I'm sorry if this has been posted before (the show aired on Feb. 8):
Here's the link to the clip: http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/show/segments/view/new-mom-bethenny-frankel/
The online comments that follow were very good, I thought.
Here's the email I sent to Rachael/the show's producers at: showcomments@rachaelrayshow.com
Shea: “I’m expecting my second child and strongly thinking of breastfeeding. What are your rules for public breastfeeding, like where is it appropriate?”
Bethenny: “I think, unless you are Pamela Anderson, you shouldn’t be showing anyone your breasts besides your husband and your baby.”
Rachael Ray: “Exactly.”
Dear Rachel Ray,
I admit that I’ve only seen a few episodes of your talk show. I admit, even, that I didn’t watch the particular episode quoted above when it was on television (I don’t know who Bethenny is and I don’t have much time for TV as a new working mom with an infant). I do and did, however, watch all of your shows on the Food Network and I even read your magazine and bought some of your kitchen products.
I am so profoundly disappointed in you. And I’m angry – with you and with her and with the whole diseased society we live in that thinks it’s okay to shame women who don’t look like Pamela Anderson. I’m sorry that my breasts aren’t up to your standards, but frankly, it’s none of your business.
As a feminist, I think women have the brains and the right to choose what’s best for themselves. It’s your body, they’re your boobs, and no one has the right to impose an opinion saying that you should breastfeed. You should do what’s best for you and your family. I would defend your right to formula feed and support you in your choice, respecting that you’d made the best decision for you.
But breastfeeding is best for me and my family. It was hard at first. I was recovering from a difficult labor and unwanted c-section, and then I got an infection, and then I developed an allergic reaction to the antibiotics I was put on to treat the infection, and I felt like my body was broken. Through it all, I was determined to breastfeed my baby; I did, and she’s thriving. She is 8 months old, beautiful and healthy and smart and laughing all the time and cruising around the furniture.
And you have no idea what I’m talking about. You have no idea what I’ve been through, and your uninformed opinion is just that – a callous, shallow, cruel reaction.
I am a modest person when I look my best, and I had no desire that anyone see my stretch-mark covered breasts or my sagging post-partum stomach. While I was recovering and learning, I hid at home and fed my baby in private. But the time eventually came when I ventured out of the house, and as much of an inconvenience as it might be to people like you, my baby sometimes needed to eat. Which was accomplished without much fanfare (and with less exposed breast than you have had in past photo shoots), in countless bathrooms and back rooms and in my parked car, and yes, occasionally, at restaurant tables or on acquaintances’ couches, or at the park or the mall – even though I don’t look anything like Pamela Anderson (who, by the way, nursed her babies).
Telling women they can’t breastfeed “in public” puts your non-existent right not to see things that make you uncomfortable above the very real rights of women to go out in public, regardless of their breastfeeding status, and the right of the baby to eat when she’s hungry.
I think you owe me an apology,
Here's the link to the clip: http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/show/segments/view/new-mom-bethenny-frankel/
The online comments that follow were very good, I thought.
Here's the email I sent to Rachael/the show's producers at: showcomments@rachaelrayshow.com
Shea: “I’m expecting my second child and strongly thinking of breastfeeding. What are your rules for public breastfeeding, like where is it appropriate?”
Bethenny: “I think, unless you are Pamela Anderson, you shouldn’t be showing anyone your breasts besides your husband and your baby.”
Rachael Ray: “Exactly.”
Dear Rachel Ray,
I admit that I’ve only seen a few episodes of your talk show. I admit, even, that I didn’t watch the particular episode quoted above when it was on television (I don’t know who Bethenny is and I don’t have much time for TV as a new working mom with an infant). I do and did, however, watch all of your shows on the Food Network and I even read your magazine and bought some of your kitchen products.
I am so profoundly disappointed in you. And I’m angry – with you and with her and with the whole diseased society we live in that thinks it’s okay to shame women who don’t look like Pamela Anderson. I’m sorry that my breasts aren’t up to your standards, but frankly, it’s none of your business.
As a feminist, I think women have the brains and the right to choose what’s best for themselves. It’s your body, they’re your boobs, and no one has the right to impose an opinion saying that you should breastfeed. You should do what’s best for you and your family. I would defend your right to formula feed and support you in your choice, respecting that you’d made the best decision for you.
But breastfeeding is best for me and my family. It was hard at first. I was recovering from a difficult labor and unwanted c-section, and then I got an infection, and then I developed an allergic reaction to the antibiotics I was put on to treat the infection, and I felt like my body was broken. Through it all, I was determined to breastfeed my baby; I did, and she’s thriving. She is 8 months old, beautiful and healthy and smart and laughing all the time and cruising around the furniture.
And you have no idea what I’m talking about. You have no idea what I’ve been through, and your uninformed opinion is just that – a callous, shallow, cruel reaction.
I am a modest person when I look my best, and I had no desire that anyone see my stretch-mark covered breasts or my sagging post-partum stomach. While I was recovering and learning, I hid at home and fed my baby in private. But the time eventually came when I ventured out of the house, and as much of an inconvenience as it might be to people like you, my baby sometimes needed to eat. Which was accomplished without much fanfare (and with less exposed breast than you have had in past photo shoots), in countless bathrooms and back rooms and in my parked car, and yes, occasionally, at restaurant tables or on acquaintances’ couches, or at the park or the mall – even though I don’t look anything like Pamela Anderson (who, by the way, nursed her babies).
Telling women they can’t breastfeed “in public” puts your non-existent right not to see things that make you uncomfortable above the very real rights of women to go out in public, regardless of their breastfeeding status, and the right of the baby to eat when she’s hungry.
I think you owe me an apology,
