I asked about public breastfeeding…and now this has come up...what do you think?

Question

First, the original question (link): http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Am2pJiJL5bNKBcdk9eRd0F3sy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071124115711AA0Gz0B

Many answerers, pro or con, denied or confirmed a “sexual” link to the act of breast feeding.

Why isn’t breast feeding a sexual act? Indeed the baby derived from a sexual act. Why is breastfeeding pure, and intercourse impure? If a woman who is breast feeding is aroused sexually, is that so wrong? Or if a man viewing the act of breastfeeding is aroused, is that so wrong? Why do we separate, and compartmentalize the act of intercourse as impure, and the breastfeeding of a child as pure; aren’t they inherently linked? What are people’s hang-ups with the sexuality of breastfeeding, or sexuality and sex itself?

If you are wondering why I posted this question here, it is because religion has one of the biggest influences on this subject.

KJV study
why is a sexual thought "nasty"?

Breastfeed can sexually arouse a women...why is that so hard to take? It is well documented.

I am a father of a breastfeed son and am 33 years of age. I ask this question because it is relevant to my Wife, and my daily life.

By asking the question, "Why isn’t breast feeding a sexual act?", doesn't imply that I believe it is a sexual act, rather I ask because many people do believe it is. And if they believe it is a sexual act, I ask what is wrong with it being sexual? Is breast feeding sexual, or erotic? Perhaps, but clearly for it is! If so is that wrong?

Typo: ...clearly for some it is...

Answer 1

First, neither nursing an infant nor sexual activity is "impure." Impurity is an unsound concept. Terence is wiser on this score: "I am a human being, and nothing human is alien to me."

That said, clearly there are legitimate social and legal restrictions upon sexual activity in public view. Whatever my own perspective upon these restrictions, I acknowledge the legitimacy of such rules. On the other hand, attempts either using coercive social pressure or legislation to prohibit nursing babies in any public space is totally inappropriate, ridiculous, and finally indefensible. Women should be absolutely free to nurse their babies wherever they wish.

This is not about a narrow distinction between sexuality and breastfeeding. It is rather about the permissibility of social restrictions. I myself see no problem with either sexual behavior in public or nursing in public, but I recognize the pragmatic challenges to any legalization of public sexual expression in a puritanical country such as the US. On the other hand, to maintain the absolutely essential legality of public breastfeeding, it is rhetorically necessary to distinguish nursing from sexual behavior.

In other words, it's about what is necessary to keep a certain legal right--not actually what is theoretically true.

Answer 2

Until the appearance of baby powder milk breastfeeding was something so normal that people did not think twice about seeing a woman breastfeed. Indeed, that was the only time a woman could uncover a breast without being punished.

We have created ourself the sexual link by losing the habit of seeing women breastfeeding and making the breast only a sexual object. Now that breastfeeding is coming back in our civilisation there is a mental clash and mix up between breast and sex.

Answer 3

I don't know anything about a sexual link but I am sure there are some people out there with some ummm well interesting fetishes. Intercourse is not impure within the bounds of marriage. Yes of course there is a link between intercourse and breastfeeding, the practice of the one causes the necessity of the other. In regards to hangups well everyone has their own thoughts on what is apprpriate and inapprpriate sexually. As for the few people who answered here in regards to "the middle east"...

Universal pants- Most middle eastern women don't know what a burqah is. The burqah is specific to certain cultures. Please try and educate your self. The closest thing to a burqah for middle eastern women is a niqab (a lot different from a burqah), which the majority of women do NOT wear. As for women causing the desire of a man to be aroused... porn publications are proof positive that any woman in any culture can excite a man by sight alone.

Banjingo- What does middle eastern culture have to do with messing with peoples minds about the breast? Just because a lot of middle eastern women cover their breasts does not mean there is any indignity in having them. In fact in Islam it is recommended that a child be breast fed for the first 2 years (the second chapter of the Quran Al Baqarah)!

Many women in the cultures I am around breastfeed in front of other women and their immediate families. I do not have a problem with this happening in "public" as it is a common site. As for me, even though I am 100% American and a convert to one of the middle eastern religions, I would be embarassed to breastfeed uncovered. I would be totally embarassed to do this in front of any male other than my husband, even my own father. I will do as many modest women do and cover myself and my child with a light blanket.

Answer 4

I think you're a little bit off base, here. Breastfeeding does feel good, but definitely not in the same way that it feels good during sex play with your partner. Trouble is, some people have trouble distinguishing the difference between breasts=nourishment for a child and breasts=sexual enjoyment.

Answer 5

Breastfeeding a baby is not a sexual act. If someone else becomes aroused by seeing it, that is their problem, not the problem of the mother or child.

Personally, I find it endearing, not sexual.

Edit: If you think about it... blaming women for a man's arousal is why women in the middle east must wear Burkahs... is this what we want other countries to start to emulate?

Your wife should be able to breastfeed whenever your child requires feeding... if people around her have a hard time with that, it's their problem, not the issue of you or your family.

Answer 6

well to say there is a sexual link to breastfeeding doesn't sound right to me. Sure, I can get aroused seeing a woman do so, but some people get aroused watching a woman take her shoes off, does that make it a sexual act?

BTW, I could not care less if women want to breastfeed in public, I'm just addressing your question.

Answer 7

First of all intercurse is not impure unless you practice it outside marriage, breastfeeding is pure cause children are pure, if a woman that breastfeeds her baby is sexually arouse by that she might be considered a child molestor, and I don't think she should be wasting her milk in an adult sexual partner.

I don't believe breastfeeding and sexuality has nothing to do with eachother.

Answer 8

Feeding a child is a necessity, but a child nursing does stimulate a woman, but not in a sexual way, it gets the breast milk flowing. Any child that is hungry should be fed. Regardless of who is there. A woman can choose to cover but that makes the baby hot and sweaty. I give props to moms that breastfeed. I would not give my child formula. Why not give the baby what's best.

Answer 9

Breast FEED ING you see the feed part in it. Its acting of giving Feeding through the breast. animals do it to. So where you got this idea its an sexual act.

Answer 10

To start at the end with sex itself, most cultures have evolved rules and taboos around reproductive activity to assure that people who bring children into the world take proper responsibility for them. Add the concept of inheritance, and sexual mores gain financial importance as well. The rules about reproductive behavior tend to spread to things that might incline people to reproductive behavior, making all forms of sensuality liable to social censure.

According to Freud, sexuality in children is unfocused, and the child can take libidinous pleasure in anything - eating, for example. He called this stage of development polymorphous perverse. Adult sexuality he referred to as the genital phase, and believed that it was the result of social repression channeling our natural polymorphous perversity into socially approved reproductive behavior.

So I think people's hangups about breastfeeding come from either a puritanical sexual ethic that holds all forms of sensuality sinful, or the more general social "repression" that deems taking libidinous pleasure in non-reproductive acts perverse".