Thank you, Bill.

(Disclaimer: I’m going to get serious for a moment. I’ve been meaning to post about breastfeeding for some time…just my own experience with it this time around. But now after seeing the “comedic” verbal vomit from Mr. Maher, I HAVE to say something about it.)

Thank you Mr. Maher for proving to me once again that there is still such ignorant people in this world. Oh, and did I mention chauvinistic and misogynistic? As soon as I think that maybe the United States has turned a corner because some stranger at the grocery store did a random act of kindness, Bill Maher spouts off his anti-woman, anti-mother rhetoric and brings my opinion of the human race (and the loons out there) crashing back down again. (Oh, and the whole Jena thing down in Georgia doesn’t help my confidence in people right now either).

I’m referring to his very antiquated, sexist and demeaning stance on NIP (nursing in public). I normally don’t do this but here is the YouTube clip…his rhetoric on NIP and how disgusting it is starts at 2:51.

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First off, not only am I completely offended as a breastfeeder but also as a mother. To have the audacity to imply that I, as a mother, would only go out in public, and *gasp* NIP, is to have the "spotlight" on me and get accolades for having a child is completely and udderly assinine. I get out of the house so I don't go stir crazy. I get out of the house and socialize with my family and friends so that I don't end up like any number of the several severe abuse cases that are cropping up more and more often all over the nation. I do NOT go out of the house so that people can swoon at my feet about how wonderful it is that I'm a mother. To refer to women as nothing better than dogs: Wow. What can you say about someone who is so extraordinarly hateful and demeaning to woman? It's clear in his tone of voice and body gesturing that he clearly has the lowest respect for woman...who amazingly enough make up the largest section of the left wing political group. He just lost a lot of followers there I'm sure (not that I ever was one).

But to go on and say, in essence, we need to suck it up and move on. Women in China are back to work within HOURS of giving birth. This is true. It's also true that their whole family lives together and the baby is cared for by family...not strangers at daycare. Oh, and guess what? China breastfeeding rates are higher than ours. At 6-9 months, approximately 20% of mothers are still breastfeeding their children in United States. In China? 32% of mothers are still breastfeeding. The United States has no data that I could find with regards to breastfeeding PAST that point either, but comparitively in China 15% of mothers are still breastfeeing well into 20-23 months. That's 2 year olds people. So while it MAY be true that they just "go back to work" they apparently take their children with them on the tit. Oh the horror...they must NIP too!

The insinuation that this is a petty and parochial thing to be lobbying for, again, is not only insulting, but ignorant. We have such problems with obesity in todays' society that the federal and certain local governments are trying to make laws as to what fast food companies can and cannot serve. And yet, he points out that it's petty to be activists for something as trivial as breastfeeding, which, Oh my God actually lowers the risk of childhood obesity. Hmmm. This is natural food from a mothers body that is perfectly balanced for that particular child is a BAD thing because it makes him uncomfortable while he's eating.

Now I haven't even slightly touched on the sexist veiwpoint that the women's breasts are OK to be seen while he's eating as long as it's in a sexual way. This has nothing to do with the fact he's against public displays of skin. This has to do with the fact he can't get over his own insecurities about his manliness that he has to degrade women constantly by thinking of them and visulaizing them as sexual creatures. I don't even think I can say humans because he sees mothers as dogs remember? NIP wouldn't be an issue except for people like him who see the breasts as sex instead of a way to feed our children. Which is honestly what they were put there for in the first place. Now, I understand that masturbating is natural as well; however, the purpose is simply for pleasure. Nursing is for sustinance. Sustanance of our race. I do understand that formula is out there and that we *could* use that but why? When our own milk is MADE FOR MY CHILD? I am not lazy, nor ill-prepared when I NIP. I pump regularly while I work (nights I might add, so that my husband and I raise our children ourselves) and cannot get enough for a bottle for my darling daughter out of three times pumping at work. So pumping and giving a bottle of breastmilk? Not exactly working for most of the breastfeeding mothers out there. And that's IF they can get a child to take a bottle.

So my question is this...we know that breastfeeding is best. And if he denies that he is more ill-informed that I originally thought. So should women be relegated to the house for the better part of 6-9 months (because remember most women stop bfing in America after 6 mos)? And with that relegation-the increase of depression among these mothers from the seperation from adult interaction and shame for what they are doing for the best of their child? Which could lead to the increase in child abuse cases which are so much on the rise already? I understand that may be stretching it, but have you ever been in a house for days on end with 3 kids-one of them attached to the boob? I have. It's enough to make a sane person crazy.

But then again, I guess Mr. Maher has never had the opportunity to be a mother to 3 children. Nor can anybody call him sane.