Blaming Women for Men's Behaviors: The Breast in Public

It seems that since time immemorial women have been blamed for men's reactions to us, and it's still happening.

Cases in point:

Helen of Troy, blamed for causing the Trojan War because she was so beautiful and so many men desired her that they went bonkers. Uh, who went bonkers? Men. Who got blamed? A woman. How is it Helen's fault that she was beautiful and sexually desirable? It wasn't. She looked the way her genes determined she would look, if she happened to be pretty that's not her fault. It's also not her fault that men went to ridiculous lengths to try to win her. If men started a war over her that's no one's fault but theirs, not hers.

Middle Eastern customs of covering women's bodies and faces. While I understand the vast majority of women who cover themselves in this custom would not change it because it protects them against lewd comments and behaviors from men, it's an example of how women are blamed for their attractiveness. I can see how the hijab is respectful to women, how it protects them from being objectivfied and seuxalized, but I can also see how it is an insult to think that a woman is responsible for desxualizing herfself in order for men to treat her with respect. It's insulting that instead of telling men to behave themselves and not act out in perverse ways when they see a pretty woman, we tell women to cover themslevs in order to regulate sexual responses from men. How about we make men responsible for their own behaviors instead?

An intangible, immeasurable example of women being blamed for men's behaviors is how many men think poorly of women who work in sex industries (they're immoral, they're sluts, they're whores, etc.). These women get a hell of a lot of flack from men for fulfilling desires that men want. How hypocritical is thatt? Women wouldn't work in these industries if the demand from men wasn't so astronomically high.

This leads me to what this post is really all about: public breast-feeding.

Do you know some states have prohibited public breast-feeding under indecency laws? Public indecency?! The indecency of being a mammal? The indecency of a hungry infant? The indecency of a lump of chest fat with mammary glands inside of it? Are you fucking kidding me?

Now, why's a breast in public indecent? Because of men. And who created the indecency laws? Men. I guess it's too distracting for men to see part of a breast in public despite the fact that the average man has seen how many breasts in his lifetime (and let's face it, they all look pretty much the same)?


Then there's the argument about kids and teens seeing part of a breast in public. Whatever would we do if someone actually saw a mammalian mother feeing her young?! The shock!!! The horror!!! Our kids would be scared for life.

My rant comes from a news story about a mother who wanted to breast-feed her baby in a Victoria's Secret because she was shopping in the mall and her child got hungry. Victoria's Secret -- the largest capitalizer of the female breast EVER -- kicked the woman out of the store for using her breasts for what they were actually intended for (that's right, contrary to popular belief -- propagated by men -- breasts were not created for sex, lingerie, or Victoria's Secret fashion shows).

A fuckin' double standard if I ever heard one. "Sorry, ma'am, this store only allows the objectification and sexualization of the breast. If you actually want to use it for its intended purpose, you nutcase, you need to leave the store immediately."

Don't know why breast-feeding is so important? Visit the Le Leche League.

Check out this book: A History of the Breast by Marilyn Yalom