This coming Wednesday, December 28, Michelle Hickman is calling for a nationwide "nurse-in" to take place in Target stores all over. It stemmed from her experience being harassed by Target employees for breastfeeding in, according to her, a nice quiet corner, under a blanket in a Houston store. She was asked to move to a dressing room to finish feeding her baby:
Apparently when she called Target corporate to complain about the occurrence, she was told that, "just because it is a woman’s right to nurse in public even without a nursing cover like I was using doesn't mean women should walk around 'flaunting it'."
I think that the idea of a nurse-in is probably as appropriate of a response as anything else. If you are a breast feeding mother and would like to participate you can find out more through the Facebook Group which already has over 4000 members as of this writing.
I was Christmas shopping with a basket full of items when my infant woke up hungry, so I found a remote area of the store in the ladies clothing department close to the fitting rooms and sat Indian style on the floor next to my basket and a display of jeans and nursed my hungry baby with a blanket completely covering him. Briefly I will say that 2 female employees came and verbally asked me to move. The 2nd one told me that Target employees had been told/trained to interrupt nursing and to redirect mothers to the fitting rooms. Even after I informed the 2nd employee of my legal right to nurse in public she still suggested me moving closer to the jean display, turning to face another direction, and also turn my basket a certain way which would have put me practically underneath the jean display and totally barricaded me in.
Apparently when she called Target corporate to complain about the occurrence, she was told that, "just because it is a woman’s right to nurse in public even without a nursing cover like I was using doesn't mean women should walk around 'flaunting it'."
I think that the idea of a nurse-in is probably as appropriate of a response as anything else. If you are a breast feeding mother and would like to participate you can find out more through the Facebook Group which already has over 4000 members as of this writing.
The censorship of breasts is insanity. "We are born with a breast in our mouth and God willing we'll die with a breast in our mouth. If you're against breasts you're against life!" – Denny Crane (William Shatner)
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