I was walking around the mall last weekend and noticed that a section of stores were blocked off to prepare for a new shop to open. On the white plywood walls of the divider were larger-than-life glossy photos of smiling women in bras, all with quite a bit of their breasts showing.

Another Victoria’s Secret is Coming Soon!

Contrast that with all the news stories about breastfeeding moms being attacked or marginalized for nursing their babies because a part of their breasts was showing in public and it made people around them uncomfortable.

I’ll say it again… a part of their breasts was showing in public and it made people around them uncomfortable.

When a mom nurses a baby she’s escorted out of the restaurant by armed police officers and accused of being a terrorist.

In America a mom who uses her breasts for what nature intended is considered dangerous and obscene.

But an almost naked woman with her arched back, her breasts thrust forward, and a lascivious smile on her face on a billboard at the mall? She’s considered sexy.

Our culture (with the full support of the media) believes that a breast as a sexual object trumps a breast as a source of nourishment.

Here are some of those stories:

When breastfeeding moms post photographs of nursing on the Internet, the photos are reported as inappropriate and removed.

A lifeguard chastised a mom nursing her baby at the local pool , “We don’t allow breastfeeding on deck; you can go in the locker room.”

Or how about Holly McNish’s fabulous spoken word piece, Embarrassed about being shamed into breast feeding in bathroom stalls:

“I thought it was OK.
I could understand the reasons.
They said: there might be a man or nervous child seeing this small piece of flesh that they weren’t quite expecting.
So I whispered and tiptoed with nervous discretion.
But after 6 months of her life sat sitting on lids,
Sipping on milk, nostrils sniffing on piss,
Trying not to bang her head on toilet roll dispensers,
I wonder if these public loo feeds offend her,
‘Cause I’m getting tired of discretion and being polite.
My baby’s first sips are drown-drenched in shite…”

Breasts – partially covered – feeding an infant are obscene and cause too much discomfort for onlookers. (Couldn’t they just look away?)

Breasts – partially covered – selling bras in photos enlarged to twice life-size are just fine.

Stop back tomorrow to hear more about Breastfeeding in America and who we really are …

Cornelia Mazzan is a birth doula, childbirth educator. She breastfed her daughter for 2.5 years and has some “funny” stories about how people reacted.