I once served someone, on a one to one basis, who proceeded to feed their baby with breast. I was 18. And yes, despite knowing and supporting that it is the proper function for a breast, I felt awkward enough to stop speaking and momentarily lose site of what we were doing. I remember at the time thinking that it was weird, not because it happened, but torn between the fact that a breast is a sexual object and a functional appendage. That this is normal and nothing is wrong with this... I'm all for human beings being rightfully what they are, but you can't discount the way we've been conditioned. Sometimes I really do wonder when looking at the front cover of zoo or something on the co-op on the way to work; are we supposed to embrace love, lust, nature or propriety? I couldn't possibly comment on what is right though even from my own perspective. It simply isn't a subject that till now has been on my radar. Thanks for the thread then; it's illuminating.
my wife couldnt breast feed our youngest , she developed Mastitis soon after alex came along and it was so painful it got to the point when trying to feed babu she would be crying. so we made the choice to move to bottle - and wow what a mess that was , sma clogged alex up , so we went to farleys - which was great till they changed the formula.... so another move , to cow and gate (via aptimil) alex is now a bouncing 4 1/2 year old who loves her school (and loves mac and cheese!) nowt wrong with formula or breast.
I'm going to excuse those that fit the outer edge of the curve and apply what I'm talking about to the remainder. It depends upon which context the breast is partially revealed. Were it as a result of an attack, then no it would not create any sexual interest. If it was a result of a deliberate attempt to allure then yes a bit of side boob can be quite sexy. If the partially exposed breast has a baby swinging out of it then again no, it is not going to arouse any sexual interest. Neither does it follow that offence is caused as a result of sexual repression. Since there is nothing sexual revealed, or on show. Again its all about context and the way its revealed. We're not talking about nipple tassels here. We're talking about breast feeding. Well to this I'm not sure. Single elements of the baby breast feeding may not in itself be offensive, but combinations of elements accompanied by the context the person applies to the situation may result in some offence. I still maintain none of it is a result of sexual repression. This is misrepresenting what I have said. I didn't say that there were sociological reasons for breastfeeding. What I intended was if a society frowns upon public breast feeding, the sociological reasoning for this view on breastfeeding may not be valid. There are of course clear medical benefits to breast feeding, I don't dispute this and no one has questioned this either. I did say there were medical reasons(and therefore logical reasons) not to breastfeed and someone has already posted one above.
Dude, you are contradicting yourself. You first argue that breast feeding cannot cause sexual offence because the breast is not (partially) revealed in a sexual context. Then you go on to say that perhaps it causes offence through the context that the observer applies to the situation. Does this not mean that it is down to the observer whether the context is interpreted as sexual or not? It is in the eye of the beholder. For the same reason some people may find a breast revealed as the result of an attack quite arousing.
Its only a contradiction if the only context the observer can apply to the situation is sexual. But this is not the case. Again I'm not including some small minority of people with unusual sexual practices in this discussion. There are people that will find anything arousing. I'm not debating the fact there are small amounts of people with unusual sexual preferences and practices. They do exist.
The contradiction is that you talk about the importance of the context in which the breast is revealed, an then you say that this context is in fact imposed by the observer. And I'm arguing that those people who feel uncomfortable with public breast feeding do so because they feel uncomfortable with seeing breasts, and that this is because they impose a sexual context on it which they cannot cope with.
Of course you can! People do so all the time! Have you never seen commercials? Uniformed strippers? Sexual fetishes? Paedophilia? Rule no. 34?
