I am going to preface this post with a disclaimer. This may not be popular opinion. I feel everyone is entitled to expressing themselves in their own way and I say to each their own. This is my opinion and my opinion alone. Take it or leave it.
Unless you have been living under a rock you have probably heard about Target "discriminating" against a women for breastfeeding in their store. From the woman's account, her child was fussy and needed to be fed so she pushed her cart next to a display and sat down on the floor to breastfeed her baby. You can read the full story at Best for Babies here.
Now, there are so many things I have to say about this issue. First, I support public breastfeeding . I fed my daughter in public numerous times (even in a Target store) and feel any woman should have a right to feed her baby in public; however, I hate reading stories like this one.
This once happened here at a local coffee shop. A woman said that she and a group of her friends were told to move to a back room because they were breastfeeding. This outraged everyone and so a nurse-in was scheduled. After a big hoopla and a nurse-in at the establishment, another non-bias patron with no affiliation to the coffee shop came forward and said "the women were not asked to move because they were breastfeeding. They were asked to move because a couple women were changing poopy diapers on the couch where other patrons could see and it was making other guests leave the shop". So the issue was not breastfeeding, it was a poopy diaper. The shop then acknowledged that they need to put a diaper changing station in the restroom. The did this and everyone lived happily every after. So what does this have to do with Target?
First, this is one person's account of the incident. We have no other means to back the story up other than this one woman's account. I am not saying this woman is lying. She could very well be telling the complete truth. However, when a person gets mad, things can get exaggerated especially in situations like this. We could very well see more information at a later date. The woman also claims to have called Target's customer service line and that she got this response when she said that as a woman she had the legal right to feed her baby wherever she saw fit.
The lady (I wish I would have gotten her name) told me that she and Target were aware of our legal rights as nursing mothers, but that Target has different policies because they are a family friendly public place.I can not for one second believe this. I just can't. I can not imagine ANY company telling a person we know what we are doing is illegal but we are going to keep on doing it. Not likely.
One issue is the woman was sitting in the floor. This can be a hazard to others around her and to herself and her baby. She could easily have been hit by a cart or stepped on by someone not seeing her. Now if the Target employees just had said "this is not safe please move to another location" that would have been great and dandy. The issue comes because according to this woman's account they told her she had to go to the dressing room and that they would cite her for indecent exposure if she didn't.
If the story is completely true and the woman was treated this way, that is very unfortunate. However, I do not think it is an issue with Target. This is an issue with a couple stupid employees. Yes, unfortunately, Target is responsible for its employees, but given the timing of this issue it could have been holiday help or temp help. No excuse for their poor behavior, but Target has a policy that states women can not be discriminated against for breastfeeding. Employees are supposed to follow this policy, but if they don't all Target can do is reprimand or fire the employee. It does not mean that Target is an anti-breastfeeding company. It means that these two silly employees where ignorant to breastfeeding.
So who is to blame? Society! We have groups like Best for Babies who are outraged over this incident saying that women should have the right to breastfeed anywhere anytime (I agree). They scheduled "nurse-ins" across the nation at various Targets to make a stand for these moms and their babies. However, I feel they are really off target (haha no pun intended) with this one. Nurse-ins are when a group of women get together and simultaneously feed their babies at the designated location showing that they have a right to do so. They are peaceful protests.
But what do they really do? Target is already having to do damage control because of the issue and with blogs and women online things like this travel at lightening speed, so Target is suffering. The nurse-in, in my opinion, will do nothing but add to our society's already messed up opinion of breastfeeding mothers. They can view this type of protest as a "cliche" of "crazy" women or it can just be seen as something to laugh off. Target's corporate office is already feeling the heat, so what good does this do?
If someone is ignorant enough to do this to a woman (like these employees) they are not going to be moved by a protest of a large group of breastfeeding women. It just isn't going to happen. Instead of being outraged over Target being unable to control a couple of its thousands of employees to follow a policy they have on breastfeeding, we would be better to focus our energy on why a large corporation like this NEEDS a policy on breastfeeding? Last time I checked, when I started lactating I did not become medically inept, or unhuman. Why do I as a breastfeeding mother need a "special" policy?? This is what should outrage us!!
The reason is that society views breastfeeding mothers as people who need to be tiptoed around. It is because society looks at breastfeeding like some foreign unnecessary practice. It is because society sees breasts as purely sexual. We need to take our energy and focus it on all the positives of breastfeeding. If breastfeeding became the "norm" then there would be no need for "special" policies for a breastfeeding mother.
That is my opinion on the subject and I welcome any disagreements. What is your take on these situations?
Added after a few messages:
Yes this is getting media coverage, but is that good? Even if it gets media coverage and even if every business in the United States made a stringent policy stating women can breastfeed in any manner, place, time they wish irregardless of circumstance, would that be enough? The answer is simply NO!! I could care less what "corporate policies" are on breastfeeding. All the corporate policy under the sun doesn't change public opinion or stigma. The bigger issue is why a person (these employees or people in general public) feel it is okay to treat a breastfeeding mother this way. Until that is addressed all the policy in the world will make no difference. Things will be right when there are no policies because the majority of employees would never dream of treating a breastfeeding mother differently than anyone else.
