Personally speaking, I can always ignore a breastfeeding mother if I found it offensive enough to worry about it. The point I am trying to make, that seems to keep being skipped over, is with regard to the mothers who do breastfeed their children in public, but regard being seen doing it as offensive to them, the mother. (I only assume the baby doesn't care either way.)
It is the mother choosing to feed her baby in an open, public place. She is the one consciously choosing to perform that action at that time. Thusly, it is up to the mother to modify her behavior to ensure that she, the baby, and the public are comfortable with it. It's not like someone else is telling her, coercing her to feed her baby then and there, and then yelling at her for doing it. The baby has no conscious control of the situation, so it is improper to blame the baby. It's not as if there are no other alternatives like bottle-feeding or - as I have been advocating - moving to a more discrete place. The baby can wait the 10 seconds for mommy to duck around the corner.
Parallel: People smoke in public places. Not everybody finds smoking offensive. Should people who smoke not worry about causing other people offense because other people are okay with it?
Parallel that doesn't include health hazards: Spitting. Some people just up and spit in public. Not everyone finds it offensive. Should people who spit be free to do it because some people do not find it offensive?
Parallel the third: People who are talking extremely loudly or even shouting in a public place. (Especially about a private matter.) Some people don't find this offensive. But if the people who are shouting about a private matter in a public place take offense at being overheard, who takes the blame for that? Would you prefer that the rest of the people in the public place be evacuated so that these two people can shout in peace?
And the definition of a public place is that it is "owned" by the public. (Or those who take charge of it on the behalf of the public, like the government.) I'm talking parks, fairgrounds, plazas, etc. You seem to be thinking of privately-owned buildings or business that accept the public into their establishments in order to sell them things. Those locations have the right to ask people to leave if they are making other patrons uncomfortable.
Somehow, though, I get the feeling you would oppose the owner's right to do this if people complained about it.
Edited by
DavidCommaGeek
on Wed 06/03/15 03:06 PM