Feminism vs. Capitalism
I’m actually interested in hearing some of the feedback on this issue. I posted a discussion about this on my Facebook page this evening to see the Libertarians and the Feminists duke it out.
A Hamilton, Ontario woman was breastfeeding her son in the “play area” of her local McDonald’s when the [female] manager on duty approached her and asked her to do it elsewhere (like in the washroom, for example) on the grounds that it was making some of the other customers uncomfortable. Of course, what better way to combat being asked to leave a restaurant than to contact the local press!
In any case, I don’t have any sort of problem with women breastfeeding. It’s natural, it’s normal. That being said, it’s up to any local business owner to ask anyone they’d like to leave for any reason. It’s called the free market. That being said, the free market also allows for mothers to team up and boycot a restaurant that won’t allow women to breastfeed there. Of course, property rights are inevitibly lost upon the left as is any sort of liberty.
The woman’s response was, “This is a restaurant and my child is having his dinner.” Proving that I should not be in customer service, my rebuttal would have been, “outside food and beverages are not permitted. Sorry ma’am.”
Tags: Breast Feeding, Capitalism, Feminism, Liberalism, Liberty, McDonald's
June 4th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
i have to agree with you on this one andrew. i think that anyone who’s offended by something so natural has somethign wrong with them. but at the end of the day, business owners should be able to do whatever they want on their property.
June 4th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
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June 5th, 2010 at 12:33 am
If McDonalds has a corporate policy of allowing breastfeeding in the restaurant, then she should’ve been allowed to do so. According to the article they do, so she shouldn’t have been asked to leave. Some people, however, can’t resist the inevitable attention they can milk from situations like this…pun intended…
The real issue here isn’t breastfeeding though, it’s what private businesses can enforce on their property. It’s like when they banned smoking in bars and restaurants in Ontario (and elsewhere). I thought it was, and is, a horrible decision that set a dangerous precedent for government interference. (I don’t smoke or go to bars, if it matters, but I reserve the right to do so and will make my own decisions on what businesses I frequent or habits I acquire…) I’d be willing to wager that by this year a lot of bars and restaurants would’ve have went smoke-free on their own initiative anyways, the market would’ve dictated it. Instead, we had government using an easy target that they can vilify just to regulate our lives more and more. (The obese are next, if you haven’t noticed…) Conversely, they can use a sympathetic situation like breastfeeding for more legislation on what can go on in private businesses…
Government will be in your homes next, they’re already on your front lawn (by banning pesticides) waiting for you to let them in…
June 5th, 2010 at 1:21 am
Good points Matt. And yeah you’re absolutely right about the existing corporate policy that should have been enforced. However, I’m sure we’re of the same mind that if a business owner wants to enforce any sort of behavioral code, even a dress code, she or he most certainly has that right.
The provincial smoking ban was a tricky example. Because, certain restaurants may have benefited from creating their own site-specific smoking bans, but they shouldn’t be forced to do so!
June 5th, 2010 at 3:17 am
This has nothing to do with feminism…just about common sense. Why shouldn’t a woman be able to breast feed wherever she wants? It’s her body
June 8th, 2010 at 12:56 am
good points…im still mixed on this issue though. im not sure whether or not it would be discrminatory to not let women breastfeed.