Galliam said:
As part of the post college crowd, I find myself to be exposed via facebook to a stream of expectant mothers posting various issues that pertain to pregnant life. That being said, I once had the bad sense to openly argue with a pregnant woman's opinion on the topic of breastfeeding.
My thoughts in a nutshell:
Breastfeeding is good, and natural. Babies who are breastfed are healthier babies. I suppose any mothers who wish to do this, and anything we can do to make it easier on them; I support. I am not a very modest person nor do I see it as a particularly admirable trait in others; I don't embarrass easily.
That having been said, if women are going to breastfeed in public they have to realize that it's going to naturally occur that occasionally a man's gaze will (gasp!) meet her bared breast. If I am looking around a room and do a double-take at a woman breastfeeding I'm not some kind of pervert or "staring" at her breasts; breasts have been sexualized in our culture for hundreds of years and we're not going to suddenly do away with this overnight. Women stare at men, too - just perhaps not as obviously as men might stare at women.
Would I be obnoxious about this? No, of course not, I wouldn't want to openly stare or gawk; though I hope any woman who is comfortable enough to do this would realize that not every brief glance in her direction is a sexist objectification of her.
I liken the "don't want to see breastfeeding" into the "don't want to see two gay men kissing" category - it's your issue to deal with. If you don't like looking at something you can always avert your eyes. Works like a charm. You'd be amazed at what I've had to ignore in restaurants. I have flat-out pretended that a child kicking the back of my seat didn't exist, on airplanes and in restaurants, while their parents seem happy to ignore their offspring as well. I've also perfected the "ignoring the awkward stranger trying to strike up a conversation with me" - which I sometimes feel bad about, because I genuinely like most people, but I have this issue with people trying to talk to me when I'm, say, wanting to be left alone to read a book on my iPad.
TL;DR - Breastfeeding in public doesn't bother me, we should encourage more women to breastfeed; and we can always avert our eyes if something bothers us. The fact that seeing it so disturbs you that you can't eat sounds... bizarre.
