Writer Expresses Disgust for Breastfeeding Mom In Restaurant Review

Restaurant critic Nancy Miller who writes for The Courier-Journal had a very delicious meal at Palermo Viejo,
so I've learned. I'm not one to read random restaurant reviews from
cities I don't live in or have immediate plans on visiting, but this
review of the Louisville, Kentucky, Argentinian eatery caught my
attention because Miller not only choose to review the meal, but the
meal that another person was having at the table next to her. A baby's
meal. A baby who was having breastmilk.


Miller's review starts out raving about the delectable dishes such as
fideos al estofado and cerdo con repollo and how she wants to eat eat
eat at Palermo Viejo as much as possible. Then she takes up issue with a mother breastfeeding her child right there in the restaurant.

Miller,
who makes certain readers know is also a mom herself, is dining on pork
and steak. She's fancy. Having a fancy meal. She's so fancy she doesn't
want to use the same fork and knife that she used for her appetizers
for her dinner. She's so fancy that she thinks a breastfeeding mother should be draped in blankets.
Or a light scarf. Miller cannot handle the sight of a baby enjoying
breastmilk and she wanted the mother to cover up. How dare she
breastfeed right there in plain sight of her beef?! Perhaps all
vegetarians should now start asking Nancy Miller to hide herself beneath
a blanket while she enjoys her meat. Perhaps all appetizer forks and
knives should run and hide after Nancy uses them for how dare they be
re-used on dinner!


Check out all she has to say on this breastfeeding mom, in her review ... for a restaurant:

I'm all for eschewing baby formula for the real thing. But I wish the
nursing mother at an adjoining table would have thought to bring a
cover-up or would not have assumed that other diners would welcome being
that close to what is undeniably a natural and loving bonding
experience. However, Palermo Viejo is the kind of place where guests
feel comfortable to be themselves and revel in the togetherness that's
fostered by a much beloved neighborhood restaurant. That's a good thing,
but so is a cover-up.

I love the use of eschewing there. The impersonal feel of the word is a dead giveaway that Miller is one of the more than half of Americans who think breastfeeding is obscene.
Just the use of that word tells me that. Her use of the words "natural
and loving bonding experience" won't make up for the fact she mentions
"cover-up" twice. In her mind, Palermo Viejo just isn't the kind of
place to breastfeed. Kentucky law,
however, says that a mother can breastfeed wherever and whenever baby
is hungry. And that no person can interfere with that mother and child's
right. Maybe Miller can eschew on that. Moms deserve respect, especially from other moms. If she didn't like the sight of it, maybe she should keep her eyes on her estofado.


Miller, realizing that breastfeeding moms and those who support us aren't happy about this, typed out an explaination on her Facebook page in what Mommyish writer Maria Guido calls a "sorry, not sorry" apology. Agree. Wrote Miller:

I am not advocating that mothers avoid going out in public while
breastfeeding. I wholeheartedly support the law that states they have
the right to do so, but I do not think it is unreasonable to assume that
not everyone wants to watch it. Nor was I advocating placing baby and
breast under several layers of blankets. A scarf would do the trick and
wouldn’t affect the baby in the least.   


Several people called for me to apologize to the mother, other
nursing mothers and, I assume, breasts in general. Since I did not shame
or attack the mother, there is no apology needed and I don’t offer
one.

Well then. Here is just another fine example of human beings being
discriminatory and unapologetic about it to others. I also need to point
out that there is a chance that Miller received a free meal because she
is a restaurant reviewer, while the breastfeeding mother at the table
next to her was a paying customer. A little human decency and kindness
goes a long way. There was no reason for Miller to thinly-veil her disgust over the sight of a woman breastfeeding in her restaurant review. The Courier-Journal
should be embarrassed. I think this is a fine opportunity for Palermo
Viejo to issue a statement -- not that they were directly involved, but
their name is associated with this incident due to Miller's review. It
is an Argentinian eatery, and Argentinian women are known to very openly breastfeed without anyone thinking it's unusual, obscene, or necessary to cover up.


Breastfeeding moms, I hope, are not dissuaded from breastfeeding in
public. We deserve respect. We have rights. Our babies deserve to eat
just like everyone else with everyone else.

 | The Stir