Pages

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Nursing in Public: Women's right or bad taste?

A radio show link is being spread on facebook. This women Lisa Rollins went on a major bitch-fest on air on her thoughts on breastfeeding in public.Apparently she went to a Chic-fil-A with her family when her daughter asked if she was nursing her baby. Here are just a few of my thoughts on the radio clip.

TO HEAR THIS DISGUSTING RADIO SHOWS ONE HOST BAD MOUTH NURSING IN PUBLIC CLICK HERE AND START LISTENING AT ABOUT 5 MINUTES AND 50 SECONDS IN.

Edited to add a link to a transcript to the 1st 10 or so minutes. Keep in mind there was much more to this:




Does 106.3 FM Support Breastfeeding Mothers?





"My daughter knows how much I hate" breastfeeding in public.
We need to be teaching our children about breastfeeding. Even if it is not for everyone, everyone should know that it is the healthiest way to feed a baby. Yes there are different circumstances for each and every child, but our children need to know how important breastfeeding is.

This woman repeated numerous times that nothing was exposed. She said nursing mothers should stay at home.
Nope that won't work honey. I have older children as well. They, nor I, want to stay cooped up in the house, especially during the summer, just to keep narrow-minded people like you happy.


Lisa said this mother obviously drove there and should have fed the baby in the car.
Yep driving while breastfeeding is definitely better than nursing discreetly in a family restaurant.
Or in a parked car at 100+ degrees.


Supposedly this woman is supposed to be so against the government taking away our human rights, yet goes on to say there should be laws against this.
In most states there are laws. For breastfeeding mothers. We have the right to feed our children when and where we want.


Mother's should pump and bring a bottle.
1. Not all babies will even take a bottle.
2. Not all mothers can afford a pump.


Nursing mothers should take their hungry child into the restroom.
Yes. Let's expose our infants, whose immune system isn't quite up to par with the rest of us to all the fecal matter and bacteria. According to one study, there is fecal matter all over every single surface of the bathroom. Hundreds times more in a public restroom.
And what about us with other children? I can't just leave my 4 and 2 year old at the table while I go into the restroom to feed my daughter. And I am certainly not going to bring them in with me, exposing them to that crap. (Pun intended) Plus, they'd suffer being cooped in a bathroom for 10, 15, 20 minutes.


Even if your not exposing yourself, your attracting attention.
So effing what? Let me attract attention. If more mothers would feed their children in public we wouldn't have so many narrow-minded people like you. 
I still don't get how this is not discreet or how this is in bad taste or bad manners, or attracting attention:


Photobucket

"There's no excuse for not being prepared enough and nursing your baby before leaving the house."
I almost always nurse my daughter before leaving the house. But I am not going to limit my time away from home to prevent others from possibly noticing my feeding my child. Sometimes, my daughter isn't hungry before leaving. Sometimes she wants to nurse again shortly after feeding. You can't just base everything on time. Sorry my child doesn't follow the clock.

Even if baby is covered by a blanket, that is still not discreet enough for her.
How much more discretion does this damn woman want?

"I wish people would have enough pride to not expose themselves to others. It's something others can find objectionable"
Yep, I have no pride because I chose to give my daughter the absolute best start.
I find girls with their thongs hanging out objectionable.
I find guys with their pants around their thighs objectionable.
I find "larger" people in clothes that don't cover their stomachs objectionable.
There will always be something in public someone doesn't like. This is why we have the right and ability to look away. If you really find it that gross to see a woman, who is showing no skin, feed her child, look away. Is it that hard? And does it really warrant a spot on the radio of you complaining about it. And to put this woman on the spot, by stating the date and location of where this occured? Sick, Lisa. Sick.

"If you wouldn't breastfeed in the front pew at church..."
If I went to church, and my daughter was with me and hungry...You can bet your fat ass I'd feed her their. How much more family oriented can you get than a church?

Every time a caller would question her, she would hide behind the, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and this is mine." line. 
Yes, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But we all don't host radio shows and share our opinions. Not only share them but also belittle those who do what we don't agree with. I do not go on air stating those who chose not to breastfeed are selfish, distasteful, provocative, have bad manners, etc. etc. 
Fine, you don't agree with it. Considering you knew how much this was going to offend nursing mothers, which you stated in this segment, you shouldn't have brought it up on air.

You claim this was about freedom. Women have the freedom to decide whether or not they breastfeed. And those who do choose to breastfeed have the freedom to do so where their child is hungry. And those who find it "in bad taste" have the freedom to simply look away.





Is this really that offensive?

 Photobucket





Breastfeeding, regardless where done, is nothing short of beautiful and empowering.



Edited to add:
There is a lot of talk about this segment being spread all over the WWW.
Just read some crap from the radio stations facebook page.
My close friend had something to say about it as well over at Rachel Likes to Ramble.
Code Name: Mama has been doing a week long Carnival  of Nursing in Public and is where I found the transcript..
The Nursing Freedom blog shared with readers their email response to the radio station.
There are numerous topics on this being spread all over parenting, breastfeeding, and the like web-forums and message boards. Just do a search on the Justmommies boards and you will see quite a few. I know I personally have replied to a few.
The Covered Wagon covers what the laws are in Lisa Rollin's great state of South Carolina.
Hugamonkey shared her email which is from the baby's point of view.

Just go to google and type in Lisa Rollins Breastfeeding and you will be amazed at all the protests against her putting down and being so rude about us nursing mothers.
According to the Radio Station, they will NOT be issuing an apology.


Yes. Lisa Rollins is very much so entitled to her opinion. What she needs to know is, when you are in the public eye, your opinion can drastically effect the people being objected to it. Her rant would not have caused such a heated online protest by thousands of women if she just stated her opinion by saying she say a nursing mother and thought it was gross. Yes, it may have bothered some, but it would not be causing this much anger. 

The cause of this anger is because of how rude, uneducated, uninformed she was. This anger is caused by her continuing to go on and on and on, followed by defending herself because she is entitled to her opinion. This anger is because when listeners would state their opinions on why nursing in public is okay, and why people like her are why breastfeeding is not nearly as normal as it is in the grand ol' United States of America, she would just cut them off. "Well that's your opinion and this is mine." She might as well not even taken the calls.


Thank goodness for Lonzo filling in for Russ that day and calling her out on how contradicting this woman was.


To make a complaint against this segment or let them know how and why you agree you can email:
Bob McLain (bmclain (at) entercom (dot) com). 
Lisa Rollins herself (lrollins (at) entercom (dot) com)
Or Call:  864-271-9200






Edited again to add blog hop code; We'd love to have any mothers who want to protest to join in!

2 comments:

  1. I got banned from the radio stations FB fan page. lol Lisa's comments are so degrading to women. Keep up the campaign, more women need to learn to feel no shame for feeding their babies!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the comment Rebecca. I too, as well as a few good friends were banned as well.

    We are doing a blog hop. It is linked in my next two posts regarding NIP. Please share with mommy bloggers you may know!

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails