The definition of shame is: (1. a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety.), and (2. A condition of humiliated disgrace or disrepute.) (“Shame.” Merriam-Webster. Web. 02 May 2017). Shame is a very common act used today because everyone has an opinion of everything, and how they feel about the situation whether it is good or bad. For example, one strong opinion that is always debated is whether or not a mother should breastfeed in public. Although some people has no problem with women breastfeeding in public, majority of citizen looks down on it, and begins to shame the individual that’s doing the breastfeeding.
Women are usually bullied, mistreated, or harassed about breastfeeding in public. There are numerous cases where women are bullied for breastfeeding in public. Most of the bullying are for other women to the women that is breastfeeding. For example, a women named Ashely Kaidel was just peacefully feeding her 4 month old daughter at a restaurant when she sees another women staring at her in the distance. …show more content…
The lady was not only staring at Ashely, but she was judging Ashely for breastfeeding at the restaurant. The lady was shaking her head with judgment in attempt to shame Ashely and indirectly without words to tell Ashely that she was wrong for doing breastfeeding at that time. No women should ever feel like they cannot provide for their own child when they please. There is not really a leeway for women that breastfeed in public because they are bullied by everyone, even women at agree with what she is doing but is too scared to speak up and defined.
Six out of ten women who breastfeed take steps to hide it in public and a third feel embarrassed or are often mistreated to where they would whether stay inside and nurse their babies. Most women are thrown out of public places for breastfeeding openly and are treated wrongful by others. The most common phase that are said to women that breastfeed openly is “Well can’t you do that somewhere else?” Most women choose to breastfeed their babies while they are eating whether it is in public or not. Mothers feel fine doing the feeding in the comfort of their own home while having dinner, but when they try to do it while eating dinner in public like a restaurant that’s when the problems happen. People feel like it is degusting for mothers to feed their babies out in the open and will take any measure to stop the women for doing it including and not limited to: Asking the women to leave, for them to just leave, to ask for a refund from the owners of the establishment because they do not feel at ease with what the mother is doing, or just to full out attack the mother and shame or mistreat her. I have seen cases where mother are literally asked by the owners of restaurants or any public place to either cover up or to leave.
Harassment is the most common form used when a mother is shamed for breastfeeding.
Harassment can come in different forms like verbal or physical harassment. Most mothers do not breastfeed in public just because they know how vulnerable they are to be harassed. Mothers that choose to breastfeed in public are at risk of being told not to do what they are doing, but how people come at the mother is what is harsh. Most cases that I have read about this topic, are people harassing the mother nursing by calling her names, telling her that she is nasty or disgusting, threating her to cover up, or to ask her to leave the premises and go somewhere more private. Most people feel that showing your breast is sexual even though the mother is just trying to nurse her baby. Also people like to take pictures of the mother and post it on social media and have others talk about and harass the
mother.
In conclusion, breastfeeding in public is one of the most things shamed by the public. Mothers that nurse their babies in public are and will continue to be bullied, harassed, and mistreated by the public view until people come to the conclusion that breastfeeding is not a nasty thing to do in public and it is very beneficial to the mother and also the baby.
Works Cited
Brown, Maressa. "17 Women Who Fired Back at Breastfeeding Shamers." Cosmopolitan. Cosmopolitan, 01 May 2017. Web. 02 May 2017.
"Shame." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 02 May 2017.
Siddique, Haroon. "Third of Women Feel Embarrassed Breastfeeding in Public, Survey Finds." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 01 Nov. 2015. Web. 02 May 2017.