Moms Gone Wild: Why Bill Maher is Wrong about Breastfeeding
On Friday's episode of Real Time, Bill Maher introduced one of his "new rules," "Lactate Intolerant," in which he argues against breastfeeding in public. As he explained, he doesn't want women showing their tits in public unless they are appropriately packaged for heterosexual male consumption. (Revealing what he thinks is appropriate, he made a snide reference to Britney Spears' body in one of the other new rules, drawing a good laugh. My goal here is not to defend her, but only to point out that Bill Maher's idea of an acceptable female body, along with many members of his audience, is incredibly narrow.)
For someone who claims to believe in science, Bill's queasiness around breastfeeding seems more than a little bit irrational. A huge body of evidence suggests that breastfeeding provides incredible health benefits to both infants and mothers. (For the FDA statement on this, click here.) It not only provides babies with antibodies that help them avoid illness, it also may protect mothers against breast and ovarian cancers later in life. There is evidence that breastfeeding provides psychological benefits to infants and that breastfed infants develop higher IQs. There's even evidence that breast-fed babies are less prone to obesity later in life -- and obesity is something that Bill Maher is clearly against. Breastfeeding saves on healthcare costs, and it is clear that advocating in favor of breastfeeding is in the interest of public health. And yet the vast majority of mothers do not breastfeed for the full 12 months recommended by Health and Human Services. In fact, less than 30 percent of mothers are breastfeeding when their babies reach six months of age.
Given that it's so good for their babies and themselves, why don't more mothers breastfeed? One reason is that there is inadequate maternity leave for most women, making it hard for women who want or need to work outside the home to establish breastfeeding. Another reason is that many employed women don't have enough privacy at work to pump milk. But we shouldn't underestimate the impact of people like Bill Maher who are squeamish about the fact that humans are mammals. Coworkers who don't want women leaving icky breast milk in the office refrigerator because it grosses them out. Those who can't handle the idea that babies should also get to eat when the family is at Applebees, even if they are having something healthier than what's on the menu. So Bill Maher says that breastfeeding mother's are too lazy to plan ahead, presumably because they can arrange it so that their babies don't need to eat while they're out. Obviously he has never had to manage life within small windows of opportunity between feedings or he would know that timing a baby's hunger is just not possible. Perhaps he would prefer that breastfeeding mothers never leave the house -- another recipe for reducing breastfeeding rates. Sometimes people, especially those without children, seem to forget that mothers are people too -- we need to have friends, social lives, and activities beyond the confinement of our living rooms.
Bill Maher obviously doesn't understand the benefits of breastfeeding to public health, since he claims that breastfeeding is not worthy of activism. He says that it's "petty and parochial." Apparently he also doesn't understand that supporting breastfeeding is not only good for public health, it's also part of reproductive justice -- along with the availability of contraception, the legality of abortion, the right to informed consent or refusal of medical procedures when giving birth -- all rights that many women currently do not have. When he claims that women's reproductive activities are yucky and should go underground, he is colluding with the people who want to control reproduction and sexuality -- not normally the folks he counts among his friends (with the possible exception of Ann Coulter). He may be in favor of the kind of sex he wants to have with the kind of bodies he wants to have it with, but his attitudes toward women are stuck in the Dark Ages.
Of course, so are his attitudes about babies, which he says are not special because creating a baby is "something a dog could do." First, Bill, dogs don't make human babies. But all babies, including puppies, are adorable -- they have to be so that we want to protect them. It's a survival thing. Beyond that, we can all respect that Bill Maher doesn't want to have children and perhaps we're all better off for that. But Bill needs to respect the fact that other people's children are the ones who will be paying into Social Security when he reaches retirement age. If anyone is going to make the scientific discoveries that help to resolve the problems that Bill cares about, like global warming, it will be other people's children. Parents, and especially mothers, are providing a public good by taking care of their children's health and development. So instead of criticizing them for making you queasy, maybe you should cheer them on.
Follow Louise Marie Roth on Twitter: www.twitter.com/louiseroth
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Hello.....
... I think you're on the mark here, zigzag. Bill knows better, and he used it just because it's 'in the news' at the moment, and Bill's more than a little patronizing of the feminine race anyway (apparently, being left at the altar, as he was, hurt him deeply enough that he still 'has it out' for our kind, all these years later). And I also found it 'funny' that he slammed both Brit's body (d*mn fine, for two babies nearly back-to-back) and breastfeeding, all in the same "New Rules" - not 'funny' ha-ha, that's for sure..! ;) ...
I agree, CynAnne (I always have the urge to type "sis", because you have the same first name as my sister, and that's what I call her) of all the things you can slam Britney for, her bod shouldn't be one of them. She deserves some credit there. BTW, gotta new item on OEN, if you've got a few perfectly good minutes to waste.
There is a difference between being being a comedian, whose sole purpose is to be funny, and being a humorous commentator, whose purpose it to make a point through humor.
Thats what I thought too.
Comedian? Joke? Helloooo, is this thing on?
He makes his jokes in an offensive manner and if you don't like it, don't tune in!
Comic, yes. A horny, easily distracted comic thrown completely off his game by the sight of a breast.
Give the guy a break. We all know he's not alone on this.
Yeah, that's what he wants everyone to think. It's really about Maher insisting, insisting and insisting that he's a red-blooded heterosexual.
Sad but true. Americans need to get over their breast fetish.
I don't think so. He certainly isn't being funny, not funny at all. He is an ignorant man who doesn't know any better. It's called ignorance or stupidity where I come from.
And he tries to pass himself off as a pundit not a comedian. Pundit, not; comedian, question mark.
He's wrong about breastfeeding. When I was a boy, I remember seeing many women breast feed their babies. I don't see a thing wrong with it and it doesn't bother me in the least. My mother breast fed all 9 of her kids. That's really the function of breasts in the first place. He's also wrong about 9-11 not being an inside job. His popularity is causing him to be full of himself.
I agree with you fed. I was more surprised by him taking on his friends for questioning 9/11. He lost points with me though on a previous show saying that Benjamin Netanyahu (Israels version of Krystol/Cheney) was his idol....WT
Very well said! Especially this part:
we can all respect that Bill Maher doesn't want to have children and perhaps we're all better off for that.
And I like this part even more:
But Bill needs to respect the fact that other people's children are the ones who will be paying into Social Security when he reaches retirement age.
I like watching his show. It's the only thing I ever bother to tune into on tv. And I don't have or want kids, either. But sometimes a prick is just a prick!
Although, he did say something about it being okay if women would just cover up a little. I don't have a problem with it myself, but there are people who might be offended--like muslims, whose opinions I'm sure Bill counts among his own.
Bill has no problem with breastfeeding in public but stated very clearly that there is no reason they shouldn't be covered up.
I've seen women in public who throw a cover of some sort while breastfeeding and I have no problem with it. But I do think it shows little class to just pop out the tit and start letting the little tyke start sucking away.
There are just people who are uncomfortable with it being quite so public. Taking a whiz is as natural an act as we can do, but we have places and reasons for not doing it on the sidewalk at the curb.
Okay poor analogy but I think you get the point. A little modesty goes a long way.
I love tits and I was breastfed and think I turned out better for it, but in a discussion with my mom, she said she covered up and no one ever said a thing. AND THIS WAS THE FIFTIES! Of course we were a military family and with the baby boom it was no big deal.
Don't worry, as more and more women start breastfeeding their babies, and as they keep doing it in public, pretty soon it will become the norm and then people won't be so uncomfortable and will stop getting all up in arms about it. Then we'll make the leap into normal sensibilities that most every other place on earth has ALREADY - it won't be a strange sight anymore, because it will be just common and normal. People will stop making such a big deal about it when it becomes, as it should be (and is everywhere else), normalized. Then those poor benighted souls who are now so squeamish (unless the breasts are HAWT and are exposed for men's titillation) will stop thinking so much about it. The time is coming; I know too many dedicated lactivists to think it is not coming.
Muslim women can and do breast feed in public. Islam favors mothers. Just to correct a little bigotry there. Not to offend.
I was more referring to muslims wanting their women to cover up in general. No bigotry intended at all.
Oh right. Mothers milk is just like shit. I lost track. Who's the whiner?
maybe they should just control their wandering eyes a little. ever hear of keeping your eyes on your own business?
if you don't want to see anything offensive when you go out then stare at the sky or stare at your feet - or, better yet - choose not to be offended! find some way to rationalize in your narrow little pervert mind just how necessary this beautiful human behavior is that has been the crux of the continuation of human life since it began.
Louise Marie Roth: First, Bill, dogs don't make human babies.
===
You tell 'em!
... When he claims that women's reproductive activities are yucky and should go underground, he is colluding with the people who want to control reproduction and sexuality.
Yucky? Where do people learn such things? Thank you once again christians. You sure have a way of distorting perspective and warping people's minds. Repress, repress, repress, it's the best way to control the masses. When the abnormal precepts taught by ancient desert dwellers stops being repeated in the modern scientific world by brain-washed fools, women will achieve their natural positions as equals in all areas of life.
mike
This is very embarrassing for Bill Maher. This level of ignorance of female physiology might be expected of a school-boy.
Bill Maher is not a Christian. I think he's an atheist.
I'm sorry, but all you people who have your panties in a bind need to calm down a bit. First of all, Bill Maher was NOT against breast feeding all together, or even breast feeding in public. So by stating such, all you commentators and the blogger just show that you either didn't see his comments at all, or didn't pay attention. What he was against, and I TOTALLY AGREE WITH HIM, is the act of just flopping a titty out in the middle of Applebees during a Friday night dinner rush. Come on people, it's called respect. If the woman who started this whole protest would have just thrown a damn blanket over her, everything would have been fine. But no, like everything else in this country, we take the "outrage meter" through the roof over something that's not that big of a deal, and ignore all the real, pressing issues of our time. I say to all the women who are "outraged" over this issue: Take a f*cking pill already. Some of us don't want to stare at your fried-egg-
And I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU.
And some of us don't want to see people with deformities or gays holding hands or ugly people or minorities or foreigners or elderly people or people with a lot of piercing and tattoos or (if you are Bill Maher) children of any size or shape doing anything at all.
But luckily we have FREEDOM. The freedom to be offensive. And the freedom to avert our eyes if we are offended.
Standing up for freedom is never ever "petty and parochial.
Suburban Malcontent,
Since you obviously never nursed a child, I would like to educate you just a bit, and no, I don't need to take a pill.
One thing that nursing mothers learn IMMEDIATELY when they start off breastfeeding is that when baby is hungry, there is absolutely NOTHING a mother can do to calm her child except for giving him/her what he/she wants--THE BOOB!!!!
After getting the hang of it, nursing is very simple and easy to cover up in the early days. However, at around two months of age, a baby becomes aware of the surroundings and refuses to be covered up by a blanket, especially in hot weather. Therefore, even if you try to cover them up, they just keep pulling the blanket off their faces, as I am sure you would do I someone tried to smother you, while you ate your processed onion rings and hormone injected beef patties.
Personally, I believe in being discreet while nursing because I do respect other's feelings, but it seems like people who have a problem with breastfeeding in public think the mother is controlling the situation, when in fact it is THE BABY who is firmly in the driver's seat on this ride. So please, cut these women some slack.
Also, why don't you get pissed off at seeing someones tits when they are scantily dressed and gyrating all over a stage, or around a pole or at a beach or doing any "non feeding" acitivies?
I think women are not "outraged" that people don't want to see their tits, they just want you to understand that when baby wants to eat, they have to feed.
Personally, I am all for special "nursing" sections in restaurants. At least everyone there would feel more comfortable and would have a lot more understanding and compassion for the situation.
You're right and all these other people are absolutely wrong, and totally overly sensitive. I really enjoy a woman's boob as much as the next guy (probably more), and am generally not offended by public breastfeeding. But to suggest that just because "it's completely natural" or "good for the baby" that somehow means "anything goes" is misguided and unfair to the majority of people (including most other women, from what I've read) who ARE offended. Urination and defecation are also perfectly normal and natural, and sometimes, when I'm out in public, I really have to go bad--but most would agree that it wouldn't be appropriate were I to suddenly drop my drawers and take a dump in the storm drain while I was strolling down Park Avenue. Also to suggest that the mother has less control over the situation than the baby is bogus. There are usually several appropriate ways to deal with the situation other than to just whip it out at the dinner table in a restaurant because that's what's most convenient for YOU. I concur--you whiners need to take a pill and lay off Bill.
what?
some of us are just too up tight about what we belive in that we do not recognize sarcasm.
i agree it was in poor taste but just realize that he was speaking in the voice of people that he does not belive in.
you will never hear some of those hicks out there that do not like public breast feeding speaking up so (as bill does on many occasions) made parody of the ignorant many who do not like this type of parental/child interaction.
in the mean time youn lalaches..
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
