Breastfeeding: Are We Really Talking About This Still?

Good morning my friends. I had no intention of writing a blog this morning when I got up but several news stories have really got me worked up and I thought it best that I write out my frustrations rather than carry them around all day. So let's get this show on the road before I have a brain hemorrhage and my head explodes.

It continues to amaze me how intolerant and ignorant some people can be. The human race has been around for thousands of years (tens of thousands depending on what you believe) and yet still we continue to struggle with something so very simple as respect. You thought I was going to say equality, equity or some other idealistic achievement of human tolerance didn't you? Well I'm not because it isn't about those things because they mean nothing without a certain level of respect. Tolerating me because I'm gay (I'm not) and not liking me is nothing more than lip service which leaves the door open for more hate. Equality cannot be achieved without some form of respect and understanding.

My beef is breast feeding. Why is this conversation even happening? Why do I have to sit here and waste my energy and emotions on something that is more natural than most everything else we do as human beings? Let me explain to you how this process works. A woman has a child, the child needs food, the female body, coincidentally, produces food (really high quality, nutrient rich milk)...is any of this making sense? Good; it's supposed to. So what, in whatever God's name you worship, is the problem? Even if you're a hard core extreme religious zealot you must acknowledge that this process is God's plan but yet yesterday I had to deal with a Twitter feed for over an hour that was a debate on breast feeding in public.

Have you turned on the television lately? How about surfing through YouTube? Maybe you're one of those rare people who actually reads magazine's still? What do you see? Continued sexualization of women. Women used as sex objects to sell products or services; using the beauty and grace of female sexuality to convince people to buy this or do that. It's almost sickening; especially nowadays that we're doing it to our women younger and younger (go see what Miley Cyrus looked like as Hannah Montana when she started but I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about). All this constant bombardment and use of women as purely sexual creatures to be used and exploited but whip out a nipple to feed a starving baby and suddenly you are an affront to humanity? Sometimes less than human...where are our principles? What happened to them? Sex sells I suppose and maybe that's the problem.

Two people sharing Intimacy

Sex is not a marketing tool. At it's most basic roots it is nothing more than a means to an ends; a function of survival to propagate the species. More expanded from this root is the emotional and psychological side of  sex. Sex began as instinct because that's how primitive humans survived: instinct. We are no longer that primitive people; we have grown, we have evolved, we have gained in knowledge and thus our perceptions have changed. Sex is no longer a means of survival, it has become something much more. It has become an intimate act of the physical manifestation of attraction and emotion felt between two human beings. It's purpose is for pleasure, love and expression. It is the unity of two people in a single moment that melts away all reality around you. It is a sacred and holy bond shared between two human beings that unifies them together in euphoric bliss, culminating in an orgasmic explosion shared between the physical and the mental. Sex is not for sale; it is for sharing (that's metaphorical; see what you will).

More people sharing Intimacy

Selling sex for profit? Good. Sexualizing women for profit? Good. Breast Feeding? Bad. Seriously, I think that it is time that we as a species take a huge step back from our own egos and think about where we are going. When war, death and fraud are commonly accepted practices; when the exploitation of women for profit is considered commonplace; when sex becomes a platform for advertising instead of an expression of true emotion (I believe EVERY sexual experience is meant to be a shared physical and emotional experience); and finally, when the natural process of our nature is considered wrong, shunned and in some cases (just ranting here; not based on fact) I am sure it is probably outlawed I think we may have misread our moral compass. 

So what do we do? Well, for starters we can start showing some respect to women; some equity and equality would probably go a long way to making things a little bit better but the best thing that can be done is to consider how you may inadvertently promote gender inequality in your own life. I use language that is predominantly male-oriented and I make a conscious effort to change it. A small step, but it's a step. I also do not buy products or services that use women and sex to sell to me. Don't get me wrong, I love intimacy as much as any man and women are the ultimate beings of sexuality, but it should be their choice to express it.

And women, if you want to breast feed in public, do it. Don't let the ignorant and narrow-minded people try to pressure, force or shame you into feeling guilty for doing what nature intended of you. You are all beautiful and amazing creatures of life and love; without you, none of us would be here. Thanks for putting up with our shit for all this time; I love you.