Oh, so you’re saying that you can’t explain why you feel that way about it, OK, fair enough then.
Lelevencfr, let’s hear an explanation of this principle of yours. How many people need to be offended by saomething before it’s officially rude? At what point does your being demonstrably offended itself become rude?
I, for example, might be offended by folks with bad skin. Shall I ask such folks not to come to restaurants while I’m eating there? Or I might be offended by women not wearing head scarves, or I might be offended by people who talk about politics at the next table over, or I might be offended about people who eat meat.
Surely you’ll agree that nobody needs to take my hypersensitive ass into consideration when deciding whether to wear a head scarf, discuss politics, or eat meat at a restaurant. If I go up to someone who’s ordered a steak at a fancy restaurant and say, “I’m sorry, but I hate watching people eat the flesh of dead, factory-farmed animals; would you mind ordering a salad instead?” they’ve got every right to tell me to fuck off. And if they tell me to fuck off, they’re not being inconsiderate selfish boors; rather, they’re justifiably ignoring a stupid and rude request.
Near as I can tell, that’s what a breastfeeding woman does when she ignores someone’s request for her not to breastfeed at a restaurant. The person making the request is being stupid and rude. Even, I’d say, stupider and ruder than the anti-steak person, since the latter is at least motivated (however misguided) by an ethical concern, whereas the anti-breastfeeder is motivated by at best an aesthetic concern.
Explain to me what you see as the difference between these two.
And try real hard not to be such a self-righteous smarmy prat: your OP makes you sound like an utter ass.
Daniel
Now you’re being silly - they can’t change that.
If I was discussing something really gross and someone asked me to keep my voice down/change the subject - it then falls to me to decide a) if its a valid request and b) how much inconvenience to me would it be to maintain harmony and change the subject even if it isn’t a ‘valid’ request in that I am legally entitled to talk about the autopsy I performed earlier on the body found floating in the river after 6 weeks.
If you asked the waiter to come over and ask me that - even if I wasn’t discussing something gross I sure as hell wouldn’t ask for an apology from the restaurant!! I wouldn’t bleat on about my rights under (apologies to any Americans/lawyers if I get this next bit wrong) the first Amendment.
At the risk of sounding like an utter ass :dubious: I think the woman in this example is the problem. Yes she has every right to breastfeed. Yes she can do it where she wants. No society shouldn’t have a problem with it. But she, like Equipose obviouslt believes its somebody else’s problem™ (Credit to Douglas Adams on this one) and there is no need for her to even consider the fact that it has obviously upset someone and can she reach a compromise. And I’ll bet a $1 to .01c that there were others who were uncomfortable but didn’t say anything.
Do something in a public place and you should take into account the views of the public. Some of them aren’t going to like me talking about weighing peoples brains whilst I’m in a restaurant but rather than do it because legally I can I choose not to.
Then they’re being rude.
In their opinion! To the one that asked the question (in this example you) it was a reasonable request. That’s a lot of the problem - people who have different views must have stupid views. Since I’m probably not on your Xmas card list anyway - its people like you who dismiss other viewpoints as rude or stupid that help breed the intolerance. Of course I’ll take that back if your post was purely hypothetical 
Why is it stupid and rude? Is it because they don’t agree with you? Did they wander over and shout at her? How was the request phrased to make it rude?
Is that better?
Would that apply to feeding a baby formula out of a bottle, or a jar of baby food as well?
Fortunatly, even though BK’s policy may be “no outside food,” their policy is overridden by federal law saying that she can. 
Better, kiddo, but still not there yet.
Note that you changed my hypothetical from discussing politics to discussing brains. Why? Why don’t you answer my question as asked? Is it because when it’s discussing the local city council election you personally don’t consider it “really gross,” and you consider breastfeeding to be “really gross,” and you can’t step outside your own worldview enough to see that other people may have a different aesthetic than you?
Obviously, different people have different opinions. Here’s the thing, though: I’m not required to take everyone’s opinions into consideration. Or, rather, I’m perfectly justified in ignoring stupid opinions and ridiculous requests.
Do I judge what constitutes a stupid opinion and a ridiculous request? Of course I do! Who else could make that judgment for me? Note, however, that I do try to base my judgments on facts, on context, on social mores; nobody has advanced an interesting or sound argument in favor of the idea that requesting private breastfeeding is a non-rude act.
Note the weird self-referential aspect of your argument: you say the problem is the idea that “people who have different views must have stupid views.” And yet in your OP, you lambast people whose view is that they needn’t worry about those who dislike public breastfeeding. Their view is different from yours; how do you respond to that difference? By insulting them and being generally nasty to them.
Practicing what you preach is a generally wise idea.
Daniel
Wrong, fucktard. The uptight fuckhead with the titty hangup is being rude by demanding that a mother not feed her baby. The fuckhead’s “views” are completely irrelevant and worthless is this situation. It’s akin to saying that interracial couples should not go out in public because they might offend racists.
There is nothing offensive or inappropriate about breastfeeding. Any notion that it is inappropriate comes from maladapative social conditioning and not from any legitimate or rational sensibility.
You don’t like seeing a booby? Here’s a clue, moron…DON"T FUCKING STARE AT IT!!!
Uhm, sorry but being a total stranger, you don’t know me better than myself. When I say that I’m not opposed to breast-feeding becomming more acceptable, I mean it.
And apparently you didn’t read much of what I wrote. I said that I would never tell a breast-feeding woman to stop or take it elsewhere. I also said that as long as the woman is being descrete, then I don’t see a problem.
While I’m not repulsed by a woman descretely breast-feeding her baby, I wouldn’t say that others who do are cretens. I’d say that they’re more, misguided. But that’s just my opinion.
Thanks, but I do know the literal translation, but felt that he was implying that I was one too. Actually, after my reply to him, I thought it over and realized that I may have been reading more into his post than what he ment. My mistake.
Federal law? I must have missed something. What federal law gives her the right to breastfeed in a Burger King?
I just have a disconnect about the whole thing. Here’s my line of thinking:
Toddlers and adults use utensils, hands, and mouths to eat. That’s what they’re there for.
People who have one of a variety of heath problems have NG tubes to help them eat. That’s what they’re there for.
Women who have recently given birth have these things called breasts that dispense a nutritious substance to their children. Despite their aesthetic value or fun in other ways, their primary purpose is to feed their children.
I don’t expect people to wear long veils over their faces to hide their mastication (though it would be nice for the people who haven’t grasped the concept of chewing with their mouths closed). I don’t expect people with NG tubes who are out for a special occasion to be banished to the bathroom. So why should nursing mothers have to do that?
My stepmother nursed my brother for quite a while (couple years, I think). I was 11-12 at the time, and although at first I was a bit uncomfortable (mostly 'cause I was a clueless kid who didn’t know what to do), I got over it really quickly. When I see other nursing mothers, it’s no big deal. I just honestly do not understand what is the problem with some of the anti-breastfeeding in public posters.
I am fairly certain that the vast majority of nursing mothers will have no difficulty being discrete, though I suspect that there will be a few with psychological issues such that they cannot conceptualise themselves as distinct individuals.
[hijack] It’s spelled DISCREET! Please, everybody. This one isn’t all that hard. [/hijack]
I don’t understand what anti-breastfeeding people are going on about, since babies have to eat. It’s that simple. Whatever other functions a breast has, that’s the main one.
I honestly read the post above yours as Lilairen suggesting that certain mothers would separate themselves from the collective, uniform standards of society; that they acted as they did because they behaved independently. "Discrete"
But I guess the other way makes sense, too.
Then again, stu, maybe that’s exactly the joke she was making.:o
While I’m a strong opponent of the “right not to be offended” I also don’t think that mothers breastfeeding should get special treatment, in some way deciding that one boob display is for a “better” or more virtuous purpose than another. Either topless boobs are okay in public all the time, or not.
Breast feeding boobs are not topless! They generaly have a nipple flashed for a minute till baby attaches. The whole boob is not flashed about with gay abandon nor are both boobs flashes at all.
(If I knew how to use the smilies, I’d do the one smacking itself in the forhead)
Sorry, not federal law. State law in 38 states. Typing too fast and making stupid mistakes, yet again.
I’ve seen a couple of other versions of it in this thread. I try not to be a spelling nazi, but occasionally I just can’t stand it.
When a woman has a baby and elects to breastfeed, in very short order her breast ceases to have erotic connotations for her. I started to call mine “flesh-colored feedbags.” When I’d whip out a tit (read: expose enough of it for the baby to latch on to nipple and not sweatshirt), it never crossed my mind that I was making a public erotic display. I was feeding the baby.
This is the best essay I have ever seen on breastfeeding. www.hipmama.com/features/gwenbreast.html+gwen+breast+trailer+trash+page&hl=en&ie=UTF-8"]I had to find it cached on Google.
Good stuff.