i am glad strangers want to tell me my choices are like, okay

[seperis]

Okay, I had this resolution not to post about things that piss me off--there are so many!--until I had waited twenty-four hours to see if I was still pissed.

But seriously. How the hell did we get to this?

In this post about breastfeeding and VVC and vidshows this thread kinda maybe got to me. Maybe a little.
There is something wrong with any

Comments

[sapote3]

I am breaking my policy of trying to stay out of the tangential thread-of-a-thread-of-a-thread about VVC, but aw, christ. The only justification a woman should need for nursing is that it's her body, no matter where she is, and no one else gets to make medical decisions for it. Ditto the obverse.

I get that people who are nursing educators get irritable after a while because people who have never had babies or discussed breastfeeding often seriously don't get it that you can't just not nurse for four days and then pick up where you left off. (And pumps are expensive, and a lot of people have trouble using them, and babies might not accept bottles, blah blah). But man, when we act like women have to justify their reproductive choices to the general public in order to be able to make them, don't we just make the situation worse

[sapote3]

p.s. I am not, again, commenting on VVC policy. As usual in these threads-of-threads, this issue was raised to the concom who made accommodations that the person who raised the issue found adequate.

[sapote3]

p.s. "blah blah" was not meant to dismiss the concerns of mothers who breastfeed and don't pump! It was meant as an et cetera that came out more dismissive then I would have liked. Sigh. My kingdom for the edit button back.

[bkwyrm]

Clearly, I am both a terrible fan and a terrible parent, as it NEVER FUCKING OCURRED TO ME that I should bring my nursing baby to a con. Because to me, cons are a place for ADULTS TO DO ADULT THINGS

[forked]

Yea- I'm still boggling at
it NEVER FUCKING OCURRED TO ME that I should bring my nursing baby to a con. - my bogglement no doubt spurred on by the memory of last Thursday when I walked into the dog park w/my hyper, 55 lb, 7 month old golden retriever to find nobody there but a family with their INFANT in there. At which point- I turned around and walked out- cause I am not stupid enough to think THAT was any kind of a good idea for either my dog or the infant. (The sign on the gate prohibiting kids under 8 being in there suggests I'm not the only one who thinks that's ALL KINDS OF A BAD IDEA.)

Dude- seriously. Time and place for everything.

As to the whole nursing issue? As long as the kids getting fed, so not my business, so don't care.

[bendtothesun]

Uh, not a parent nor am I trying to judge your choices here but your caps lock made me :/. I was just at a con over this past weekend and there were plenty of pregnant women, babies and children running around. The year before there was a baby there that it was his second time at the con because his mom was pregnant with him the first time (or so the dad explained it like so). They seemed to be enjoying it about as much as I was.

I've never considered cons to be *just* adult spaces, especially since there are some geared at teenagers and all sorts of different demographics. If it's not 18+ (and to be fair I don't attend VVC despite being a vidder) then my assumption is it's a con open to families. The general rule of thumb seems to be the closer to midnight it gets the more adult the mood becomes (especially once the room parties open up.

[seperis]

This one is adult oriented. As a parent, that's a large reason I go.

[iteari]

Just another way for society to get this idea that women are too naive for their own good to know what to do with their bodies and babies.

How else you can explain the sneering when it comes a mother deciding whether or not she breastfeeds her kid, or if that mother prefers to give birth the natural way at home instead of a hospital, and so on.

Hell, the UK wants to mandate tests on pregnant women to make sure they are not smoking. Another sign that shows society thinks that pregnant women (and women who already have their kids) can't be trusted to tell the truth about their health and habits to their doctors, much less make their own choices.

I'm not a mother but god knows I've been thinking a long time about this craziness and frustration people are to think they have any right to dictate a woman's choice.

/Rant done/

[shinetheway]

I don't have kids, and my views on breastfeeding vs formula can be boiled down to: "...the kid's being fed, right?"

And yet the breathtaking arrogance of this woman. I just--wow. Isn't it nice that she's appointed herself high arbiter of what's healthy and acceptable for women and babies? I know I feel all warm and fuzzy. [eyeroll]

[aivilo_18]

I took a feminism and motherhood class in uni a couple of years ago and basically came to the conclusion that the only breasts I am allowed to have an opinion about are my own.

Some people are sanctimonious assholes who seem to think they wrote the bible on motherhood. And for women to do this to each other is fucking beyond words ridiculous.