Let me first begin by saying that I fully support breastfeeding mothers right to feed whenever and wherever.
In Australia, we have parents rooms in public buildings and shopping centres. These are rooms that usually include a changing bench, nappy bins, curtained booths with comfortable chairs, a small play area, a toilet with an adult sized and child sized toilet (large enough to take a pram or trolley into), and usually a few chairs in the main area with a tv that is set to the national broadcaster's children station.
These rooms are for the use of all caregivers - mums, dads, grandparents, babysitters, anyone who is taking care of a child.
And yet, frequently you will come across women who view them as 'mothers rooms'. They like to death stare any man who enters and tend to act like territorial bitches.
My brother followed his partner and son into the parents room today and there was a woman breastfeeding in one of the booths but she chose to have the curtain open (totally fine) and had turned the chair so it was facing out of the booth so she could see the tv. Now, as a man, my brother is always uncomfortable around breastfeeding women, not for any reason other than the fear that the woman will accuse him of perving if he so much as glances in her direction. So when he entered and saw her he asked his partner if she was right to toilet their son and then he left the room.
The woman then gave my brother's partner an earful about how inappropriate it was for my brother to look at her and that he shouldn't have just walked into the room like that (the public *parents* room). She used some choice words as well. My brother's partner just left without saying anything.
My brother thinks it's funny. I find it fucking offensive. I hate the entitled mentality that some women have in regards to parenting. I hate every single person who buys into the bullshit that 'mothers know best'. I hate that fathers and male caregivers are made to feel inferior, stupid, incapable.
I will fight anyone who says a woman shouldn't breastfeed in x situation or place. But if you aren't comfortable breastfeeding around other people (which is perfectly fine by the way) then use the bloody curtains and don't just expect men to give up their right to look after their kid in order to maintain your comfort.
It saddens and annoys me that my brother didn't stay in the room and it saddens and annoys me that his partner didn't feel she could correct the woman.
I would have liked to have been there so I could have explained to that mother that I am sorry that she doesn't feel comfortable breastfeeding in front of a strange man but that he is just as entitled to use these facilities as she is.
This post has been edited by Loki: 29 November 2016 - 06:25 AM