Thursday, June 29, 2006

Breastfeeding mothers to stage protest at Asheville Mall

Susan Reinhardt
Asheville Citizen-Times

ASHEVILLE – Breastfeeding mothers are meeting at Victoria’s Secret in Asheville Mall this Saturday at 1 p.m., staging a protest fueled by the two women recently booted from the lingerie shop for nursing their young.

In Racine, WI, two moms have organized a nation-wide “Nurse In” at the popular stores across the country. In two separate incidents and stores, the mothers were trying to nurse their offspring and told to leave.

“I’m doing this because of the two women who were shopping there and told they couldn’t use the dressing rooms or nurse in the store but had to use the bathrooms,” said Tali Branco, 21, of North Asheville, mother of a six-month-old.

On June 21, Rebecca Cook of Burlington, WI entered the store to check out the sales racks. Her daughter wanted to nurses, thus Cook took her into a dressing room. When the saleslady told her a dressing room wasn’t open, Cook said she’s just breastfeed in the store.

The Victoria Secret employee said no, pointing her toward the mall’s restrooms.

She was told, in her words, that the “sight of her breasts might offend a customer.”

Tali Branco thought this was ludicrous.

“I find it especially absurd that Victoria’s Secret of all places is freaking out about exposed breasts since it’s pretty much what they sell,” Branco said. “You see more in their magazines and store windows than you do when a mother nurses.”

At corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, spokeman Anthony Hebron, of Limited Brands which owns Victoria’s Secret, said the entire incident with the two women was an unfortunate mistake.

Breastfeeding in public is legal.

“”We have a long-standing policy which permits mothers to nurse in our stores,” he said. “We regret that recently our policies weren’t adhered to, but that did prompt us to make sure to re-educate our associates and let the public know.”

4 comments:

  1. Maybe V-S is a fraid that breastfeeding will remind the customers what flashing all that breast really leads to ....motherhood. Just like tobacco co's don't like cancer and beer companies don't like car accidents, lingeries co's don't like babies.

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  2. ghahahahaha! good one, ken.

    or you could get really misandrist and consider the point: 'I don't want to see that sh*t in public, unless I'm at a strip club'; or 'you know what that's going to do to her body, right?'

    too funny. victoria's secret banning actual breasts from its stores.

    I went ape-shit when my town threatened to pass a non-public-breastfeeding ordinance shortly after my son was born. needless to say, them thang's was out whenever the chance arrived.

    ...for those of you who thought VS might have been on the outside track, empowering women by embracing sexuality....

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  3. This clip is so incredibly littered with irony that I am forced to pass on commenting...

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  4. Todd: You have a apoint.

    Heather: I've always said that Victoria's biggest secret is that she's a man named Les Wexner (whose company apprently likes selling titalation but is uncomfortable with the results)

    Carrie: Truly ironic, n'est ce pas.

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