>> >>: a photo of two women in the militarybreast feeding in uniform. promotional base posters for national breastfeeding awareness month, but some say it's unprofessional and disgraceful to the uniform.wendy patrick and sdsu lecturer, thank you for being here.who are these women in this photograph? >> >>: they are two members of the internationalguard and they're based up at fair child air force base in washington.as you said, it all started with an idea to promote military moms breast feeding.so a local photographer invited some moms to have their pictures taken, sort of naturephotos outside and most of the women were photographed breast feeding their babies justwearing their civilian clothes.
two of the women were photographed wearingtheir uniforms and when this photographer posted those photos on her website, they startedgetting spread around the internet and that's where the controversy started.>> >>: i know on our website, kpbs.org, where the photos are posted we've been slam wouldso many hits and now so many comments. tell me what some of the people are say saying.>> >>: the comments are really sort of polarizing. you have one side some of the men in the military,or women who have been in the military for awhile saying that it's not something thatshould be done in uniform, that when you wear the uniform you're reflecting something greaterthan yourself. the example's been used you don't talk onthe phone, you don't or cell phoneãš you don't
chew gum, you're representing something different.>> >>: rules of decorum. >> >>: by lifting up the shirt, that's sortof disgracing the uniform. on the other side, you have women and men,too, saying that this is extremely natural, this is what the woman's body was built todo, which is feed these children. the children don't always know when the mom'swearing the uniform or not, they're hungry when they're hungry.so she's doing something very natural and feeding her child and that the issue is reallywithin the person who has the problem, and not the woman who's doing the breast feeding.>> >>: so wendy, i thought we'd been through this debate already, culturally and as a country.so why is it? what is it about these photos
that is causing such an emotional reaction?>> >>: well, i really think that kind of speaks to the issue, it's an emotional reaction.partly on the nature of the photo and partly on the nature of the controversy.women have breast fed all throughout history and will continue to disoo so.the issues are where they do it, when they do it, and while wearing what, in or out ofuniform, that points out the baby has no way of knowing hungry when it's hungry.i think this is an opportunity to talk about all three issues.i think bloggers as all of you know, have seen it as just that.people aren't just commenting on whether these moms shouldn't have taken their uniforms off,or gone to a private place, it has expanded
the discussion of breast feeding in this dayin age where women can't afford to stay home. we have to have duel income families and alot of respects. it's more relevant to talk about it now.>> >>: these are work moms, a lot of working moms.what does the labor law say in terms of a work mom and breast feeding?>> >>: that's a really good question. the labor code talks about the fact that the employerhas to provide accommodations, reasonable time, and space which cannot be a bathroomfor a mom to breast feed. they get a pass to provide those accommodationsif it would seriously disrupt the operations of the employer.we we can speculate to the dpasm examples
of that.are we going to have air traffic controllers breast feeding in front of staff, prison guardsand law enforcement and teachers. we're going soar sort of into the out rageows where the labor code gives some really good specific guidelines as to how an employercan provide reasonable accommodations for moms to do this.>> >>: i do want to let people at home know we did contact the women in the photo.they are no longer doing interviews. they told thus recent media has portrayedmom to mom as not being supportive of the military.we support the military 110% and this was never our intention.beth, doo do we know what's happened to this
these women? are they subject to disciplinaryaction? >> >>: they have been told by their superiorsthey are not to talk to the media. based on what a spokesmen for fair child airforce base said, the issue was never with them, the women breast feeding in their uniform,it was that they promoting a cause while wearing the uniform.the cause was, you know, women breast feeding or military moms breast feeding but they shouldn'thave been wearing the uniforms to promote the cause.that's the issue they had. but they're saying it's an educational momentand these women are not taking an reprimands. >> >>: i want to send people to our website.they can read these comments, make their own,
at kpbs.org, and your blog spot as well?>> >>: home post.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment