In the way that it is not acceptable to have topless women serve meals or drinks in a public (non-adult entertainment) venue, so neither should others be exposed to breasts and nipples in unexpected places … irrespective of the right to breast feed. (Not that topless venues and breast-feeding has much in common!)

I think that modesty is a small price to pay for the right to breastfeed in public.

There was absolute uproar in the news media and a heap of hate mail to the restaurant. Even a court case about discrimination.

Finally, the general public had its way, and breast feeding was accepted as a natural and healthy activity to be undertaken in public (with reasonable discretion, of course!). Restaurants and other public venues accepted the general public’s desires and not one other restaurant acted negatively from then on.

As a nursing mother, what bothers me about being told to “cover up” or go to a private room is that it implies that what I’m doing is obscene or shameful. It’s based on someone else’s belief that breasts are sexual body parts and should be covered up, lest some person see my breast or nipple and accidentally find it sexually titillating. It comes down to the way breasts have been sexualized in our society, so that their primary function becomes sexual instead of functional.

My breasts ARE functional. That’s all there is to it. When I pull up or down my shirt to allow my son to nurse, I am meeting his needs for food or comfort. I’m not showing breast in a sexual way, as someone who wears a low-cut shirt or a skimpy bikini. I’m not doing it FOR YOU and it’s not ABOUT YOU. It’s about my baby.

Now… tell me, why should I have to go into a private change room, a tiny nursing room off the back of the women’s restroom, or cover myself with a blanket to do this?

http://www.cutajar.net/camille/2008/08/20/breastfeeding/

http://www.wmst.ubc.ca/studentsPhDStudents.html