Woman Fights For Breast-Feeding Rights

[struggle4progress]

Wis. Mother Protests Victoria's Secret For Asking Her To Nurse In Restroom
RACINE, Wis., July 2, 2006

(AP) .. About 20 women and children came out in support of Rebecca Cook in front of the Victoria's Secret store at the Regency Mall in Racine on Saturday.

Cook said she was shopping at the store with a friend last week when she asked to use a dressing room where she could nurse her daughter. When she was told no room was available, she offered to sit in the rear of the dressing room hallway but was told that was unacceptable, she said.

"They opened up their employee restroom, which is disgusting," she said. "I said, `No, I don't eat in the bathroom and my daughter doesn't eat in the bathroom."'

Protests also took place in Ohio and Massachusetts ..

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/02/national/main1773867.shtml

[Mind_your_head]

1. Well, the YOUNG women at the Victoria Secret have a LOT to learn....

....a LOT. Apparently these women were just the 'give out' variety. And as a woman I detest their kind. Their mothers didn't teach them very well.

[struggle4progress]

2. Victoria's Secret seems to have backed down.

[badgerpup]

3. Hello? What do they think that tits were originally FOR?

Granted they show off the Victoria's Secret(TM) stock-in-trade nicely, but they do have a practical purpose.
They're not just decorative...:eyes:

[NVMojo]

4. Another chapter in "dumbshit nation" ...

I said exactly the same thing in the 80s when told to breastfeed my sons in the shit houses of America. You go, girl.

[lindisfarne]

5. Why didn't the woman just cover herself with a blanket and nurse in

a chair in the mall's lobby? Victoria's Secret's changing rooms are always overly busy == they can't have women sitting in them nursing.

[struggle4progress]

6. "A spokesman for .. Victoria's Secret, said .. company .. policy .. allows

mothers to nurse in their stores."

[lindisfarne]

7. Well yes, I read that. But the woman wanted to nurse in the dressing

room. The VS policy doesn't say explicitly say you could nurse anywhere you wanted in the store (including blocking a dressing room for 20 minutes). If I was waiting for a dressing room and found out one was being kept from use by a nursing mother, I'd really wonder what her issues were with nursing in one of the public seating areas in the mall. There's no need to hide away in a closet to nurse, especially when you can cover yourself with a blanket if you feel you need to.

I can't imagine that a dressing room would be terribly comfortable to sit and nurse in - if there's anything at all to sit on, it's usually a little stool.

[struggle4progress]

8. "told no room . available, . offered to sit in . dressing room hallway"

[lindisfarne]

9. Exactly. The dressing rooms were being used by customers to try

on articles of clothing. The nursing mother could have sat pretty much anywhere else in the store. If VS were the only place open and there was a downpour and my only choice was the downpour vs. the floor of VS vs. a tiny stool in a dressing room, I would choose the floor. But if there was a nice public lobby with cushy chairs, I would choose that any day over a little tiny stool in a VS dressing room - or the floor of VS.

I do believe you are choosing to be obtuse. I'm sorry - I don't believe dressing rooms should be filled with nursing mothers. Nursing mothers shouldn't have to hide away to nurse; our society should be and is open to nursing in public (and WI has laws to prevent people from telling nursing mothers to go somewhere else). Moreover, VS dressing rooms are usually quite busy and I don't want to have to wait longer because some nursing mother is occupying one of them.

[struggle4progress]

10. Nice try. But the mothers' national demonstration won:

Nursing mom's protest at mall no secret
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, July 2, 2006
BY LYNN ARDITI
Journal Staff Writer

... Mothers organized the national demonstration after two separate incidents last month at Victoria's Secret stores ... A store manager .. went into the back of the store and returned with a notice she said was posted in back titled "Breastfeeding Policy." The notice, dated June 29, listed the do's and don'ts. Do "allow the client who needs to breastfeed her child," it read, and "do so wherever the client feels comfortable."

"Do not," it stated, "recommend that a client use a restroom for breastfeeding purposes," or "ask the client to leave the store or suggest the mall or mall restroom."

http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20060702_nursein.1709b25.html


I might add -- as further evidence of my obtuseness -- that I somehow can't work up much rage at the prospect of being inconvenienced by a nursing mother and that I find myself completely unfrightened by the possibility that hoards of nursing mothers will clog VS dressing rooms. However, if nursing mothers are a major problem for you, you are free to organize your own national protest to change the store's policy back to directing those women to the "nice public lobby with cushy chairs."

[lindisfarne]

11. Wow, you really are set on your view. If women aren't willing to nurse

in public areas and instead are demanding the use of closeted areas of stores, other women who choose to nurse in public areas are going to continue to be approached with either suggestions they too go to a dressing room or nasty comments about it being impolite to nurse in public. God forbid they should refrain from covering themselves - I know several women who felt they had an obligation to other women to simply nurse in public, uncovered, and they received very nasty comments at times, as often from women as from men (they saw no principled reason to cover themselves so they didn't). Luckily, they are tough and were in a state where the right to nurse in public is guaranteed by law. But without pioneering women, and other women who are willing to take advantage of the right, that law wouldn't have been there and wouldn't be seen as necessary.

[struggle4progress]

12. See #10: "wherever the client feels comfortable."