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Argument: Breasts are also for sex; public breastfeeding indecent

Issue Report: Breastfeeding in public

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Laurence Thomas. “Breastfeeding in Public and the Question of Sexism.” Moral Health. 25 March 2009: “Unequivocally, breasts are also sex objects; and this is a fact that does not change simply in virtue of the reality that a woman is breast-feeding. […] Of course, any decent man (not married to the woman) will look the other way should a woman pull out her breast in order to feed her child. And that, interestingly, enough is just the point. A decent man would look the other way precisely because he would want to avoid the schizophrenia of the situation, namely that of admiring the woman’s breast while she is in the midst of engaging in a motherly function. The woman’s husband, on the other hand, might very well admire her breast while she is breastfeeding. And there is a very straightforward way in which his doing so can be just right. That is the woman whose breasts he caressed and fondled as she and he were engaged in the very act of love-making that gave rise to the very child that she is presently nursing.”