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When I first read this topic I assumed we were talking about openly (breast exposed) breastfeeding. Understand - I've seen it. My article refers to openly breastfeeding, which I think is rude.

I remember the first time that one of my aunts breastfed one of her children in her home in front of my dad, who is about 10 years her elder. My dad was stunned into silence. He was very embarrassed. He walked out of the room. As the result of this reaction, my aunt, without further discussion, covered herself and the child while she breastfed from that moment on.

I had a very similar experience the other day at Wal-Mart. After checking out my purchases, I was walking across the end of the bank of registers when immediately ahead of me appeared a woman I would guess was about 35 years old who was openly breast feeding her baby. I laughed to myself a bit uncomfortably and walked by. And I'm now the father of two daughters, and I participated in my younger daughter's birth.

It's simply wonderful that many women make the choice to breastfeed their babies. It's even more wonderful that some women go through the trouble (like the girl across the cube from me at my last job) to use a breast pump so they can breastfeed their child. We all know that breast milk is the best thing for babies.

But here's the thing. If anybody is offended by something in this country, then the person doing it is supposed to stop. If you don't like me using certain words, I'm supposed to stop using them, not because you're a First-Amendment squashing Nazi, but because I am polite.

In most Western countries, women don't bear their breasts in public. Part of the reason for this is that a woman's breasts tend to stimulate arousal in men whose upbringing has occurred predominantly in a Western culture, be it because of a Puritanical values system or for whatever reason. While we in the West have a bad history of respecting other peoples' cultures, we're trying to get better at it. The photographers from National Geographic did not invade countries and insist that before they took pictures, men cover their buttocks and women cover their breasts. But at the same time, when you're in a Western country, please try to respect our culture.

Just cover up.

Learn more about this author, Timothy Avers.
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