New Hampshire Representative Says Breastfeeding Women Should Be OK with Having Their Nipples Tweaked by Strange Men
Another day, another group of men saying that if it is natural for women to feed babies in public, it is natural for strange men to run up and assault them. It’s not surprising when these things happen, but this particular instance is shocking because the man in question is an actual New Hampshire state representative, and he posted in a public setting that if a woman wants to take out her nipples in public, she should be OK with strange man grabbing her breasts, because sexual assault is as “natural” as feeding babies, apparently.
According to The Huffington Post, the comments were made on the public Facebook page of New Hampshire state representative Amanda Bouldin, who opposed a proposed New Hampshire bill that would make it a misdemeanor for women to expose their nipples in public. Female and male toplessness is currently legal in New Hampshire, but the bill would make it illegal for people of any sex to show their genitals or anus, but it makes it illegal for women to have exposed nipples. Male nipples, being stately and respectable, would remain allowed to be seen in public.
Bouldin had written a Facebook post addressed to the bill’s sponsor, Republican New Hampshire state representative Josh Moore, saying: “The very least you could do, is protect a mother’s right to FEED her child.”
To that comment, representative Moore replied: “If it’s a woman’s natural inclination to pull her nipple out in public and you support that, than you should have no problem with a mans inclantion [sic] to stare at it and grab it. After all… It’s ALL relative and natural, right?”
Ugh. Breastfeeding a baby is natural and essential. Sex and sexual attraction are natural and essential. Sexually assaulting a strange woman by running up and pinching her nipples is not.
Then another New Hampshire state representative actually chimed in publicly to say that he did not want to see representative Amanda Bouldin’s nipples, as though that were not a hugely inappropriate and disgusting thing to say to a female coworker.
“No disrespect, but your nipple would be the last one I would want to see,” said State Rep. Al Baldasaro (R). When The Huffington Post’s Laura Basset contacted Baldasaro to ask if he regretted posting something like that publicly on the page of a coworker and lawmaker, he denied being ashamed of the comment.
“I stand by what I said,” he said. “You’re damn right it would be the last one I want to see. I’m a happily married guy.”
Nobody cares what Baldasaro thinks of Bouldin’s nipples, but he seems to think that’s the issue, and not that it is shameful for a state representative to be talking about whether or not he is sexually attracted to the nipples of a female politician and coworker.
The bill does make exceptions for breastfeeding mothers–Bouldin says that was an oversight. But these politicians’ comments are sexist and inappropriate, and these guys should be ashamed of themselves.
(Photo: Christopher Futcher/iStockPhoto/Getty Images)