The first breastfeeding woman I saw was when I caught a glimpse in my bedroom mirror. My mother's generation fed mine with bottles, so I didn't watch the process as a child. I was among the first of my friends to have children, and the new mothers I knew who were not close friends were less likely to nurse in public back then, so I had no real visuals as a young adult.
And I certainly was never in a classroom when a professor did it.
The 40 students in Adrienne Pine's "Sex, Gender & Culture" class at American University were, however, when the assistant professor of anthropology brought her infant daughter to the first day of class two weeks ago. It was either do that, or cancel class, the single mother has written, because the baby woke with a fever and was therefore not allowed at daycare. When the girl became fussy, Pine fed her, while continuing with her prepared lecture.
According to the Washington Post, an 18-year-old sophomore, Jake Carias, was "appalled" by behavior he considered "unprofessional" and sent a tweet saying so halfway through the 75-minute class.
Sex, gender, and culture professor, total feminist, walks in with her baby, midway through class breast feeding time #wtf
— Jake Edward Carias (@jakecarias) August 28, 2012
(By the by, that same student would later tweet "...I don't do feminism, I'm a pro-male chauvinism type guy #makemeasandwich" and, reportedly, drop the class.)
That appears to have caught the attention of the school's newspaper, which sent a reporter around asking questions. The tone of those questions, in turn, led Pine to feel that an "anti-woman" article was in the works. So she took the offense, with an essay on the website counterpunch.org, titled "The Dialectics of Breastfeeding on Campus: Exposéing My Breasts on the Internet," which took the view that it was perfectly fine to breastfeed during a feminist anthropology class (italics are hers) and that the only unprofessional conduct being shown was by the students and reporters who questioned hers. As she wrote:
If I considered feeding my child to be a "delicate" or sensitive act, I would not have done it in front of my students. Nor would I have spent the previous year doing it on buses, trains and airplanes; on busy sidewalks and nice restaurants; in television studios and while giving plenary lectures to large conferences. I admit those lectures haven't always gone so well (baby can get fidgety), but as a single parent without help or excess income, my choice has been between sacrificing my professional life and slogging through it.
The administration, then, responded by suggesting that maybe a child with a fever does not belong in a classroom, essentially avoiding the question of breastfeeding professors completely.
I find the drama refreshing. After all, the reason I was never in a college class where a professor was nursing is partly because I was so rarely in a class taught by any kind of woman at all (such was the nature of the Ivies not all that many decades ago) and partly because those who were there would not dream of doing anything that so clearly showed that she was not a man. That has changed, and among the things that Professor Pine has taught her students is that this is how change looks. If it is appropriate for a baby to be someplace -- and even the student who started it all told Post reporter Nick Anderson that he was fine with her presence -- then it is appropriate for that baby to eat in that place. The more we see that, the more it becomes the norm.
Which leads to the question: WAS it appropriate for the baby to be there in the first place? I have to say I don't think so, not if she was sick. What would have been appropriate -- what should, in fact, be standard at workplaces -- was for the university to have emergency babysitting available for its faculty.
And speaking of appropriate, I have one more question.
Since when is it okay for a student to be tweeting in the middle of a class?
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Her breast have nothing to do with it.
There is something very antagonistic about the prof's actions. No one was offended by the actual breastfeeding. They were offended by the fact that the prof exhibited an contemptuous "up yours" attitude. She was practically daring someone to complain, and if they hadn't, she probably would have been disappointed.
The students have a right to be offended by her lack of professionalism.
I am a college professor with a young child... a young child I breastfed for the first year of his life... that said, I breastfed outside of my classroom lecture time because it's wholly inappropriate to have a child in lecture. I wouldn't allow my students to bring their child(ren) to class, thus I hold myself to the same standard.
This is not an issue about breastfeeding... it's an issue of a college professor bringing their young child to class and attempting to parent and teach at the same time.
That said, what about a breast pump? If one of my colleagues were in this kind of predicament, I'd be happy to watch the baby while she taught class; pump a little breast milk and there wouldn't be a problem.
We all have nipples, yet there is something very evocative and primal about female breasts. Is it because females use their breasts to feed babies? What is it that makes them sexual?
www.chicapeeps.com
Would YOU mind if I breastfeed while driving your bus, serving you cocktails, checking out your groceries or pulling you over for a speeding ticket?
'Cause if you think YOUR needs are more important than my (non sexual) breasts, my nipples, or my baby, YOU got another think coming!
You can just WAIT til I"M done!
Don't you see the irony in the situation that the class was called "Sex, Culture and Gender?" How exactly were the needs of the students not being met as the professor nursed? I think we need to examine why some of students were so uncomfortable, as well as take a close look at a country where a working woman would have to leave an infant in the first place in order to keep a job. The United State is one of the only countries in the world that provide no type of financial support for mothers.
An ACTUAL woman who KNOWS what breastfeeding entails would not make such a foolish comparison. Breastfeeding requires no concentration whatsoever. The baby does all the work. Although I don't agree with doing it in this manner, because it distracts the students, there's absolutely no distraction involved for the mother.
This silly lie of yours that you're a woman really makes you look not only foolish, but nasty and meanspirited. What kind of man hates women so much that he doesn't just bash them, but pretends to be a woman himself so he can (in his imagination) magnify his criticism? It pretty much proves the point that your level of misogyny requires a kind of mental instability to exist.
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Another thing. The kid who started it all is out of line. His cave man tweets and attitudes will make life very difficult for him on any college campus. There are a lot of women on those college campuses that will not like his attitudes . I predict his dating life will be a failure. Most women on campus don't go for that type of men who have those cave men mentality. Plus if he did not like what the professor was doing then go to the department head and report it. Or better yet deal with it after all its just one class out of many. Life does go on.
Wow! Remember when Professors were dignified people you RESPECTED? .....or is that "too cave man" to attract a potential "single mom" for his "failed dating life"?