It's 2017, people, and we're currently in the middle of World Breastfeeding Week. Despite this, a woman was shamed during a visit to London's V&A Museum yesterday simply for nursing her child in the museum's courtyard.
Her response to the incident was brilliant. Sharing what had happened with her Twitter followers, @Vaguechera highlighted the hypocrisy of the V&A shaming her for showing her own nipple when the museum's exhibition halls feature so many depictions of a woman's bare breasts.
"Flashed a nanosecond of nipple while #breastfeeding and was asked to cover up in @V_and_A courtyard. Am perplexed...." she wrote alongside a sculpture showing–guess what!–a woman breastfeeding her child.
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Flashed a nanosecond of nipple while #breastfeeding and was asked to cover up in @V_and_A courtyard. Am perplexed.... pic.twitter.com/T6VIRQbgrC
— Vaguechera (@vaguechera) August 5, 2017
In a follow-up post, @vaguechera continued to mock the ridiculousness of the situation by making a playful pun on the similarity between the words "mammaries" and "memories." Pretty nice work there, we've got to say.
On the upside, I had a lovely day at @v_and_a exploring depictions of breasts thru the ages and making lovely mammaries. I mean memories. pic.twitter.com/mMiL27WQZ8
— Vaguechera (@vaguechera) August 5, 2017
At the time of writing, her original post has been retweeted more than 4,000 times. She has also received an apology from the V&A's director, Tristram Hunt, who wrote on Twitter: "V sorry. Our policy is clear: women may breastfeed wherever they like, wherever they feel comfortable & shld not be disturbed."
The woman has since thanked people on Twitter for all their support. "I was so surprised partly because this was the first time it's ever happened to me in 3.5yrs of BF [breastfeeding]," she wrote. "Reason it's important: embarrassment about #breastfeeding: one of most common reasons that women give up."
No woman should ever be shamed for breastfeeding while going about her daily business, and @vaguechera's Twitter posts make this point perfectly.
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