Kim Kardashian Grossed Out by Public Breastfeeding
I follow the Kardashians (I’m a huge Khloe fan), but why does Kim have to say such dumb things. I mean, she says a lot of dumb things on Twitter, but I had to post something about this gem from today:
While I agree that a tabletop diaper change is unappetizing, why is Kim Kardashian taking issue with breasts? Maybe she doesn’t realize that boobs actually exist to feed babies and not just to be accessories in sex tapes. As someone who plans to breastfeed (very likely without a cover), this comment really annoyed me. I don’t think breasts are a big deal, period, but there is especially no reason a woman needs to cover her baby’s head with an uncomfortable cover just so that Kim Kardashian doesn’t have to see a nip. I wonder what Kim would do/say if someone complained about her sister Kourtney breastfeeding her son Mason.
Edit: Here is a great piece expanding on the topic with awesome illustrations: Kardashian’s Call to Cover Up.
I knew this issue would blow up the moment I saw her tweet, and it certainly has. While she is certainly hypocritical, I would like to point out that I don’t think we should be telling Kim K to cover herself up either (other than to make a point). Telling a woman how much skin to or not to show has been used throughout history as a way to control women and is not OK. Some women are modest. Some, like myself, are not at all. It is no one’s place to tell a woman how much of her body to cover – If you don’t like what you see, don’t look.
© 2012
To me, it’s more about whether or not it’s an appropriate place to publicly breast feed. In a crowded upscale restaurant, it’s not acceptable.
But you have to think, would you want to be covered or taken to the restroom to eat your meal in a classy restaurant, or any place you eat? A newborn has just as much of a right to eat when he/she is hungry as an adult. Not trying to start a debate, but it’s just a nipple. Everyone’s got them and its the natural way of eating when you’re a newborn.
Oh no, I totally get what you are saying. And I agree. When a baby needs to it, it needs to eat. My deal isn’t with breast feeding or breast feeding in public necessarily either.
I’ve just seen one to many times where someone is doing it a bit too openly when they don’t necessarily need to. One time at a job, a customer was walking around breastfeeding. We offered her seating on a couch in a secluded (but not far away) area of the store or use of a large fitting room with a bench. She refused. To me, sometimes people just don’t think about what’s okay in public and what’s not.
But if the same customer were carrying around a baby with a bottle that’d be fine? What harm is it causing anyone to see a woman feeding a child as she walks around a store or while they are enjoying lunch? I’m sure patrons would be more upset if the same baby was hungry and crying loudly that entire time instead.
I don’t think there is any time or place that is inappropriate for breastfeeding as long as it is safe. Newborns eat every couple of hours. That is a lot of isolation if you never do it in public.
Love the words here J and Donny. Makes total sense. Boobs are totally natural and so is feeding babies. Getting grossed out at a woman who is breastfeeding in public is just culturally programmed nonsense. I must admit, when I see it, it is shocking because it is still rare to come across a woman comfortable enough to breastfeed in public, but I recognize that it is just that I haven’t been exposed enough to be desensitized like I should be. My shocked reflex actually pisses me off.
As a former nursing mom, I always would go to an “appropriate” place to nurse. I didn’t appreciate mothers who would nurse in the middle of a restaurant without a cover, or at least modest. Just because you are comfortable with it doesn’t mean everyone else is. I would use a cover, or go to a place where everyone wouldn’t see my nipple. I’m not sure doing the shock and awe method is going to convince future mothers to breastfeed.
Respectively, I’m not sure that seeing a woman shame herself and her crying infant to a dirty restroom would have convinced me to breastfeed. Seeing it done by real women in real places did. And both of my sons are now grateful for it.
Your typical breastfeeding mother is not an exhibitionist. She didn’t decide to breastfeed for the attention…because heaven knows that it’s not exactly good press these days. Rather, she decides to breastfeed IN SPITE of the attention…because she knows that it’s the most perfect thing for her child and, unlike the gawkers and the criticizers, she’s trying to do something unselfish. She’s doing something that is 100% for the well being of another person and I always find it amazing that adults, who should completely know better, still decide to put their own judgement and pre-conceived notions before the well being of a person who is too young to defend themselves. It’s shameful…we should be encouraging and applauding women for being so nurturing and unselfish…not shunning them and showing how selfish we actually are ourselves.
I concur with you about the reasons to breastfeed, as well as not wanting to see a woman breastfeed in a restroom. That is something I never did, absolutely refused to do. I never even had an issue with being asked to. I would nurse, but by doing it discretely. I had many covers that I would use that my son wouldn’t feel smothered with. Every time I see a woman nursing in public, part of me wants to run up and pat her on the back! I was asked at work why I couldn’t pump in the restroom, and I explained that unless they felt comfortable fixing their meals on the toilet, then I wouldn’t do the same for my son. (I worked with men…)
I agree with KK. No boobs in public please. Prepare a bottle or have better planning when wanting to go out.
It’s obvious that you aren’t a mother, so I understand your misunderstanding about how a breastfeeding relationship functions. Nursing infants eat every few hours….some more often than that. For a mother to “have better planning when wanting to go out” would imply that it’s inappropriate for a mother to leave the house at a time when her infant would be hungry. Essentially, an infant is always hungry. A nursing mother should never leave her home? Her child should never be exposed to society? How awful and sad, to punish a woman for nurturing her child and to punish a child for existing.
Preparing a bottle undermines a breastfeeding relationship and, to be honest, the majority of breastfed infants will not take a bottle from their mothers. They’re more intelligent than that. They know that a bottle is sub-par, and they aren’t interested. In addition, I’ll just go ahead and assume that it would be an inconvenience to you, as well, to have to hear a child scream and cry while waiting for his/her bottle to be prepared/warmed and ready to be fed. A breastfeeding mother is able to pacify her upset child instantly, as biology intended.
I sincerely hope that you better evaluate why it is that you feel the way that you feel about infant feeding. Women who continue to breastfeed through criticism such as this are certainly doing society a favor. Surely, we can’t all be ignorant about the subject for much longer.
Seriously? “No boobs in public please”? Does this include cleavage with shirts and dresses, when breasts are merely decorative? Or is this strictly limited to what breasts were intended for?
ok really? what’s the big deal? once baby is in place, you can barely see anything anyways, at least not any more than what Kim shows in some of her clothing choices. everybody has the right to eat. and really, more people should be breastfeeding anyways.
It would be nice if they can cover up a bit at least. I’m a mother too and I don’t agree on exposing yourself while you feed your baby. Women wears scarves and shawls all the time, you can simply use your over-sized scarf or shawls and cover that certain area. Breastfeeding is not the same as feeding the baby with bottles. Breastfeeding should be done where a mother can relax and so is the baby. And yeah, Kim might expose herself but she doesn’t walk around naked in public places.
Umm, I hope you anti-breastfeeding young women realize that Kim and many woman actually show more breast most if the time then 99% of breastfeeding woman!!!! (cleavage!) You seem to be more offended at the functional use of the breast for some reason??? What you are advocating is the segregation of a group of people. Instead of welcoming a nursing mother to go about her life (eating, shopping etc) You find it acceptable to isolate her (seluded couch, nursing room) or her child (covered up as if she is doing something shameful). You SAY you are not against breastfeeding but the comments ARE really an excuse to patrol and control women…….being Anti-NIP (nursing in public)or anti-NIP with style limitations (when an outsider determines a mother meets ‘modesty’ requirements) is really being anti-woman.
I just want to say that just because some of us don’t agree with breast feeding in public doesn’t mean we’re necessarily against breast feeding.
So it’s perfectly fine to watch a woman show half her body whether in movies, music videos or the like and most dont have a problem with it, but it bothers people to see a baby doing the same thing they need to do in order to live(ie, eat like everyone else)?
Wow … people need to get over the sexual stigma of bbs … As far as I’m concerned, I’m not going to hide in a bathroom or anywhere else for that matter to feed my child. I’m sure you’re not gonna run to a bathroom to eat your food or for that matter when you do anything to make someone else uncomfortable. Yes there are times when I see people eating stuff in very public places that make me want to hurl but I dont ask them to go in a bathroom and eat because I’m uncomfortable. I just dont look at them and get on with my life.
For people who love to throw that crap around about preparing for travelling before you leave, that kinda defeats the purpose of BFing and puts the child at risk for nipple confusion.
I’ve actually never seen this before! I would just worry about creepy men!
You know what I did see the other night that did offend me? Some lady brought her baby into a loud smoke filled dive bar wearing only its diaper! It was around 1am too!
Smoking while pregnant or around children is my NUMBER ONE pet peeve. I would definitely step in if I saw that happening. Even if there are no long-term effects of that smoke, being around friends while they smoke gives ME a sore throat – I’m sure a smoky environment is incredibly uncomfortable for a baby.
I read your blog post and also The Feminist Breeders post. I agree with TFB about how women tend to see themselves as sex objects first, before anything else. Which I find completely sad.
PS- I’m sure TONS of people have seen her nips waaaay more then they’ll ever see random breastfeeding mother’s nipples. She had a sex vid for christ sakes.
I have no problem with breasts *at all*, whether it’s breastfeeding or a sex tape. They are designed for both – sexuality and feeding babies. Modesty is stupid to me in general, but from Kim K it is (obviously) especially hypocritical.
Don’t wanna see a boob while you eat? Put a cover over YOUR head.
I agree that breasts were designed for sexuality and nutrition. What’s sad to me is that women are totally fine with their boobs hanging out of a tank top, dress, etc- you don’t see them getting embarrassed or anything. But, they are ashamed or embarrassed to feed their own child? It’s just bizarre. AND boobs seriously don’t gross me out. I dunno maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t lose my appetite over a damn BOOB.
KK is just being highly hypocritical. Maybe if she was known for modesty it wouldn’t be as shocking. That and the fact that young girls might actually listen to her is sad. Just the mere thought that she could be making even MORE people think BF is gross is not OK.
Public indecency? Reallllly? It’s a baby eating. Highly doubt that counts as indecent. Just my opinion though…
Ok i’ll rephrase, and to quote “It only counts if you see nipple”.
I am no mother, you’re right, but I know plenty who don’t just flop their boobs out where ever claiming “It’s Natural!” It’s also natural to be naked but you wear clothes right? Oh yeah and a little law called “public indecency”.
When my sister had kids and knew she had to go out the next day she would either use a breast pump or fix up a bottle. She was organized and planned it out. At other times, she would go into the nursing rooms they have.
Let’s just face it, another celebrity voices their opinion, which they are entitled to, and someone doesn’t agree. She’s not right but neither are you. Everyone has a different opinion. No big deal. We’re never all gonna agree. No need to get snippy.
I’m very sorry that your sister felt that she had to hide the fact that she breastfed (pumping and preparing bottles to use in public is not “being organized and planning it out”…it’s being ashamed.)It’s a travesty that women feel that they need to hide the fact that they’re doing what is absolutely normal and natural for their children because of a prudish, opressive societal standard. It’s a good thing that there are women out there who refuse to conform to that “norm” and who are taking a stand, reclaiming their bodies and the rights of their children. I hope that, by the time that my children are adults and have to travel this road, that this sort of thing will be noted in history books as as sad and ridiculous a notion as separate water fountains for separate races and not allowing women to vote or be educated. Because it’s just as awful and unnecessary and a violation of a basic human right. Women’s bodies are still being controlled by someone “bigger” than them, and other women are buying into it. And children are suffering over their right to eat whole, real food. It’s crazy. And only here, in America. Land of the free and home of the brave. It makes no sense. It seems like we should all be better than this.
And breastfeeding is not “public indecency”. It’s a right, protected under the law in more than 98% of this country.
Breast-feeding is fine though but not publicly.
PUBLIC breast feeding is rude unless the breast is actually covered up. Some women leave it all hanging and they don’t realize that even though we all have boobs, some people are just uncomfortable with public nudity.