. Anyone who thinks a mother feeding her baby is doing it simply to offend them, is selfish, narcisstic and thinks the world revolves around them.

[diamond6]

I am so sick of these women who think they can march right into public, pull their shirts down and expose themselves to feed their child and expect everyone to be on board. Everybody wants "their" lifestyle to be accepted, but those people won't accept other's preferences. Selfish. I was in Trader Joes once, and this women didn't even bother to conceal it. Her boob was just hanging right out there in the open. It was disgusting.

I breastfed my child, but I did it in the privacy of my home, and when I had to leave the home, I pumped so someone else could feed him.
Shhheeessshhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enough of this crap already!!!!

[Asphalt]

although I never noticed anyone in Broken Arrow cared

I don't, really. My dad was formula fed, I was nursed. We both came out weird. I don't see that it really makes a huge difference, though women who use bottles or whatever probably have some sort of problem. As for doing it in public, so long as you go off to the side and use a blanket I don't give a darn.

[Triggerhippie]

LOL!

[Ken H]

I think it's below the least they can do, to the point of not being worth the effort. A reduction in pay, a written reprimand in the permanent personnel file, or (if they're incorrigible) an invitation to find another job are some of the options that come to mind for me.

Which of the above options do you think should be applied to the official in this case?

[Asphalt]

well said

[Tax-chick]

When the Catholic Home School Association went to B.A. Central Park, we usually had 4 or 5 nursing moms (and 50 kids or so, total :-). Everyone had nursing clothes - we passed them around as people needed them. Everyone could use a blanket or towel, or sit over in the shade out of the way. "Will you keep an eye on A-F while I go nurse Baby?" We showed a lot less skin than the girls at the pool, or even the girls walking by on the sidewalk.

Some people just take everything to extremes.

[WildTurkey]

But such is definitely not the case with breastfeeding, since women did not receive such anatomical wonders simply to make me break out in thigh sweats; they're meant from the start (the VERY start) for providing nourishment to infants. Any other attributes that may have been ascribed to breasts over the ages are merely superfluous to their intended function and use.

"The evolution of desire may also determine why we look the way we do, and what turns us on. The human breast consists of fat, not milk glands, and breast size varies greatly among human females without affecting their ability to nurse. Thus, the explanation cannot be based on the need to nurse infants. Rather, human female breasts are secondary sexual characteristics that evolved to attract mates. According to Desmond Morris (The Naked Ape, 1967), this took place along with the switch from dogstyle to missionary mating, the pendulous shape and cleavage of the breasts mimicking the previous attractiveness of the female buttocks."