Breastfeeding

Hmmm. This discussion (which I read part of after it was linked to here) got me thinking.

I personally find breastfeeding actively disgusting. I think it’s because it’s such a tactile thing – it’s like watching someone eat, where it makes me think of what it must feel like. As a result, seeing a woman breastfeeding makes me actively imagine a baby latching onto me – something which frankly, kind of creeps me out. {{{shudder}}} Or it makes me actively imagine being the baby… which leads into all sorts of weird Freudian places. Yikes. It’s the same way I find… I dunno, a guy scratching his balls to be gross (I don’t want to think about how some random guy’s balls feel!).
Now, I’m not down with making it illegal to breastfeed in public, any more than I think it should be illegal to scratch your balls in public. That’s just… incredibly pedantic.
But you know, I reserve the right to frown a bit and actively look away, and say things to my friends like, “yecch, that woman is breastfeeding over there,” the same way I would say, “yecch, that guy just scratched his balls!” What makes nursing worse, mind you, is that it goes on longer.
I think what it really comes down to is this: nursing Moms don’t want to have their lives interrupted by having to arrange their schedules around feeding their offspring in private. But you know what? having a baby completely changes your life and makes you have to rearrange your schedule. It’s like… you should get a babysitter, not take your eight-year-old to see The Omen (yeah, I was at a theater for that movie and there were little kids there). Same way, you should either pump or whatever so you have a bottle handy for your kid or make sure you’ll be home when it needs to feed. It’s not like someone forced you to have the baby (well, I suppose that could happen, but the women who are bitching about nursing being slightly taboo had a choice).