This Week In Public Breastfeeding Shaming: Creepy Deli Worker Photographs Mom

jason's-deliStories of women being shamed for public breastfeeding are so rampant these days I could probably start a weekly column. How depressing. This week a woman wasn’t actually told to leave an establishment, a creepy employee just took it upon himself to photograph her while she was breastfeeding. I’m sure he had the best of intentions. He was probably planning on uploading it to La Leche League’s Facebook page or something.

Jamie Gustafson was nursing her 2-month old baby boy at a Jason’s Deli in San Antonio when she claims she caught an employee taking pictures of her. Great. I’m already hearing the chorus of, Well, if you don’t want your boobs photographed, don’t take them out in public! From KHOU:

“I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say. I was speechless. I got hot, my face was hot. I got sweaty, I was so mad, but I didn’t know how to confront him,” Gustafson said. “I mean, what am I going to say? ‘Give me your phone?’ I wanted to take his phone and smash it.”

Gustafson’s sister confronted the employee and told management. To their credit, the company was quick to release a statement responding to what happened:

“We cherish families and value the many wives and mothers who work here, and the wives and mothers who are our guests dining here. Their right to breastfeed their babies is something we support and believe in. We were deeply troubled by this employee’s conduct and not only was his conduct an explicit breach of written company policy, it was a violation of the values we care about deeply.”

The company fired the employee, which was clearly the right thing to do. Gustafson filed a police report – but good luck getting a judge to take that seriously considering one just ruled that upskirt shots were a-ok because they were in “plain sight.” I hate everything. At least this punk was fired – I guess that’s the best outcome we could hope for in this situation, barring some video of him being knocked unconscious with a deli sandwich.

Mom says she’ll probably use a cover in the future because of this experience, which is why I think this totally qualifies as “shaming.” Some jerk’s creepy actions are making her feel unsafe about breastfeeding her child in public, which is simply not okay.

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