State Representative Believes Men Can Grab A Breastfeeding Woman’s Nipple
There are many, many reasons I am happy I live in Canada. Justin Trudeau, the four beautiful seasons, that new Tim Hortons sugar cookie donut (I mean, come on), maybe even Justin Beiber’s (arguably) magnificent return to music. And now, thanks to a New Hampshire representative, I can add “because it’s not New Hampshire” to that list.
Currently, in New Hampshire, it is legal for both men and women to go topless. This means that both men and women are allowed to show his or her nipples in public. Seems pretty fair to me—and as a citizen of Ontario, this is also pretty normal for me too.
Right now, there is a state bill in the works that will make it a misdemeanour for women to show their nipples in New Hampshire. Argh. I mean, this seems a bit sexist, no? Well here’s the kicker, the law applies for all situations—including breastfeeding.
It seems that the bill’s biggest supporters are a group of Republican men and Democratic State Representative Amanda Bouldin was quick to point out the problem with that
Bouldin took to Facebook to air her concerns about the bill, where she was quickly attacked by those Republican State representatives.
Enter Josh Moore, a little ray of sunshine who really took things to a scary level.
In a Facebook post that seems to dislike the apostrophe almost as much as it hates women, Moore basically said that breastfeeding mothers are free game for all men to grope and ogle.
“Who doesn't support a mothers right to feed? Don't give me the liberal talking points Amanda. 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 inclnantion to stare at it and grab it. After all, it's ALL relative and natural, right?”
And Moore wasn’t the only State Representative to make some seriously aggressive comments on Bouldin’s post. Republican Representative Al Baldasaro chimed in, with a post as equally riddled with typos as Moore’s.
“Amanda, No disrespect, but your nipple would be the last one I would want to see. You want to turn our family beach's into pervert show. Liberterians want a nude beach, put your money together and buy one, if you want to expose your kids to nudity, go for it. Some of us liberty minded Reps do believe in family values.”
Moore and Baldasaro at least had a bit of sense and removed the offensive post, but the damage has already been done.
These, these are the people that the population of New Hampshire have elected to sit in office and make decisions for them. It sends chills down my spine.
Thanks goodness for Bouldin, who put up with what can only be considered misogynistic and, at times, personal attacks and still managed to focus on the matter at hand.
“We shouldn’t be introducing new legislation that only applies to woman,” she said. “If we has any laws that started with the sentence ‘women should not,’ they should have been repealed by now.”