I have never been shamed for breastfeeding. But saying that I have never been shamed for breastfeeding is like saying that I have never been raped. It doesn’t really matter. I still live in fear of it. No, I don’t mean shuddering in fear and unable to live my life. I mean my behavior (and yours) is shaped by the experiences of other women. I don’t walk alone at night. I am always aware of my surroundings. I walk briskly through empty parking garages. I would never think of cutting down an alley at night. As a matter of fact, I won’t even do it during the day in my neighborhood. I have lived my whole life being shaped by a culture where women are brutally abused every single day, where the responsibility lies on me to not be victimized. [Read more…]
Stanford Rape Trial Injustice
Unless you live under a rock you know about Brock Turner by now. My news feed has been blowing up with a nation emotionally triggered by a disgusting act of the legal system. I have so many thoughts, so many angles to take with this, I am also overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure I should say anything at all until this evening when I checked the comments of a photo that I shared to find a troll saying something along the lines that, “at least she ain’t a nasty hairy bitch, yet, why don’t you show me your jugs without the baby.” I decided I would go ahead and share one small sliver of a point that I’d like to express.
Misogyny Is…
By Abby Theuring, MSW
The longer I work at breastfeeding advocacy and activism the harder it becomes to separate issues surrounding breastfeeding and breastfeeding in public from larger feminist issues. Intrigued by the connection I started reading feminist essays and picked up Rebecca Solnit’s book Men Explain Things to Me. I worked up an appetite to [Read more…]
