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.
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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.
well, here in Tulsa, "Hooters" is next to "Cox Cable".
I support allowing women to breastfeed in public, but I also support the rights of property owners to set their own policies, even if they may be ones I disagree with.
The following is not a good argument to support breastfeeding in public, however: ""The human race wouldn't exist without breast milk," said nursing mom Rachel Tarbutton." The human race wouldn't exist without sexual intercourse either, but most stores discourage it on their property....
When our granddaughter was born, I went to WA to be with them. Our daughter had been on bedrest for 2 months so she was ready to go out when I got there to help with our grandson who was 2. We went to a very nice restaurant and our granddaughter started crying. She used a blanket to cover herself and fed the baby. No one was the wiser. I just do not understand all of this venom about feeding a baby the way God intended.
Sorry, off-topic
When you are in a check out lane it is hard not to see them. I do look away just like the complainers on this thread should do when they see a baby being fed the natural way. Works 2 ways, doesn't it?
Shoot! anyone could get fed at Nelson's. And the old cook woulda told anyone who was offended by breast-feeding to not look or get the heck out!
BTW: Nelson Rogers promises that the restaurant will return, but it probably won't be downtown.
"Any comment I would have said would have been in regard to the conflicting message sent to men in society. One says that breasts are a part of a woman's sexual anatomy. The other, more recent, is that it is merely a feeding device."
Recently a woman's breasts were seen as merely a feeding device? Is that what you meant? Recently? As far as I know, women's breasts have been feeding babies since the beginning of time. Formula didn't always exist.
Men made women's breasts sexual, women didn't do that.
"I don't believe it is right to yank men around like that. And I don't think it is safe given the number of men with uncontrolled libidos..."
You sound like a rapist. I bet you think it's the rape victim's fault because she was wearing a miniskirt. Guy couldn't control his libido, doncha know.
we can have Hooters and we can have naked women more or less on billboards, but hell no, we can't have no stinking mother feeding her hungry child.....
hypocrisy!
No. She's a professor of art and criticism in Philadelphia.
She's the bane of mainstream feminists because of her original perspective on the role of a sexuality in society.
You need to get out more.
Don't bother. Camille Paglia is a nutbag. Just an opinion.
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