On Tuesday, a story broke in the local Los Angeles media about a new mother who took her son shopping at a Beverly Hills Anthropologie, an extremely expensive women’s clothing store that sells items in the style of what you’d see women at Coachella or a DTLA fashion show wearing. The store consists of cute maxi dresses, over-the-top embroidered blouses, capris, cut-offs and all the cute accessories to match.
Nursing mom Ingrid Weiss Hesson spent $700, then sat down in one of the comfortably chic chairs to nurse her six-week-old son while wearing a cover. No one complained, but the manager approached her and took her to the employee restroom to “finish” feeding her child.
After returning home, Hesson called and spoke with the manager, who stood by her decision. Anthropologie has issued what they call an apology, but when I asked the two managers on duty yesterday if corporate has any plans to train their employees about how to properly handle the situation of a nursing mom in their stores, both of them seemed intimidated by my status as a talk radio host and member of the staff at TruthRevolt. They simply said the statement online is how the company feels.
The statement from the store reads:
We are disappointed to hear of the unfortunate experience that occurred in our Beverly Hills store. As a company comprised of hundreds of mothers, which seeks to put the customer first, we celebrate women in all of their life stages. Given our staff’s dedication to providing exceptional customer service, we welcome this as an opportunity to enhance our customer experience by providing further training and education for our staff. Our aim is that all women – all mothers – be comfortable in our stores and delight in their relationship with Anthropologie.
Should breastfeeding be the new “women’s rights” issue which the conservative movement makes its own? After a debate on The Morning Answer (where Ben Shapiro and I are co-hosts with Brian Whitman), Ben and I were involved in a Twitter discussion with other conservatives, and the question was whether others agreed with us. Matt Lewis at the Daily Caller said yes. Lewis’ argument was that if conservative Republicans are pro-family, why shouldn’t they advocate for issues like breastfeeding that are usually a non-political or sometimes liberal issue?
Yesterday, a nurse-in protest at the Anthropologie store found a group of roughly 40 moms holding a discussion about the issue. Politics was not part of the discussion; religion wasn’t brought up; feminism wasn’t brought up. Most of the women I met there would probably despise my politics if they tuned in to my radio show. One of the Facebook organizers for this “nurse-in” seemed to be an anti-Israel activist who thinks "Palestine should be freed.”
Yet I didn’t go and ask a single black mom, Maya, if she was an Obama supporter. Instead, we talked about the difficulties of returning to work and having a place to pump. She spoke of the pressure co-workers put on her at her old hospital job for needing a private space to nurse and how she loves the bonding time she gets with her daughter Malachai during their nurse time.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Catherine Begovic attended in scrubs, her white lab coat and her two-year-old daughter in tow. Begovic is still actively breastfeeding and said numerous studies show that emotional and cognitive development in breastfed babies is one of the many reasons she’s a nursing advocate. Her biggest battle is fighting the misconception that after a reduction or augmentation women cannot nurse and said often doctors and nurses are not supportive when a mother wants or needs education on the issue.
Many of the moms present weren’t exhibitionists pulling out an uncovered breast to nurse for the cameras. Babies ranged in ages from seven weeks to children up to 6 years old.
I brought my daughter to the nurse-in yesterday. She just turned one and is still nursing. I would like to continue to nurse and use the self-led weaning method for her. My non-college educated, non-medical and purely personal opinion is that breastfed babies are healthier, happier, and more well-rounded. Our daughter is always the happiest and most social baby at gatherings. I think my husband and I have convinced many childless friends to get on the parenting bandwagon.
I am so passionate about this issue I hashtagged a picture of me nursing our daughter on a recent surf trip in San Diego County for #worldbreastfeedingweek.
Of the Beverly Hills Police Department members present yesterday (two plain clothes, one uniformed) all expressed shock at how “young and normal” the moms and kids looked. They commented on the lack of temper tantrums and fits and fussies. Why? Breastfed babies are happier babies.
We should not exile nursing mothers to be at home and never work, never to go shopping or out to dinner with their husbands and kids because we think it’s uncouth to nurse in public. Let’s normalize breastfeeding. A dear friend said it best when she stated, “If we want to encourage more women to have children and do what's best for them, we need to let them be part of society while doing so.”
I love breastfeeding and am passionate about doing it around other women and in public! My husband is incredibly supportive about training our kids to respect the female body (save themselves for marriage) and recognizes the huge benefits of us being a loving couple and educated parents in public. It encourages other people to do the same.
So I agree with Matt Lewis. Conservatives need to unite. Pro-breastfeeding is pro-family and we need happy and healthy families. When families do well, America does well. This is a conservative principle at its core.
Breastfeeding isn’t a political issue, but should it be?
On Tuesday, a story broke in the local Los Angeles media about a new mother who took her son shopping at a Beverly Hills Anthropologie, an extremely expensive women’s clothing store that sells items in the style of what you’d see women at Coachella or a DTLA fashion show wearing. The store consists of cute maxi dresses, over-the-top embroidered blouses, capris, cut-offs and all the cute accessories to match.
Nursing mom Ingrid Weiss Hesson spent $700, then sat down in one of the comfortably chic chairs to nurse her six-week-old son while wearing a cover. No one complained, but the manager approached her and took her to the employee restroom to “finish” feeding her child.
After returning home, Hesson called and spoke with the manager, who stood by her decision. Anthropologie has issued what they call an apology, but when I asked the two managers on duty yesterday if corporate has any plans to train their employees about how to properly handle the situation of a nursing mom in their stores, both of them seemed intimidated by my status as a talk radio host and member of the staff at TruthRevolt. They simply said the statement online is how the company feels.
The statement from the store reads:
Should breastfeeding be the new “women’s rights” issue which the conservative movement makes its own? After a debate on The Morning Answer (where Ben Shapiro and I are co-hosts with Brian Whitman), Ben and I were involved in a Twitter discussion with other conservatives, and the question was whether others agreed with us. Matt Lewis at the Daily Caller said yes. Lewis’ argument was that if conservative Republicans are pro-family, why shouldn’t they advocate for issues like breastfeeding that are usually a non-political or sometimes liberal issue?
Yesterday, a nurse-in protest at the Anthropologie store found a group of roughly 40 moms holding a discussion about the issue. Politics was not part of the discussion; religion wasn’t brought up; feminism wasn’t brought up. Most of the women I met there would probably despise my politics if they tuned in to my radio show. One of the Facebook organizers for this “nurse-in” seemed to be an anti-Israel activist who thinks "Palestine should be freed.”
Yet I didn’t go and ask a single black mom, Maya, if she was an Obama supporter. Instead, we talked about the difficulties of returning to work and having a place to pump. She spoke of the pressure co-workers put on her at her old hospital job for needing a private space to nurse and how she loves the bonding time she gets with her daughter Malachai during their nurse time.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Catherine Begovic attended in scrubs, her white lab coat and her two-year-old daughter in tow. Begovic is still actively breastfeeding and said numerous studies show that emotional and cognitive development in breastfed babies is one of the many reasons she’s a nursing advocate. Her biggest battle is fighting the misconception that after a reduction or augmentation women cannot nurse and said often doctors and nurses are not supportive when a mother wants or needs education on the issue.
Many of the moms present weren’t exhibitionists pulling out an uncovered breast to nurse for the cameras. Babies ranged in ages from seven weeks to children up to 6 years old.
I brought my daughter to the nurse-in yesterday. She just turned one and is still nursing. I would like to continue to nurse and use the self-led weaning method for her. My non-college educated, non-medical and purely personal opinion is that breastfed babies are healthier, happier, and more well-rounded. Our daughter is always the happiest and most social baby at gatherings. I think my husband and I have convinced many childless friends to get on the parenting bandwagon.
I am so passionate about this issue I hashtagged a picture of me nursing our daughter on a recent surf trip in San Diego County for #worldbreastfeedingweek.
Of the Beverly Hills Police Department members present yesterday (two plain clothes, one uniformed) all expressed shock at how “young and normal” the moms and kids looked. They commented on the lack of temper tantrums and fits and fussies. Why? Breastfed babies are happier babies.
We should not exile nursing mothers to be at home and never work, never to go shopping or out to dinner with their husbands and kids because we think it’s uncouth to nurse in public. Let’s normalize breastfeeding. A dear friend said it best when she stated, “If we want to encourage more women to have children and do what's best for them, we need to let them be part of society while doing so.”
I love breastfeeding and am passionate about doing it around other women and in public! My husband is incredibly supportive about training our kids to respect the female body (save themselves for marriage) and recognizes the huge benefits of us being a loving couple and educated parents in public. It encourages other people to do the same.
So I agree with Matt Lewis. Conservatives need to unite. Pro-breastfeeding is pro-family and we need happy and healthy families. When families do well, America does well. This is a conservative principle at its core.