Woman calls out breastfeeding shaming as a form of sexual harassment

'When we speak up we make the world a safer place'

It's something many breastfeeding mums have to deal with on a daily basis, ( LEO RAMIREZ/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman has shared a scathing takedown that calls out breastfeeding shaming as a form of sexual harassment.

Taking to Instagram, Diana Channing addressed the topic of public breastfeeding in line with the viral hashtag #MeToo – a movement which has lead more than 12 million people across the world to share their experiences of sexual abuse on social media.

But, Channing felt that there was one form of harassment that was being overlooked, Cafe Mom reports.

“Speaking of sexual violence, how it telling a woman and child to cover up not sexual violence? Stop sexualising breastfeeding,” she wrote.

“Motherhood is so f***ing fierce. What could be more perverse than asking a woman to feel shame for nurturing an innocent life in the way she was biologically designed to do?”

When breastfeeding in public, mums are faced with the choice of whether or not to cover up and, while these are personal decisions, Channing addressed the fact that many women feel shamed for doing so out of fear that feeding their child will become sexualised by passers by.

While it’s acceptable for women to shield themselves with a blanket to only nurse in private, she said the problem here lies with those who do so because of the reaction is generates from others.

If women are forced to cover their breasts while feeding a child because of wayward stares or comments about their body, is that sexual harassment? She thinks so.

It’s something many mums have to deal with on a daily basis, one of which also took to Instagram to share her story.

Earlier this week, Angela Pueschel from Baltimore called out a man who taunted her as she walked to her car to breastfeed her daughter.

“Today I'm minding my own business in the Target parking lot. A man catcalls at me from his car,” she wrote.

“The irony is that I'm about to get my daughter out of her car seat so I can nurse her in the privacy of my backseat for fear of being ogled by strange men.”

Public or not, nursing mothers should never be made to feel unsafe or uncomfortable about their bodies while feeding their babies and that’s exactly what Channing’s post is trying to convey.

“The #MeToo movement should have you going deeper, pushing past the norms,” she added.

“When we speak up we make the world a safer place.”