Crushing moral values
Op-ed: By nursing in public in name of liberalism, mothers are restricting other people's freedom
The mothers, who are demanding to be allowed to nurse in public, initiated a Facebook protest among other things. Hundreds of women answered the call enthusiastically, changing their profile pictures to personal topless photos in which they are seen posing as they breastfeed in different levels of exposure. By doing so they forced their worldview on me, while sanctifying fine values like liberalism and personal freedom, and basically restricted my own freedom.
I feel embarrassed watching the bare breasts of a woman I just sat down with for a distance-filled work meeting. I feel equally embarrassed and uncomfortable when a woman sitting 20 centimeters away from me pulls out her breast at a café, mall or bus stop. It's my right to feel that way.
Even if the nursing mothers find me to be conservative, unenlightened and a party pooper, my right to conservatism is not inferior to their right to breastfeed in public. We share a public space, and there is a joint ownership over it. Most of my forced interactions with those supporting public breastfeeding end in me politely shifting my glance or just moving away so as not to invade the intimate space of the nursing woman. That way, the freedom seeking breastfeeding woman invaded my space, took control of it and excluded me.
Pot calling the kettle black
The fundamental problem here is not public breastfeeding – yes or no. It's not even fundamental: There is no link between nursing and publicity. I am much more frustrated by the shallowness and fanaticism, which are the essence of the argument. Every now and then a noisy sector rises and demands privileges in the name of beautiful and acceptable values: Pluralism, equality, multiculturalism, democracy and justice. In the absolute majority of claims, it is the pot calling the kettle black.
Never mind if the current demand is to operate buses on Shabbat, radical vegetarianism, challenging the freedom of expression, canceling homework or breastfeeding in public. These demands are ideological and stem from a value-based agenda just like the list of demands presented by Rihanna before her Israel concert for 10 rooms, crackers, a mango and a vase of roses reflect an ideological stance. It's just a whim.
Tolerance and containment are not fulfilled by having each person do as they like. That's called anarchism, or just selfishness. Breastfeeding in public is neither good nor bad. A baby doesn’t care if he is nursed in the middle of a mall, at a side corner or on an Italian couch. He's just hungry.
Behind the magnificent pretense of freedom and rights hides a less photogenic truth: The freedom of the baby's mother to walk around the mall and do whatever she wants without caring what anyone else thinks. Instead of boasting freedom or a feminist ideology, the breastfeeding mothers can just put on a nursing cover. That way they will be able to fulfill the following splendid value: Human dignity and liberty to wander with their natural baby in malls and cafés without depriving other women of their right to feel embarrassed in front of a bare breast.
