Argumentative Essay: Does Public Breastfeeding Debate

. Public breastfeeding has recently become a topic of debate but the underlying issues seem to find their way to the surface when looking at this particular issue. Public breastfeeding doesn’t isn’t just about women who want to nurse their children outside of the home without any repercussions; breastfeeding presents itself as yet another incidence of where our values lie and how we, as a society, make it our job to control women’s behaviors, shame women, and sexualize women. Women are often criticized for what they do and breastfeeding is a prime example. Breastfeeding has always been a practice in society, but come the 21st century and it seems that this biological behavior has become too inappropriate for public settings. Despite there being laws in 48 states that explicitly protect women and allow them to breastfeed almost anywhere, people are still averse to the idea of public breastfeeding which raises
The struggle for women to not feel controlled in this society or by the government seems to be an ever continuing struggle. Women have never had an easy time when it comes to making decisions about their own body because the decisions women make about their own body are often regulated by their own government. Being able to breastfeed publicly are laws that are up to the state, New York was the first state in the nation to pass laws to protect and allow women to breastfeed in public in the year 1994.

Shaming women for their sexuality, how they raise their kids, or how they dress is all common and public breastfeeding is no different since it obviously hasn’t been free from criticism. Time after time, incidences of people who aren’t afraid to be vocal about what they see or feel is wrong about public breastfeeding, proceed to hassle women about what