A change to the law to stop creepy voyeurs in England and Wales can’t come quickly enough
During five years of breastfeeding, I have fed my babies on buses, trains and park benches, in cinemas, cafes and restaurants. I have a vivid memory of feeding my son, perched like an Elizabethan lady riding sidesaddle, on a fallen log in Richmond Park in London while my dad stood beside me, his eyes respectfully skyward, as I felt all the feelings known to humankind. A few years later, I breastfed my one-month-old daughter on stage at a book festival in Scotland while discussing Anne of Green Gables, which was like some divine coalescence of all my favourite things. Afterwards, the audience, mostly made up of women of a certain age, lined up to congratulate me and shake the newborn’s tiny hand. They would never have been able to do such a thing in their day, they said. What progress we have made.
I look back on all this now and feel lucky that no one took a photo of my breasts mid-feed. At least not as far as I know. This is a strong indicator of how low the bar remains for us undervalued and oversexualised mothers: that one is genuinely pleased not to have been sexually harassed while feeding one’s baby. Had someone taken out an SLR camera, attached a telephoto lens, taken closeup photos, and, when approached, refused to delete them on the grounds that it’s a public place and therefore his right, I wouldn’t have been able to do a thing about it.
Chitra Ramaswamy is a freelance journalist based in Edinburgh. She is the author of Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy
