The boobs at Delta, that is.1
See that photo, to the right? That’s Emily Gillette breastfeeding her child (as you can see, she’s virtually dancing topless!). And that sight is apparently sooo offensive that it can’t be allowed on planes. From the Burlington Free Press:
Gillette said she was seated in the second-to-last row, next to the window, when she began to breast-feed her daughter. Breast-feeding helps babies with the altitude changes through takeoff and landings, Gillette said. She said she was being discreet — her husband was seated between her and the aisle — and no part of her breast was showing.
Gillette said that’s when a flight attendant approached her, trying to hand her a blanket and directing her to cover up. Gillette said she told the attendant she was exercising her legal right to breast-feed, declining the blanket. That’s when Gillette alleges the attendant told her, “You are offending me,” and told her to cover up her daughter’s head with the blanket.
“I declined,” Gillette said in her complaint.
Moments later, a Delta ticket agent approached the Gillettes and said that the flight attendant was having the family removed from the flight.
The airline’s behavior is appalling. To make it even worse, this happened in Vermont, where state law says that mothers have the right to breastfeed in public (Queenbadmama has the text of Vermont’s law).
Lactivists haven’t been taking this lying down – they’ve staged a nurse-in, a turn of events Emily Gillette was apparently surprised but pleased by.
MomsRising.org has a petition you can sign, “to tell Delta Airlines to get a clue and be supportive of breastfeeding mothers. And tell Congress it’s time to pass the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, which amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding mothers.”
As you’d expect, the Momblogs have been covering this story. More blogging on this topic: Queen of the Bad Mommies (who I adore based on her blog name alone!), Blogher, Playground Revolution, Blogging Baby, Mama Knows Breast, The Zero Boss, Mother Talkers (which has a great header image, by the way), Strange As Angels (who is pissed off!), and Aurelia Ann (whose post is titled “Throw Momma From The Plane”).
Thanks to Bean for pointing out this story to me!
[Crossposted at Creative Destruction. If your comments aren’t being approved here, try there.]
- Freedom Air, actually, but Freedom Air was acting as Delta, or Delta was doing business as Freedom Air, or something. I’ve never quite groked all the little airline intertwining. [↩]
Pingback: Blue Monday
Pingback: aurelia ann
I just signed the petition and changed a reservation I had with Delta to American. Anyone know if AA’s policy towards breastfeeding is ok? I can change it again if necessary. At least Delta’s out a few hundred $ for their idiot policy.
Is it even a company problem? It sounds like one flight attendent had a problem, not like it was policy. Kind of like the PDA problem on another flight recently involving two men.
All I can say is Delta can’t afford this lawsuit. And they should PAY UP – and I’m not normally sue happy, but this pisses me off.
Boobaphobia reaches an all time low.
Plus, doesn’t the mom’s argument about altitude make sense. I know that drinking or swallowing helps my ears adjust to altitude changes.
I love that woman’s hair.
The whole thing is ridiculous, and the attendant should probably be fired for her poor judgement. Of all of the stupid crap we all have to put up with on airplanes and they kick a family off for breast feeding.
On Salon, many readers were put off that the child is really a toddler, and a little on the old side to be breastfeeding. I happen to agree with that, yet I recognize that it’s none of my business what and how this woman feeds her child, nor is it that silly attendant’s. Whe all have to share the public sphere with women and babies- they’re not all hiding in bathrooms and at home anymore!
I also thought to myself that I bet the response was in part because the kid did not look like a baby. I know opinions differ on this but it is one of those things that have strong responses. As mentioned above this is none of anyone’s business thoguh and even if the kid had been even older it would have not have been.
It sounds like one flight attendent had a problem, not like it was policy
If the flight attendent isn’t reprimanded or fired then it is de facto the company policy and I’m going elsewhere. If I hear that they’ve changed their company policy to specifically allow breast feeding and reprimanded the flight attendent involved I’ll reconsider my policy of never flying with the sexist little santorums, but not until then. And a toddler who is still too young to respond to reason (ie a 2-3 year old) is much happier if he or she is breast fed during takeoff and landing than otherwise. And consequently everyone else in the plane is happier because they don’t have to listen to a screaming toddler.
Even if the flight attendant is reprimanded or fired, the airline has got a miserable policy. The ticket agent did nothing to stop the flight attendant from making a probably-unlawful decision, the pilot in command of the flight ditto. And airline management clearly did nothing to train the flight attendant in either local law or decent behavior. (It does make one wonder what kind of training the flight attendant had in other matters.)
Regarding the kid being too old – as far as I can tell this sort of argument stems from an unstated assumption that once you hit 3, breasts should only be seen as a sex toy, not a food source.
I mean, is there any other reason to object to a 3-5 year old breast feeding?
I had thought I read that her kid is 22 months old, but I might be mistaken.
Assuming that the quote is accurte, I find it curious that the flight attendant chose to say, “You are offending me.” Is this a statement reflecting a personal, ethical viewpoint, or is this a specific phrase taught to airline personel clothed in political correctness designed to deflect individual or corporate responsibility? In short, is the airline legally responsible if an individual employee is personally offended by any given situation and is an individual responsible for their personal feelings? Frankly, I beleive that Mrs. Gillette was treated unfairly at least or that her civil rights were violated at worst, however, I also believe that the way airline attendants are trained to respond to various situations need to be re-examined immediately. It seems to me that an individual employee had a personsal problem with Mrs. Gillette breastfeeding her daughter on that flight and that Delta specifically trains their employees to respond to such situations in a manner which minimalizes or negates their corporate responsibility.
The flight attendant certainly has a right to her OWN opinion. But as soon as that opinion infringed on this mother’s right to breastfeed her child (wherever she and the child have a right to be ) the attendant crossed the line. Individual liberties were violated here by ONE person. And that is what is NOT RIGHT about all of this.
If anyone is offended by this I have a suggestion. DON”T LOOK. Easy solution for closed/simpleminded people.
I breastfeed my 15 month old (his choice, basically, not necessarily mine). I have trouble comprehending how, of all the offensive conduct I’ve encountered on airplanes, probably minuscule compared to what flight attendants encounter, breastfeeding would be considered worthy of throwing someone off a plane. I don’t know the flight attendant, obviously, but there seems to be some extraordinary and complicated emotional reaction by non-breastfeeding women when they spy another woman breastfeeding her kids. It’s so gratuitously punitive that it can’t be made sense of on any superficially rational basis.
I suspect that the age of the child was not really so important (though in general people are often aghast at a toddler being nursed). I think it’s more that the woman had the audacity to refuse the blanket (how dare she do what is best for her and her kid and the expense of my poor offended eye!?!?!) and say no, “I have the right to breastfeed.”
Time and time again I am floored by the people who are “offended” by breastfeeding. Particularly after I’ve done it. I can tell you that I am not particularly interested in flashing my breasts to everyone on the plane and that most often, once the kid is latched you are likely to see very very little.
I’ve never ever seen an argument that is anti-public nursing than is anything more than, “I don’t like to see it so you shouldn’t do it.” And I’m sorry, but that’s not much of an argument.
O.K., I’m all for breastfeeding. I’ve little faith in the U.N. but I wholeheartedly endorse the WHO statement above as being best for the child. But asking her to cover up with a blanket, while overkill, is not denying her the right to breastfeed her child. Where’s the connection there?
For the record; I’m no more impressed by the flight attendant’s “I’m offended” attitude than I am when anyone else has it. Tough shit; she’s got a kid to feed, and she’s feeding it the best way there is.
I don’t countenance tossing her off the plane. That’s an outrage. What I do know, though, is that in these days of fear of terroristic activities on planes, failing to comply with anything a crew member asks or tells you is a great way to get thrown off of an airplane, regardless of how unreasonable that request or instruction may be.
That is not a baby, that is a toddler, one who is fully capable of eating only solid food. I would be a little weirded out by that too. Children are normally weaned way before that. I knew a woman who still nursed her 4 year old and it was just really strange. Anytime the child would get upset she would run over, whip up moms shirt and start sucking. She had no coping mechanisms of her own, and the mother seemed to be substituting her child for a significant other in her life (she was a single parent, hadn’t informed dad he had a child).
What I do know, though, is that in these days of fear of terroristic activities on planes, failing to comply with anything a crew member asks or tells you is a great way to get thrown off of an airplane, regardless of how unreasonable that request or instruction may be.
Are you advocating following orders from a crew member no matter how unreasonable that order may be?
RonF – until you have tried nursing with a blanket draped over the both of you, then I’m afraid you can’t claim it is a reasonable request. Since as bean stated above, many kids won’t do it with the blanket over their heads it is in effect denying her right to nurse.
I know not one woman who nursed that the blanket technigue worked for and I know many who tried for their own comfort level as well as those around them. I tried multiple times and ended up hot, sweaty and frustrated, with a hot, sweaty, frustrated child who was then more difficult to get latched and happy again. It was HARDER for me to be discreet with the blanket than without it.
As Amp said, I believe that she is under two years old. And I always say, never attribute to good parenting what is often a function of luck and infantile temperament. If a child copes by nursing a little more, what’s it to you? Who cares? Breastfeeding a toddler is not offensive just because it happens to be unusual, anymore than having a boy play with a doll is offensive.
I nursed two children and both could have cared less if they had a blanket draped over them or not.
Kate and Bean: my wife breastfed both our kids and when in public always used a blanket. It didn’t seem to disturb their appetites one bit. I also witnessed a number of her friends breastfeeding their kids, and they used a blanket as well.
Again, let me reiterate that I’m not particularly impressed by “I’m offended.” Too damn bad. But I wonder what her problem was. If the kid wouldn’t eat under a blanket, then fine – the kid’s needs take precedence. But I wonder if that was the case, or if Mom was trying to make a political deal out of it.
Jake: no, I wouldn’t say that you should do anything a crew member wants regardless of how reasonable it is. What I’m saying is that if you decide that something a crew member asks is unreasonable and you decide to defy them, understand that one increasingly possible consequence is getting tossed off your flight with no appeal. Trust me, most of your fellow passengers will heartily agree with anything the crew says; paranoia truly strikes deep these days, and most passengers just want that plane off the ground.
What I’m saying is that if you decide that something a crew member asks is unreasonable and you decide to defy them, understand that one increasingly possible consequence is getting tossed off your flight with no appeal.
As long as you also say that the crew member and their employer should understand that one increasingly possible consequence is a lawsuit and possible criminal prosecution I’m okay with that. I’m not okay with the implications (or maybe the reality) of your last sentence.
But I wonder if that was the case, or if Mom was trying to make a political deal out of it.
I would say that is both irrelevant and wrong. Mom had the legal right to breastfeed. Insisting on one’s rights is not making “a political deal” out of anything.
That is not a baby, that is a toddler, one who is fully capable of eating only solid food. I would be a little weirded out by that too. Children are normally weaned way before that.
In the US, where “natural” weaning age has been pushed back as far as it possibly can be, despite growing evidence that it’s creating long-lasting health consequences.
The child was 22 months. Even the AAP, which is only comfortable recommending 12 months, admits that there are definite health benefits to continuing breastfeeding until at least 24 months. Most other first world health organizations recommend 24 months.
Also, RonF, I would be willing to bet your wife and your friends who nursed with blankets in public were not using airline blankets, which are hot, synthetic, smelly, and dusty, almost without exception (and usually ugly colors, too). YMMV. I would occasionally use a very light baby blanket if I had to nurse in the presence of elderly bachelor uncles; my daughter was fine with it, but my son was not. And the woman was almost at the back of the plane, next to the window, with her husband on the aisle, for Pete’s sake. The only person who would possibly notice anything at all would be someone standing almost on top of them and staring. Like the stewardess.
As long as you also say that the crew member and their employer should understand that one increasingly possible consequence is a lawsuit and possible criminal prosecution I’m okay with that.
True enough. I was considering more the immediate case and what thought process a nursing mother (or anyone else being subjected to an unreasonable request from a flight crew member) might go through to say to themselves “Is this a big enough deal that I shouldn’t just go along with it now and complain later, or should I make a fuss now?” But yes, you’re right; in fact, down the line one consequence of this is that this flight attendant could lose her job.
OriginalLee, I’ve never used a blanket on a plane so I’ll bow to your apparent expertise in the matter. And I quite agree with “who the heck would be watching, anyway?”
Barry beat me to the punch, or I would have blogged about this earlier.
RonF:
I cannot breastfeed Maddox with a blanket over her head. Period. She’ll bite, she’ll kick, she’ll yell – and she’ll make a veritable scene that has the overall affect of creating much more to see than were I to just nurse her as normal.
The argument that you did it, your wife did it, whoever did it doesn’t wash with me. Plenty of people have done shitty things to their kids before. And it’s shitty to put a blanket over your kids head when they don’t want it there and are trying to nurse. I refuse to sacrafice her comfort for the comfort of the small-minded & nosy.
I have yet to pull a boob out and run up and down the aisle screaming “Look’a-me! Look’a-me!”, nor do I plan to at any point in the future, but I do plan to as per the norm breast feed my child on take off and landing so as to avoid what happened to Sydney the one flight she refused to nurse on take-off. A burst ear-drum and visit to the emergency room + 2 days of being sick during Christmas vacation at my folks.
I dare ANYONE to contradict me on the validity and benefits of nursing a child based on the very real personal experience I have had with it with my child(ren), as opposed to their hypothetical notions of what exactly is okay for children, or ‘polite’ of mothers.
How about those of you that get offended by such turn your head and look elsewhere. Or are you too much of a child yourself that you can’t behave in an adult fashion and have a perverse need to sexualize the act of breastfeeding like our friend TBQ up there who seems intent on implying her friend was getting her sexual rocks off and needed baby to suck on boob because man couldn’t.
How many times does it need to be said, but oh well, guess I’ll say it again:
Give it a f’ing break already and turn your damn head people. Shut up and look elsewhere. Shut your mouth. It’s not about you. It’s about the baby.
Kim, although I agree with 95% of your post, I disagree with this:
This could be read as implying that you’re saying what RonF’s wife did was shitty, although I’m not sure you meant it that way. But, as you point out, it’s only shitty when they don’t want it there. Maybe her kids don’t mind being under a blanket; not all kids are the same.
To clarify, what I was saying is that if the kid is struggling against the blanket, it’s shitty to keep it there (hence the if they don’t want it there at the end). I firmly believe that it’s a crappy thing to do to a child that is trying to nurse, all for the sake of some skewed sense of what is proper etiquette for nursing. I think that it’s up to the individual mother and child to figure out what the etiquette is, and for everyone else to just nod and say mmkay, whatever it takes. We’re talking about nourishing and safeguarding children here, not about anything else – I’m tired of people trying to pull other issues into it as if it is valid or okay – it’s simply not.
Better way to consider it Barry – think about me nursing Maddox, and now consider a situation where I was repeatedly trying to put a blanket over her head. What would you think her reaction would be? Can you picture it? Now consider me repeatedly doing this, and her little face coming up after a struggle, crying and a less than satisfactory nursing session all read, and head sweaty. I know the situation and the reactions fairly intimately, and I can assure you that with Maddox, it would be both shitty and mean – and it would have been with Syd as well because she felt the same way about blankets. The kid that likes the blanket over their head is the rare one indeed. Beyond that, it’s completely unnecessary – hardly any boob shows when nursing -unless- a child is trying to pull away impeding clothing or cloth (*read blanket at times, shirt at others). It’s much ado about nothing, and all it serves to do is to make women who are doing the absolute best thing they could do for their children are being made to feel uncomfortable and stigmatized while others run around trying to legitimize the stigmatization. Like Kate, I get pissed about that. I get fighting pissed. If they can call us improper or question our propriety, we can question their kindness.
Kim, of course I agree that putting a blanket over Maddox while nursing would be the wrong thing to do, for all the reasons you say. And I agree that no one should question you about that. In fact, I think I agree with everything you said in this comment.
I’m just saying that we can’t say that RonF’s wife is doing a shitty thing to her baby if she chooses to nurse under a blanket. We don’t know her, and we don’t know how her baby reacts. I doubt that you even disagree with me about this.
I guess the difference is that I don’t feel compelled to soothe anyone that is arguing that a blanket is just fine. It’s the exception and not the rule where it is fine, and I’ve had it with people ‘there-there’ing women who nurse about how it’s not so bad. It’s absolutely true that Ron’s wife may well not have been fighting children that protest covering them with a blanket – but it’s also not a universal experience. I also get tired of people bitingly saying that women are doing it for political reasons. Well, partly – yeah. Despite the unnatural stigmatization and shaming that goes along with public nursing in the United States, many of us women are bracing our nerves and going ahead with it because not only is it the right thing to do, it’s also important that the political message is broadcast loud and clear that it is okay. Until people cease giving women who nurse a hard time about it, it will continue to be a political statement.
“It’s much ado about nothing, and all it serves to do is to make women who are doing the absolute best thing they could do for their children are being made to feel uncomfortable and stigmatized while others run around trying to legitimize the stigmatization. ”
Just out of curiosity. Yes, breastfeeding is best for the child, no arguments there. The medical science is pretty clear. However, what does that have to do with the argument? If suddenly, MagicSuperFormula were invented that was better for a child than breastmilk, and women who fed MSF were doing a “better thing” for their child than the women who breastfed, would that mean that women who bf shouldn’t have the right to do it in public since they’d be doing second-best?
Don’t get me wrong. I think the woman had every right to breastfeed, assuming she was doing it reasonably discreetly, which it sounds as though she was doing (and no, I don’t think that requires a blanket). But “the right to breastfeed in public” really has nothing to do with the superiority of breastmilk as nutrition. It has to do with … it’s none of your damn business. We’d still have that right even if what came from the tap was chocolate milk :-).
On the blanket tip, I think adults who want a baby to nurse under a blanket need to first practice eating their own dinner under a blanket. If they enjoy it and they find it feasible, then they should do that with their children. I don’t think it is wrong or bad to cover a child with a blanket, but I’m not so sure that it is convenient or good either.
We need to reframe our discussions of breast feeding, by emphasizing the feeding part. In fact, maybe we should quit using the word nursing, and just focus on feeding
But I wonder if that was the case, or if Mom was trying to make a political deal out of it.
Amp, comments are getting eaten again.
I wonder if anyone would ponder Mom’s motivations if it were something we all agreed was out of line–for example, if the flight attendant had insisted that Mom cover her hair to show modesty, or insisted Mom move because she was seated next to a man other than her husband.
And before deciding that we should carry a baby around strapped to our chest, should we have to go around strapped to someone else’s chest for a while to see if we enjoy it and find it feasible?
If a mother decides that what works for her and her baby is breastfeeding under a blanket, then I don’t understand why it’s our business to disapprove or approve.
If she’s beating the baby or feeding the baby cyanide, then yes, I think strangers can legitimately hold opinions on that. But it seems to me that comments like yours, Rachel, are moving away from “no mother should have to nurse under a blanket if she doesn’t want to” and into the territory of “mothers who nurse under a blanket are doing it wrong.”
When it comes to breastfeeding, the person who is best positioned to know what’s best for the baby is the mother.
* * *
That said, I do think that in a better society – a society that had more sane views on breasts and breastfeeding – many, many fewer women would choose to use a blanket while breastfeeding. But we’re not in that society. And in this society, I think the person best positioned to know what works for each individual mom, is each individual mom.
It’s mostly aimed at the demand for ‘discretion’ because like you said, it’s not like anyone is being indiscreet. The apology has come off as both defensive as well as evasive of taking responsiblity. They point at it being the actions of one flight attendent, but it begs the question how one flight attendants actions influenced the deboarding of the plane if not for Delta having a larger policy of stigmatizing nursing mothers that fly with them.
I personally read about things like this and feel a lot of stress and anger at the general ill-will and audacity of people that create and support actions and opinions that lead to situations like this. I feel defensive for Emily Gillete because I feel defensive for my family when we encounter situations where I need to nurse in public, and I have to wonder if some idiot is going to accost me or my family with their stupid opinions.
For me the response I had at reading the statement was skepticism since they seemed to be denying any corporate culpability despite having more than just the attendent participating in her deboarding, and they also continue to insist upon the whole ‘discreet’ notion, as if nursing mothers are taking time off from nursing to do a burlesque nipple twirling shows in the aisles, complete with colored milk spirals and a lazer light show. It’s that sort of skepticism that would lead me to go to the nurse in (I can’t because I have class and doctors appointment for my gallstones).
If it was so discrete (she in the window seat hidden in part by her husband, no flesh showing) how did the airline attendant even notice? It isn’t like they bend into each seat, if you don’t flag them it is difficult to even get them to notice you.
I don’t know, it sounds like maybe something else happened, like maybe the toddler raised her mother’s shirt up repeatedly?
I just have to say the more I see this topic and read about it, the more pissed I get. WTF is all this crap about “discretion”? Seriously, I do not know ONE SINGLE woman who nursed or is nursing (and I know a lot) who WANTED other people to stare at her breasts or SEE her breasts. I worked hard to avoid it in fact, FOR MY OWN COMFORT. but a little skin is inevitable, a little nipple might even be inevitable if the kid is in the 5 second period of latching or unlatching, but I am with kim all the way on this one. Turn your f*cking head if you don’t like it.
I hate hate hate the “discretion” factor – what exactly is discreet? Who gets to decide? Why does “discretionary” breastfeeding matter so much anyway?
Amp said,
“If she’s beating the baby or feeding the baby cyanide, then yes, I think strangers can legitimately hold opinions on that. But it seems to me that comments like yours, Rachel, are moving away from “no mother should have to nurse under a blanket if she doesn’t want to” and into the territory of “mothers who nurse under a blanket are doing it wrong.”
When it comes to breastfeeding, the person who is best positioned to know what’s best for the baby is the mother. ”
I was being humorous, even though there is a part of me that agrees with my attempt at being humorous. I’m not telling anybody what to do, but I do think it is fair to say that eating has long been a social phenomenon. Moreover, the idea of banishing breast feeding children from the public eye is the larger issue for me.
Amp, I think you are viewing it as an issue of mothers’ rights to do what they please. I view this more as an issue of exclusion of mothers and breastfeeding children from the public eye. Beyond the blanket example, think about all of the people who want babies to eat/nurse in the bathroom. The blanket/bathroom arguments to me are primarily about exclusion.
I still maintain that people who insist on the bathroom/blanket arguments need to try to put themselves in the shoes of mothers and babies. That was my point. As I said before, I don’t think it is bad or wrong to cover a child with a blanket, but I do think it is wrong to insist that others do so.
So my focus is not so much on breast feeding mothers, but the general non-breast feeding public.
I brought up the bit about the blanket because based on my personal experience I couldn’t understand the connection between “use a blanket” and “you’re denying me the right to nurse my kid”. Given that there’s apparently an issue that some kids won’t do that, I now see that there’s a connection.
Okay – sorry, I was mistaken about what you meant. I think you and I are actually entirely in agreement on this one. :-)
Kate said:
I hate hate hate the “discretion” factor – what exactly is discreet? Who gets to decide? Why does “discretionary” breastfeeding matter so much anyway?
EXACTLY!
Rachel said;
The blanket/bathroom arguments to me are primarily about exclusion.
Another exactly! Actually I think that this sort of treatment of women and children is taliban-esque in it’s own special little way. It’s demanding certain modesty oriented behavior of women that is overly controlling and discriminating. While obviously women wearing burka’s have it much worse, the fact that we still have a society where we can show boobs galore all over magazine covers and billboards. The same amount of skin is expected to be closely guarded by a woman when she’s doing something with her breasts people are told they can’t sexualize.
Okay Ron, that’s a fair comparison. The problem is, however, that most people bring it up as an issue of ‘why can’t she just…’, or worse yet demand that it is done regardless.
The blanket to breast feeding is kind of the civil unions argument of gay marriage. It is not really an unimpeded and supportive policy towards nursing mothers and children.
I agree, Kim. Asking someone else to conform to a particular behavior just because it otherwise offends your sensibilities is not something that I have a lot of sympathy for. And I sure think that asking someone to feed their child in a bathroom is way out of line. Nasty.
If it was so discrete (she in the window seat hidden in part by her husband, no flesh showing) how did the airline attendant even notice?
A customer recently came up and asked me a question while carrying her infant in one of those sling things (I can’t remember what they are called).
You couldn’t see an inch of her skin (from what I remember) but it was plainly obvious the kid was breastfeeding as we were standing there talking. The position was just plain wrong for anything else.
I’ll admit I was a bit taken aback – but the way you are when you try something really different for the first time, not like I was offended or anything (and I really hope my surprise didn’t come across that I was offended). I wouldn’t have thought a kid would feed while being all jostled like that – but then babies like to be jostled at times.
It was a little hard not to look at the kid simply because the whole experiece felt so odd. But I was polite (I hope), maintained eye contact and, simply answered her question, and then carried her books for her at my suggestion – seeing as how while her hands might be free, it would have been a bit difficult for her to caryy a big stack of magazines and books.
It was a little different, but it wasn’t like it was hard to do or anything.
Ok so I’ve never left a post before but here goes….I work for an airline and I fly lots of airlines and those blankets are NASTY. Not just a little gross but disgusting. Flight attendents will not use them themselves because they know what people do to them. Bodily fluids are the norm as well as anything else out there that you can possibly immagine…and some you can’t. I nurse (and it is a constant struggle against the views of friends and even family) because I know it’s best. People have finally stopped suggesting that nursing moms should feed their infants in a bathroom which would be disgusting because of germs…nursing under an airline blanket where they are just as filthy and rarely washed is just as disgusting! The flight attendants have a lot of power because in the course of their job duties they are responsible for keeping each and every individual safe on thier plane. This can give them the idea that each and every thing they believe to be right, is. A flight attendant is able to kick anyone of a plane and noone including the captain will really argue with them. My question to the flight attendant is….was this woman and her hungry child really compromising the safety of the aircraft? And if eating under that disgusting blanket is ok….would you eat off it?
Pingback: Breast feeding mothers are heroes of the public peace at Pandagon
I think the only thing I can say about that flight attendant is..um…wow. Just…wow. The part of the argument about modesty is what is getting me. We like to think that we’re so much better about women’s rights and the openess of a woman’s body compared to the rest of the world. In the Arab word, women openly breastfeed without covering their breasts, even if they’re wearing a full head cover. See…breastfeeding isn’t supposed to be sexy.
There are also these comments about airline safety and all. Honestly, the day a breastfeeding woman or a bottle of breastmilk makes me unsafe in the air, then we’ve soundly lost the battle on “terrorism”. Are they expecting some woman to try and light a fuse attached to her nipple in a shoe-bomber sort of way!?