There has been a new movement afoot lately regarding the "rights" of a woman to openly breastfeed in public and moreover, to post pictures of this activity on web sites such as Facebook. Public opinion is split on the issue, though in my research it would seem most of those in favour are women who are or have or are planning to breastfeed, and men who enjoy watching nipples get sucked on.

The arguments for this are plentiful, and some of them are downright grasping at straws. Besides the basic "it's a beautiful act", "it's natural", "it's my right", etc., some women claim their baby might starve if they are not able to bare their breasts in the middle of a crowded room, swimming pool, restaurant, library, park, or wherever else they might happen to be.

As one woman stated when asked not to breastfeed her child in the middle of a retail store, but to instead move to a chair near a change room, "I felt violated... you would eat your Big Mac in public, why can't my baby eat his Big Mac in public?"

First of all, most retail stores would also kick you out for eating a Big Mac, and second of all, if some of the best arguments in favour of breastfeeding in public are actually degrading to women (I personally love sharing physical characteristics with a hamburger, it makes me feel so... human), then the movement doesn't hold much ground.

InFact Canada, the most comprehensive group fighting for a woman's right to breastfeed in public, and they mean in public, like in your face, like in line at the bank, like at the table next to you in a restaurant with two fully bared breasts, like when I accidentally click on a link to a public group on Facebook, approaches the whole topic with the antagonistic fervour of a group who demands a respect they are not willing to give. Their web site brandishes a banner with close-up photos of four babies clamped onto a nipple, three of which are staring adoringly, lovingly, upwards to their mother's face. This and other groups like it claim that there is nothing sexual about photos of babies breastfeeding, yet many of these online groups routinely describe the act of breastfeeding as the most tender, loving, romantic act in the world, and more than a few new mothers have professed to having orgasms while their babies feed.

So I ask you this, in the spirit of facing the issue no one fighting for their right to put their breastfeeding photos on Facebook, blogs, and other web sites ever seems to talk about: Would you, dear reader, enjoy the discovery of photos of yourself distributed on the Internet as babies sucking lovingly on your mother's breast? Think about it. Most people can't stand pictures of themselves in a bathtub, but naked and supping upon your mother's milk, making eye contact with the camera, moisture collecting on your lips, lids drooping in pleasure, and sometimes sharing your mom's teat with your sibling, like many photos currently in one public Facebook group? There's a reason the act of breastfeeding occurs long before a child can form clear and lasting memories. What would you, dear reader, think of your mother if she put such pictures up live for everyone to see? What would you think of yourself when you saw it? What do you think some of the people you know who have deep-seeded parent and sexuality issues would have done or would be doing now?

A good parent thinks about their children's future, not just immediate present gratification of themselves. A good parent takes the time to ponder the reality that these photos, once posted to the Internet, are permanent, and are out of their control forever. A good parent reflects upon the fact that pedophiles and other individuals of bent morals routinely troll these sites looking for a way to stimulate their twisted sexual desires. A good parent can foresee their child's eventual embarrassment or even emotional damage at discovering photos like this when they grow older. A good parent can realistically imagine that the accruement of posted photos over the course of time, from breastfeeding to being a toddler and so on, along with photos of their house, information about their location, descriptions of their child's lives and friends and relatives, might actually result in leading a dangerous individual right to their child's door and put them in real and actual peril.

So, if you are a new mother pulsating with a couple of thousand more times your normal amount of hormones as you revel in the beauty and magic of the act of breastfeeding your newborn (or in some cases on this Facebook page, your four-year-old), don't dwell on what you think is the public's responsibility toward you during this experience, think instead about your responsibility to your child, not only now, but for the years to come.

- R.K. Finch

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