Posted on 04/30/2005 5:56:16 AM PDT by tuffydoodle
Nursing mom gets unwelcome reception
FW mall says security firm made a mistake
10:37 PM CDT on Friday, April 29, 2005
By KARIN KELLY / WFAA-TV
For many mothers, breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world.
But it turned into an embarassing situation that angered a North Texas woman this week after she said a mall security guard harassed her.
Adrian Sparks was shopping at Hulen Mall Thursday, and decided to discreetly nurse her eight-month-old baby under a blanket in the food court.
Also Online
Karin Kelly reports "The security guard came over and asked me to stop, and either go to the restroom or to leave," Sparks said.
The guard told Sparks a food court customer had complained, even though Sparks was covered with a blanket.
"I told him it was perfectly legal for me to nurse my child," Sparks said. "And that they sell clothes more revealing that what I was doing right here."
Of course, it is legal - but soon another manager approached.
"He said, 'well those rules don't apply because we're a private facility,'" she recalled.
Friends who breastfeed have rushed in for support.
"The human race wouldn't exist without breast milk," said nursing mom Rachel Tarbutton.
Some are members of La Leche League, an organization that supports mother's milk for health and bonding benefits..
"To know that she is getting everything she needs from me, from my body, is (important)," Sparks said.
Mall officials said the incident was not normal procedure, and that t heir new security company made a mistake.
"That is not a Hulen Mall policy," said manager Kevin Davies. " We support what she was doing, we support moms and all of our customers, and feel badly this occurred."
That's not all that reassuring for Sparks, though.
"I don't think I'll ever be able to shop there again, because I was just so upset about it," she said.
Good grief - it's what moms and babies do. The baby needs lunch, too.
Well, in that case, the act is certainly natural. What is unsettling is the product produced. If a nursing mom were to go spraying about...
Two words: Earth Mother.
Thanks for the kind words, y'all!
I'm taking so much heat for my stance that it's actually spilled over onto another forum.
FReepers will be glad to know that the other forum is actually calling me worse names than what I've been called here.
Be proud, FReepers! You've provided DUmmie Funnie-like material for conservative bottom-feeding sites! Way to go!
Actually, all I need to do is call my sister, who has a three-year-old daughter and one-year-old twin girls, what their schedule is.
The customer is always right.
So that's seven of us, and ALL of them. I don't think we're gonna win.
I'll type louder. That seems to help when outnumbered.
THANK YOU for saying that, and I hope you don't get flamed like I have.
Wouldn't it? A punk band, I think.
The "if you don't like it don't look" ruse used has always amused me no end. If a woman is truly discreet about nursing, no one knows. That's IT. And the thing about it being so "natural". Yep, La Leche league at its best... lol. Well, DUH! There are lots of things which are natural we don't do in public. Then plan B arises: SHREEK! YOU GONNA EQUATE *THAT* TO FEEDING A STARVING CHILD!" ROFL!@!!
All of it is activist crapola.
Nursing children is a truly wonderful thing. And I've helped other mothers learn to nurse, over the years: on demand, on schedule -- what works for mother and baby AND FAMILY AND SOCIETY. I've been maligned so many times over this issue -- I'm amused when it happens all over again. I think you should be amused too.
For when all is said and done.. you'll be witnessing "boobs" on display and screeching, and ad homineming ANYONE who dares DISAGREE with their opinion. You see, boobs feeding babies in public is natural: but voicing dissent against public display of this act is UNNATURAL-- is the political directive.
Ever been in a room full of nursing moms who are into liberal politics? You don't ever wanna be.. It's astounding.. talking about "nurturing" infants, hating men, hating republicans.. and all the while feeding the "milk of motherhood" to infants. It gives new meaning to "twisted sisters".
Please come over here and tell Alia how wrong she is.
Alia has had children, so her opinion - unlike mine - might actually carry some weight with you.
Or not, since she disagrees with you.
It seems... the THRUST of their POINTS is dominance. Using "boobs" in a political manner. This is not about the art of breastfeeding, then, is it.
Women who are this screechy about "breastfeeding in public" are usually ones who tend to take advantage of vulnerable first-time breastfeeding mothers.
You don't need to type "louder", Xenalyte. Your points were well made. That your detractors had to resort to ad hominem, and so quickly! is saying much loud and clear. What it says is that at some level they feel a certain "shame" but instead of dealing with it they are resorting to massive offense/defense tactics. If they were truly clear about "breastfeeding in public" they wouldn't be bothered at all by conflicting opinions on the subject.
The ad hominem and personal attacks, then, come more from a "politics of breastfeeding" position.
It cracks me up when women use their breasts for political reasons and then decry any who "call them on using their breasts for political reasons". lol. But don't you dare voice an opinion!! This is about a woman's right to bare her breasts! It's natural! It's organic! And if you've got a problem it's only because... drum roll.. you are an uptight prude. It's as if some women keep displaying their breasts in order to fight a mantra they live by. Feel no shame! Display your boobs! I got to watch this whole schmilla grow in the San Francisco Bay Area.. from public breastfeeding to public nude protests, to topless dancing in Berkeley, to Nudie Breasters in Boston confronting passengers getting off at a metro station. It's all linked and the only ones who don't get it are duped "adherents".
It's okay to be heavily pro-breastfeeding. But it's not for every woman or every man.
Next time? I suggest direct confrontation if this issue comes up again. Try this one: "Stop using your breasts as a political statement".
You want flames? You wanna see some of the most fascinating invectives directed towards you? lol.
Have fun with this issue and because it is not about the baby. It's about the "mommy" and her "rights".
Anyone truly clear about this issue is not going to resort to calling you names or casting personal aspersions.
Tuffydoodle: There is indeed an "art to breastfeeding". But when you breastfeed in public, you are inviting others into the act. They may not wish to be. And save the standard "issue" rhetoric for someone who isn't aware yet of the agenda in the "art of breastfeeding". I think it is perfectly okay for someone who has not had children to opine on this subject of "breastfeeding". I can't understand why you object to Xenalyte's opining. After all, you by public post have invited her into the conversation, no? The same holds for breastfeeding in public. Whether you like or disagree with it.
I am reminded of like subjects -- and they all tend to fall into the "politics of breastfeeding" arguments.
Republicans having their pro-Bush/Cheney signs torn down during the election cycle. That was okay by democrats asserting that since the signs were "in public" they were fair game. But goodness, landlords hanging a battered soldiers' uniform from a rentor's home wasn't fair game according to the same liberal "ideology". Just ask the ACLU who plays by the "art of breastfeeding" semantics and strategies all the time.
Where the "if you don't like it don't look" falls apart? Is when it comes to people finding the Public act of breastfeeding objectionable. If you don't like what they have to say; don't read it; don't listen to it; don't respond. The political "breastfeeders" can't abide by their very own semantical rules.
Damnit ya'll,,,I missed a good thread. But I have been busy over on the Runaway Bride threads.
Ya'll have to start pinging me to the breast feeding threads, I have opinions!
"Expression" of dissent, in their rule book, is hateful and warrants personal attacks. Doesn't take a psychology degree to explain the nursing mom who employ this tactic in online "verbal" discourse...um.. "verbal expression".
To the ardent and in public breastfeeders: You don't like the online dissent? Don't read 'em! What's good for the breast is also good for the opinion.
Xena, you know how much I know about these issues given my expertise on the panty threads. You need to ping me on this issue if it comes up again. Underpants and breastfeeding are closely related.
Wow, had you woken up thinking you'd be flamed for saying THAT?
Your flamers want it both ways.
They want to say "It's OK to do in public because it's natural."
You point out, undeniably, "Elimination is natural too, but it isn't OK to do in public."
Rather than abandoning or refining the "natural" argument, they attack you -- rather viciously -- for pointing out its insufficiency.
Sad.
Dan
I cannot believe I didn't get you and XSM into this. It is TOTALLY a matter of public propriety.
But I've already been told I'm not allowed to voice an opinion on the subject, never having had a child to breast-feed.
(I shall also henceforth be silent on abortion threads, since I never had one of those. And on the Runaway Bride threads, since I plan to go through with my wedding.)
If you can start out at the very beginning of life with your newborn with a set of solid standards, you will fare well. How do you explain to a toddler that showing one's breast in public to "feed a baby" is okay; but somehow tell that same child that peeing in public is not okay? Or fondling themselves, or farting.
The hysterical pinpoint comes in when breastfeeding activists do the doosie hysterium rhetoric of "you are comparing breastfeeding to *THOSE ACTS*.
Yes.
Children observe from all points around themselves.
I'm ranting, using your post, cajungirl -- hoping new mothers will read.
How's the runaway bride thread going? I think she should pay for all those law enforcement expenses! ;)
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