13 October 2005

ACT judge thinks breastfeeding sucks

| Savannah
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Did anyone else catch this morning’s 2CC call from the young mum who’d been told not to breastfeed her baby in court by some pompous judicial bully ?

He apparently told her she could not feed her crying baby because he wanted her to concentrate on what he was saying. The ACT justice system has been a standing joke within out without our borders for some time now, but this is really outrageous.

I think this man deserves censure by the community and his own peers in the legal fraternity for sheer bullying arrogance. The woman from the Breastfeeding group that Jeffreys asked for a comment said the young mum in court should not have asked permission (which is what she had done) to breastfeed, she should just have gone ahead and done it – then hizzoner would have had have to publicly reprimand her and some alert reporter might have a story.

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how do you know why and what i believe ?

Um, you keep telling me.

Haven’t had time to read all 44 comments here, but I get the gist…
C’mon everyone, has the sky fallen in? The world ended? In some cultures (embracing millions of world citizens), women go ‘topless’ at all times – regardless of whether they’re breastfeeding, cooking, celebrating National Day or watching arthouse movies.
Get real, go comment on something that really matters. Like self-serving dictatorships, genocide, corruption – or even the next Ashes series if you prefer.

rg i think we need to agree to disagree. you have your ideological saw to work, and i have logic and decency on my side.

why or how exactly im supposed to confront husbands fists is a point lost on me. am i supposed to be gratified that their wives breasts are on public display ?

how do you know why and what i believe ?

bonfire, I see your point. Nukes and their impact on peoples lives is an excellent reason why the public should not be allowed to possess steak knives.

You frikkin softhead!

The level of ‘nudity’, I use the term with great hesitation, involved does not obviate or take priority of that childs need to feed or the mothers right to do so wherever, whenever.

Look, we know what and why you belive what you do. It’s safe to say I don’t feel the same because sexuality, practical nudity as well, is not a problem for me.

So I state the law as a means to ‘win’ the argument, though you are a softhead and steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that you are at odds with it. Thats cool, like you’ve said in the past, other peoples rights end at your nose.

I just hope you’ll conduct yourself well when faced with this situation such that husbands fists don’t end there either.

Poppycock.

I know shitloads of mothers who have expressed milk in order to make certain timings in their lives. The fact that this is an issue is probably more due to the fact that this young lass is outside the circle of normality (given the evidence that she’s in court, drug user etc).

So did the magistrate have the right to dictate the eating rights of a baby ?

If his defence counsel all pulled out their sandwiches at lunchtime would he have something to say ?

He can fucking well tell adults when and when they can’t eat, and although it’s not a nice thing to do, he can do it to a baby as well.

I’ll emphasise my statement it’s not a nice thing to do. But he can do it.

He has seemingly offered several occasions when it would be an ok time to have a break, which seem to have been declined. I’m afraid this reeks of bandstanding far too much for me to take it as a serious problem with society.

If you want my opinion, I think she dropped the bra and slugged the sleeping baby onto a teat for that matter, but that’s including speculation into the argument.

there is a time and place for everything. when the judge is addressing you is not the time nor place to breastfeed!

only a softhead would think thats OK.

following on with the illogic displayed in some posts here, it woudl ne ok for me to strut around canberra all day in my birthday suit before doing nude star jumps in front of an all girls primary school.

after all, its my right.

The women had a right to breastfeed her baby in court and it is up to her if she decides to do it or not the magistrate can not chose for her. The magistrate can lose his job if he is found to be acting out side of the law I thing he should check the ACT laws before telling women they can not feed in the court (stoping the session for her to feed is not the same).
Women can even breastfeed in the ACT Legislative assembly.
http://www.legassembly.act.gov.au/assembly/files/Standing_Orders.pdf page 40.

lg you are so far out of touch with the real world im amazed you know which one of your feet is left and right when you put your clogs on in the morning.

while you may think that suckling the young is teh sole function of a womans breast, i can assure you there are others. if i could be bothered id google for the studies which show how men determine whether a woman would be a good mother of children by judging breast size. but do i really need to ? your statement is just ignorant. you try to use your hardcore feminist agenda to pound science and millennia of reality into your neat little political tract.

Yeah, what about strippers?

LG,tell that to the “show us yer tits” brigade at next year’s Summernats…

My arguement is not about this woman or her drug use. It is about the comments “there is a time and place for seeing a woman’s breasts”. The fact remains that breasts exist for the SOLE PURPOSE of feeding children. That’s it. That is what they are for. Biologically, the ONLY “time and place for seeing a woman’s breasts” is when she is feeding a child.

Yes, I know expressing and breast-pumps aren’t always nice to use, but it shows that there are always alternatives in these circumstances.

This may also be a case of a baby actually being better off on formula anyway.

Have you ever tried to express milk into a bottle? (even when you aren’t an addict)

It’s not fun and breast pumps aren’t all that good.

Irrespective of the “tainted” milk and the reason the woman was in court, most comments are bordering on inane.

Maybe she could have tried that new fangled thing called “expressing milk into a bottle” so a babysitter could have looked after baby, and still given it it’s heroin/metho-tainted milk when required.

Didn’t wetnurses go out with the Middle Ages?

I am yet to know of a babysitter who will breastfeed for you.

LG is right.

bonfire, you can have a “babysitter” however, a baby doesn’t always go along with your schedule. You may want to feed it at 10am but the baby is hungry at 9:30am – so what are you going to do, let it cry for 30mins because it’s not suitable for you?

Courts RARELY allow babies in because they deem it “not suitable” for children.

Yes the woman was an idiot for being in the courthouse in the first place.

bonfire, said learned man of the court agrees with both my statements because he didn’t ask her to leave, so suck it.

She probably brought the kid to the court to show the illusion that she is a caring mother. then timed it by not feeding the kid for a couple of hours earlier so that she would have to feed while she was in there.

Most of them just use prams and kids to enable better shoplifting.

G

Pretty scary to think what happening if she’s breastfeeding and also a drug user. Never mind, her rights are probably paramount over the baby’s anyway.

rg – i disagree with your interpretation.

as a learned man of the court also disagrees, i guess im right and you are wrong.

lg – always lovely to hear from you. i believe that there is a popularly and widely known service available called ‘babysitting’.

bonfire, the act has a bunch of things in its scope and one is breastfeeding. The section describes access in regards to the situation sin the scope of the act. Is a courtroom an appropriate place? Yes, it is a public place. Should it disrupt proceedings? No and the magistrate tried to cater for that in favour of the breastfeeding. No foul.

What bloody “arrangements” could she have made for her kid???? If the child is breastfed, should she have asked someone else to breastfeed it?

Bonfire, good to see you continuing to show your colours as an arrogant ignorant SOB.

Magistrates are talking about your freedom and your future. They’re entitled to your undivided attention (and can legally enforce it using contempt of court, if they want to). Plus, if you’re not paying attention

As someone who hasn’t breast-fed, I can’t say for sure. But I’m guessing it’s at least mildly distracting, and means you aren’t paying complete attention. Which, in a situation that means the difference between your freedom and your imprisonment, is not exactly wise.

rg it says nothing in that part you point to about breastfeeding.

your opinion is not an axiom.

nor are mine, but the fact remains – there is a time and place for everything. in court is not the place to breastfeed. according to evictors account, the judge acted entirely appropriately.

which i believe was the topic of the initial post.

to chris and/or tina – i have no idea why my post went to your private email address.

Taxi driver…. No, But breastfeeding in court isn’t actually endangering anyone else’s life is it??
Last time I checked people were able to listen fine while breastfeeding. It doesn’t exactly take up to much concentration….

Thanks Evictor, good to see he was doing very much the right thing then. No argument here.

bonfire, Storm covered this already in the Club Pink article I put up ages ago. part 3 division 3.2 section 19 . As for the white horse routine, WHEN it is appropriate is when the child wants to feed. WHERE it is appropriate is anywhere safe. But thats just my opinion. The courtroom satified both and in the light of recent information the magistrate appeared to make every effort to cater. No more argument here.

Evictor, as for your taxi metaphor debacle, see the above, apples and oranges, I doubt you are fooling anyone.

Well, well: interesting when the full story comes out, isn’t it?

Magistrate in question was addressing lady, who was representing herself, and required her undevoted attention. He offered to adjourn court so baby could be fed. Woman declined. Magistrate finished address, offered again to adjourn so baby could be fed. Woman declined because baby had gone to sleep.

What a total misogynist bastard.

A question for those sticking up for Druggy McGee. Would you be happy if your taxi driver took her hands off the wheel and popped her tit out to feed her screaming sprog in the backseat, thereby causing the car to crash?

really ? enshrined in law you say ? please point me to said law. AFAIK i cant discrimninate against someone on the grounds of breastfeeding, but i dont know any law that says a woman can breastfeed *anywhere* she feels like it.

‘madam please step away from the three phase industrial spindle moulder while you feed your child’

‘you discriminatory bastard!’

what you fail to take note of in your knight on white horse rant is any notion of when these activities are appropriate.

Yep, and that’s why the world is fucked: too many individual rights override commonsense and the rights of the everyone else.

theres a time and place for everything, while you are in court is not one of those times or places where breastfeeding is appropriate.

In the world of bonfire, this is true.

if everyone gets over the fact that they dont have rights to do anything they like because they feel they have certain powers or priviledges, that other mere mortals dont have, then maybe society will function a little beter.

They don’t ‘feel’ they have these powers, said powers are enshrined in law. They can or can not choose to be aware of them or exercise them.

What you would prefer ends at your nose, which is what you feel about other peoples rights of course. Too bad for you being outnumbered then.

I wonder if the judge wanted her to listen so she could avoid going to jail, and thereby spend more time with her child?

theres a time and place for everything, while you are in court is not one of those times or places where breastfeeding is appropriate.

if everyone gets over the fact that they dont have rights to do anything they like because they feel they have certain powers or priviledges, that other mere mortals dont have, then maybe society will function a little beter.

the whole ‘breastfeeding is ok whenever i feel like it’ argument is lost on me im afraid.

if you have a kid that needs feeding – perform that function in an appropriate time and place.

if you KNOW you will be in court – make arrangements for the care of your child.

OK, so wanting to BF her kid wherever she is, as is her right, is not intelligent?

Take a long hard look in the mirror b.

Having started this, I guess I should clarify the story of the 2CC caller in (who was the young woman at the centre of this) -i believe the issue was that her baby started crying from hunger and she asked the judge if she could feed him/her. And he said no. Not yet. So the baby apparently had to be taken from the room while she was spoken to, and then brought back when she was allowed to feed him/her. I don’t think her breasts were actually on view while she was being spoken to. But I concur with Bassman, it would have added to the stresses of both mum and hungry bub, particularly if the beak took his time saying what he deemed necessary to say.

soft-headed adj. not intelligent.
derivatives – soft-headedness n.

it’s in the concise oxford.

Define this word of yours, softhead. It seems to slip and slide all over your social agenda without any real foundation beyond ‘people bonfire disapproves of for whatever reason or mood’.

bassman – as i said, she should have made appropriate arrangements. she is clearly a softhead for dragging a child into a courtroom with her.

I don’t think the issue is really that a woman was breastfeeding in court, I think the issue is that she was apparently breastfeeding while the judge / magistrate was addressing her. I don’t think it is too much to ask that you pay attention to a judge / magistrate while they’re talking to you. If you’re being addressed then you should listen, and whether you’re trying to breastfeed or doing up your shoe, I think the judge / magistrate is within their rights to rebuke you.

Bonfire,
When is an appropriate time to let a child go hungry?

Some parents choose to breastfeed only. That is their right as parents.
The large majority of women who breastfeed do it discreetly, so it hardly amounts to looking at some womans breasts.

a court is not an appropriate place for this type of behaviour.

she should have made arrangements for the care fo her child.

i think the judge acted appropriately.

there is a time and place for looking at a womans breasts, and a courtroom isnt one of those places.

i hardly see how he is a bully for enforcing appropriate behaviour.

whoever this woman is, she is clearly a softhead.

It doesn’t stop you from hearing. It might stop you from listening.

How does feeding a baby stop someone from hearing??

Do you feed with your ears now???

Yes, but why was the judge wanting to her to hear what he was saying: maybe he thought she might learn something from what he had to say?

I’d take most calls to 2CC with a grain of salt anyway.

*mwah* you’re a honey Chris

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