Re: TARGET store calls cops on nursing mother.


"GLOBALIST" <free.tuneup@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:5ca6d89d-245b-4596-a32a-ff2e5838b6f6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Monday, Dec 7, 2009 08:08 PST
Target calls cops on nursing mother
Security guards at a Michigan store tell a woman that feeding her baby
in public is illegal
By Kate Harding

While Mary Martinez was shopping in a Target store in Harper Woods,
Mich., recently, her 4-week-old baby got hungry. And because some
people still haven't gotten it through their heads that women often
use their own breasts to feed hungry babies, a security guard who saw
her doing just that told her she had to leave because she was breaking
the law. Which she was not. Target mistake No. 1.

When Martinez and her husband, Jose -- a police officer who knew full
well his wife wasn't doing anything illegal -- refused to leave, the
security guard called the cops. Target mistake No. 2. Although the
local officers who arrived confirmed that it is not against the law to
breast-feed in public in Harper Woods, Mary Martinez says she felt
humiliated and forced out of the store anyway. "Two security guards,
the manager or team leader, two officers, they just made a spectacle
and a scene. I feel like I can't go to that specific Target anymore."

Now, Target mistakes 1 and 2 can be written off as the poor judgment
of individual employees, but 3 is the real eye-popper: When contacted
by Detroit's Fox affiliate, Target's corporate headquarters said that
breast-feeding is allowed in their stores, but "This specific
situation escalated to a point where we were concerned for the safety
of our guests, so law enforcement was called." Are you kidding me? How
on earth does feeding a baby "escalate" to a safety issue for other
customers? Target's corporate spokesperson does understand that when
you give a quote to a media outlet, other people will end up hearing
it, right? And also that words mean things?

Perhaps not, because the rest of the statement was: "We regret the
incident in our store and will continue to provide a shopping
environment that respects the needs of all guests, including nursing
mothers." Yeah, see, the verb "continue" implies that you have already
been doing a thing you plan to keep doing, yet calling police on a
breast-feeding woman is not providing a shopping environment that
respects the needs of nursing mothers. See how that works? So at this
point, you could maybe start respecting nursing mothers, or change
things so that all Target security guards are aware that breast-
feeding is neither illegal nor against store policy, or create a new
rule like, "Hey, don't call the cops on moms feeding their babies,"
but you can't really "continue" doing something you weren't doing
before.


I mean, sure, maybe every other Target in America is wonderfully
welcoming to nursing mothers, but even if that were the case, this one
screwed up. Badly. And the savvy P.R. move in response to such a screw-
up is not, "we were concerned for the safety of our guests" -- I'm
sorry, did Mary Martinez whip out a gun and demand that everyone back
off while she finished feeding her kid? Take hostages? Tell someone
she'd planted a bomb? -- but, "Our security guard overreacted and
misrepresented both store policy and local law, and we are ashamed
that a Target employee caused the Martinez family so much trouble and
embarrassment. We want to reassure our guests that nursing mothers are
always welcome in our stores." Because you know what? Even if you
alienate the kind of customers who might find an accidental boob
sighting offensive, I'm guessing that's better for business than
alienating parents of young children; women who are, have been or
might someday be nursing mothers; and any other human beings who
understand that babies need to eat.

The manager of the Harper Woods store told the TV station that
(despite evidence to the contrary) "breast-feeding is certainly not
discouraged inside of her store." Good thing, since I'm betting that
store now has a nurse-in to look forward to.
===========================


This is a prime example of where fundamentalist phobias about human bodies can lead. Nothing is more natural or correct than to breast feed a baby. I hope every nursing mother in a 60 mile radius shows up and makes a spectacle of those idiots. And if Target is so touchy about a hungry baby being fed the way nature intended in public, then they should put a nice lounge chair in a secluded area, and set up a nice changing station there too.
--

Evelyn

"Even as a mother protects with her life her only child, So with a boundless heart let one cherish all living beings." --Sutta Nipata 1.8

.

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