New Mom Apologizes for Ever Judging People Breastfeeding in Public

You often hear about the judgement that occurs between moms on the best way to raise a family (often touted as the “Mommy Wars”). But truth is, the hyper-criticism of mothers begins long before you yourself may become one. When I was younger, I made a lot of snap judgements about the moms I saw around me. The important thing is that we realize that, for the most part, we shouldn’t be so harsh (especially until we’ve been there). Like the case with this next new mom who is now apologizing for ever judging anyone breastfeeding in public by way of a viral Instagram post.

Jenny Tamas is a popular Instagrammer (she’s got over 27k followers on her @gypsynspice account) as well as a new mom. You can see her entire journey from pre-pregnancy all the way to breastfeeding mama. But in a recent viral post, she confessed that she used to believe that moms breastfeeding in public were only doing it for attention.

“I mean why else would you pull out a boob in public?” she said in the post. It’s actually not that surprising to hear, though. Tamas mentions she never saw women breastfeeding while she was growing up, save for a photo in National Geographic. I grew up in much the same way. And when I finally did encounter a mom who is breastfeeding in public, it was pretty eye opening, even uncomfortable (not uncomfortable enough to tell them to stop, but just uncomfortable in that I was forced to recognize I’ve probably been viewing this the wrong way the whole time).

Learning That Breastfeeding in Public Is Not About Attention

That’s basically what happened to Tamas. In her post, she makes the biggest issue clear:

“…somewhere in those pivotal years of learning about my body, I learned something that I am still trying to unlearn: that my body and my breasts, are for one purpose only”” to turn him on.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXV3_qrDPmt/?taken-by=gypsynspice

Like many of us, the only breasts she ever saw growing up were sexualized and fetishized as something that’s meant to be ogled by men. But that’s not the purpose of breasts. Not even close. Yes, they can be used as sexual objects as we, the owners, see fit. They also have other purposes, though, and for those who choose to procreate””mainly to feed babies.

“And so here I am now, so, so passionate about breastfeeding because that lie has been one of the most destructive I’ve ever known. Its scarred me and an entire generation of girls. I won’t let (my daughter) Lilly to be one of those girls.”

Great to hear. As mamas, we should all be supporting our feeding choices, and especially not sexualizing the very natural and normal and beautiful act of breastfeeding.

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(Image: Facebook / Gypsynspice- Jenny Tamas)

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