City of Seattle considers breastfeeding ordinance, KIRO hosts debate
Apr 3, 2012, 1:58 PM | Updated: 9:52 pm
The Seattle City |
If a mother breastfeeds in Washington state, regardless of
where she does it, she can’t be fined for indecent
exposure. In fact, the state has made it a civil right of
a woman to breastfeed her child in “any place of public
resort, accommodation, assemblage, or amusement.”
The state fair in Puyallup? Yes. A summer movie at Esther
Park in Vancouver? Of course. And if a mother chooses to
breastfeed her hungry child while attending the
Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival in Seattle, she can do
that too.
A breastfeeding mom could legally be told, however, that
she should be more discrete if she is at a privately owned
business that is open to the public.
The current state legislation isn’t enough for some
mothers in Seattle.
The debate is taking place between two extremes, according
to 97.3 KIRO FM’s Dori
Monson: The jerks who insist on asking breastfeeding
mothers to take their breastfeeding somewhere else, the
mothers who insist on making a big fuss about a jerk
asking them to move while they’re breastfeeding, when they
could just ignore it.
While Dori agrees that moms should be able to breastfeed
when and where they need too, he also said that a business
owner should be able to make the call on whether it
happens on their turf.
“Why can we tell people that ‘no shirt, no shoes, no
service’ is okay, but having a preference on breastfeeding
is not okay?”
For 97.3 KIRO FM
hosts Dave Ross & Luke Burbank, breastfeeding isn’t
offensive, and even though every time there is a story of
a woman discriminated against, it seems like a growing
problem. They think most women can breastfeed without
encountering discrimination.
What Dave finds unfair is the inconsistency, people who
turn up their nose at the natural act of breastfeeding,
while a girl wearing a halter top at the same venue is
ogled.
It’s the other immodesty that Dave thinks should be
policed better. As Luke reminds him though, “We, the men
of the world, and some of the women, we like one kind of
immodesty because it arouses us, but we don’t like the
other kind of immodesty so much because it’s not arousing,
necessarily […] it’s utilitarian.”
The Seattle City Council will consider the ordinance to
prevent discrimination against breastfeeding moms.
Councilmember Bruce Harrell will introduce the proposal at
a hearing on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Breast-friends.org is
asking moms to fill the council chambers and show the city
council that it’s an important issue.
