I’ve got one too many people in my in-box telling me people actually are worried that breastfeeding in public will lead to shirtless women in Starbucks. But no one has actually made that case to me (mercifully). Here’s one e-mail on what, in the end, is a silly topic. Breastfeeding is good and important and that it becomes an issue of political debate is just weird (though I know the reasons it has–restaurant run-ins, activists on either side, etc.), but we’re weird people; anyway, an e-mail:

Here’s the deal: I’m no fan of militant breast-feeding [activists]…but I do think a woman should be able to feed her baby in public (with her breast or otherwise). When my wife was feeding our daughter, she would place her shirt over her breast down to the nipple so basically nothing was exposed (or she would use a small towel). I’m a conservative American but I think too many Americans are confusing the sexual aspects of the breast (which are real) with the feeding aspects of the breast. Of course, people will try to counter this argument by stating that the male organ has two functions as well so why can’t it be exposed in public? My answer to that would be those two functions are not very appealing to watch as a third party and walking around naked is a taboo in most countries. I think people who don’t want women to breast-feed in public are afraid it will lead to women walking around topless. I think that’s a stretch. In many European countries, women breast-feed in public, go topless on the beach but would never think of taking their top off during a stroll through a public park or when downtown. It just doesn’t correlate. I’m not stating that America needs European values, but I think they seem to understand what’s appropriate and what’s not a little better in this case.
It’s all a matter of teaching children what’s appropriate behaviour and what’s not. Unfortunately, that’s lost on a lot of Americans these days.