The Lactation Room. Boulder, Colorado, 2015
Oh, the hang-ups we Americans have in this country! People elsewhere in this big world are so much more comfortable with their bodies and what those human bodies tend to do–things like pee, pooh, vomit, bleed, get sick, get old, fart…and, yes, give milk to newborn babies.
You’d think that mothers would get a pass, even in this Puritanical society, given that they have miraculously just brought into this world a new human bean and that cute little bean needs nutrition at regular intervals, current societal norms be damned.
But, no. Apparently, there are still some who are offended by the sight of a nursing mother in public, even if she is careful to do so under a pink or blue baby blanket. And maybe there are mothers who feel uncomfortable nursing in public precisely because of these old-fashioned attitudes.
What is it that offends the no-nursing-in-public faction? If it awakens some “prurient interest” that certainly says a whole lot more about the observer than it does the new mother, dontcha think?
So, I was amazed to find that, even in this ultra-liberal bubble of Boulder, Colorado, that these attitudes live on–the above image coming from a local high-cost, progressive, organic, fashionable, grocery store (where, it is said, you can easily blow an entire paycheck in one visit).
I would suspect–and hope–that at some time in the near future such things will go the way of separate water fountains for whites and people of color.
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