Crystal Scott, the mom who put together the "controversial" military breastfeeding moms photo, was fired from her civilian job as an X-Ray Tech at Schryver Medical. Her attorney, Patricia (Pat) K. Buchanan, said, "She was fired due to her passion about the Mom2Mom breastfeeding campaign and speaking out on gender equality and women's rights."
Scott arranged for photos of herself and another airman nursing their babies in uniform as part of a breastfeeding awareness campaign for her group, Mom2Mom of Fairchild Air Force Base. At the time, Scott said, "I'm an X-ray tech and I breastfeed in my uniform all the time. Granted they're scrubs. But people do it all the time in their uniforms. If you have a hungry baby, why would you take the time to change completely?" It was so bad that some people actually tried to compare urinating or defecating publicly in uniform to the breastfeeding moms! Ridiculous. Two of the moms were reprimanded for violating a policy stating that the uniform could not be used to promote a cause.
Jay Schryver, the president of Schryver Medical, released a statement saying, "Crystal Scott was terminated by the company on June 1st for various legitimate employment-related reasons." He said that she had been assigned time-sensitive tasks and ignored them and that she claimed she was sick when she was actually at a media event, as verified by a GPS unit in a company vehicle. He added a condescending comment, claiming they could "...understand the excitement Ms. Scott experienced in being courted by the media, both on a personal level and as a means to effectively promote her cause." He wrote that it did not excuse her from her duties at work and that her firing had nothing to do with the media attention she was getting.
Two weeks before she was fired, Scott reported a concern of gender bias to her boss. He told her not to file a formal complaint and told her that he would "handle it." Her lawyer said, "When she asked to be on the day shift, which she was entitled to by seniority, she was treated very condescendingly and was called names, including things like 'You're a baby' and 'You're a woman, you can't go there, it's scary.'" Scott has the option of filing a gender equality discrimination suit, but she hasn't decided if she will.
"I believe that media was used as an excuse because I was advocating for gender equality as well," Scott told ABC News. "I was shocked after knowing that. I didn't really know what to say. I was definitely not expecting it." When her supervisor showed up at her home on June 1st asking her to turn over her keys and company computer, she asked him why she was getting fired. Her lawyer said, "the gentleman told her it was 'due to the media.'"
Crystal Scott (left) has kept up the Mom2Mom Facebook page. For the record, U.S. law states that a woman may breastfeed her child at any location in a Federal building or on Federal property. Most states have laws allowing breastfeeding in any place that a person is legally allowed to be. There are no rules about covering the baby with a blanket or using other means to cover up. Indecency laws do not apply to breastfeeding in most states. The military has no rules regarding breastfeeding moms, for or against, other than providing a place to nurse or pump.
© Margie Wilson-Mars 2012
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Comments: 65
Was it wrong for Scott's employer to fire her? It appears so.
But I do think the photo to promote breastfeeding does have some problems. First I don't need to see a woman's breast to figure out she is breast feeding. The picture exposes more then is necessary. And second a person must be very careful of what they do while wearing a military or any easily recognizeable government uniform. Although I have no problem with the promotion of breastfeeding, I don't like it when public workers wear their uniform when they take part in homosexual promoting events.
Yes, breastfeeding is wonderful and natural, but we do not need to see it done or photograph it. Very poor taste and a bad decision.
As for not looking, unfortunately these photos were published on news front websites, which removes the choice.
The breast feeding moms are not pinups. Pinups are for the make society. Because I am a lady, I dislike seeing women on display this way. It's simply a matter of opinion.
As to breastfeeding and the US military, it's pretty silly to pretend that this is a problem when so many women in the US military are subjected to sexual abuse or rape at the hands of their fellow soldiers. Focus on the REAL problem, ladies- and show a little solidarity to your own gender instead of blaming the victim.
It has to do with our schizophrenic attitude towards sexuality and reproduction. We are sex-obsessed, but at the same time deeply puritanical. So we celebrate women who achieve sex-symbol status by showing their breasts to a camera, but we are deeply suspicious of women who use their breasts as nature intended- wrongly thinking that nursing a baby is somehow exhibitionism. In fact, we seem to think that a woman feeding a baby where someone else can see it is WORSE than a woman flipping up her top to show off her boobs to get some males aroused.
Sheez.
What I do have a problem with are women who feel the need to shove it down our throats and force it into our faces as some sort of cause. Is it indecent to breastfeed? No. But it is indecent to make a public spectacle of yourself and others for attention.
"Hey everyone, look at me breastfeeding my child." -- is not helpful to the dietary needs of a baby.
just saying
I think, in all honesty, women like this are attention-seeking idiots.
Interesting choice of biased wording.
It's an opinionated comment, not a news report. I'm entitled to be biased in my opinions.
The concept of these mommy crusaders is really no different from practically being beaten in the face by your friend's wallet-sized-photos of their kids. Nobody wants to see it, we all tolerate it and don't care of you breed or if you breastfeed. It's your right -- but nobody wants their faces rubbed in it as if it's some sort of thing that demands an audience and attention of the masses.
the same can be said about practically every other interest group out there
Exactly.
I was not criticizing you, just making an observation, which you apparently agree with.
No need to be defensive.
Just felt the particular choice of words showed it is indeed an opinion (which is by definition biased), with a rather interesting choice of words for the situation at hand.
So you breastfeed in public, good for you. Want us to throw you a tit parade? jeez.
I'm not being defensive. I'm just annoyed by this topic. Mommie groups are among the most irritating of them all IMHO.
youre a funny person.
apply to gay pride parades?
So who makes more sense? The women protesting about a right they already have? Or gays marching for rights they deserve and don't have?
Nonetheless, interest groups are all annoying IMHO. I stand by that.
Here's the thing, Chelsea. It IS a cause. breastfeeding, despite the "controversy" surrounding it or perhaps because of that controversy, is really not done much in the USA. The formula makers like it this way. the formula makers are winning the war- and america's babies are missing out on a good start at balanced nutrition.
"breastfeeding is great but don't let anyone see it" is not really a great plan. It does not change what we have. What we have needs changing.
Or miscarriages perhaps.
This is a great point of view. I have never thought about this myself but now I have more reasons to dislike this.
I am in total agreement sir.
Maybe it is just me, but I still have to wonder about the choice of words "shove it down our throats and force it into our faces". I am sure there is a Freudian reason for them.
Sounds like a comparison to a form of rape – demonizing the act that is 100% natural, healthy, and pure.
When your uniformed breastfeeding pictures get onto the internet Al Qaeda finds them.
When Al Qaeda finds your pictures, they use to show the US military is pussified.
When the US is shown as pussified, 12 year old kids flock to Al Qaeda.
When 12 year old kids flock to Al Qaeda, they attack US forces.
When 12 year old kids attack US forces they get slaughtered.
When 12 year old kids get slaughtered, the US press decries Obama's War.
When the US press decries Obama's War, he loses the election.
Help us defeat Obama, breast feed you baby in uniform.
Maybe you were just being ironic? nope.
The ONLY time I have EVER witnessed a mom letting it all hang out is while protesting or at La Leche League meetings! I have 8 children 3 grandchildren, fairly recently quit nursing my youngest son after nursing babies almost non-stop for 25 years. I was a lactation consultant as well...my point is, I've seen some boobs...I've seen nursing moms. They DO NOT go around whipping it out for the world to see. But for God's sake, why do these women HAVE to do this in 2012? Deal with it people and you'll never see another nurse-in or protest or women in uniform HAVING to prove a point! If YOU can't handle the boobs because of your own issues, DON'T LOOK, same thing I said to my neighbor when he complained he didn't want to see my son holding hands with his boyfriend while walking to the store! I can assure you, I HAVE been places where I had to feed my children in public. I would cover up as best I could, but some babies don't like suffocating while they eat. I advised people to by many tank tops, slit them up the center and wear a button down shirt, unbutton it from the bottom and no one will see a thing. But dammit, if I am wearing a bikini on the beach, with chicks wearing thong bikinis, I WILL feed my kid, again, lifted from underneath, but I shouldn't have to. Just like gay pride parades, it takes some in-your-face $hit to get stubborn people used to some stuff. Do I like gay pride parades? Nope, not because I am anti-gay, but because I think they go overboard and push it too far-like what Chelsea thinks of these moms. Women DO make every attempt to cover up or go somewhere more private, but if we can't, or don't want to, we shouldn't have to. And we shouldn't have to have nurse-in's to get laws changed-but we did.
That is a good comparison. I am all for breast feeding but I don't like those moms doing it in public like they own the whole place.
Bless you for all your work.
I was not 'involved in', or a financial supporter of the LaLeche League in the mid 70's when I first heard of it, but did believe in the cause.
All 4 of my children were breastfed, as was I, and my siblings. In generations prior, of course they were – was not any real choices other than that!
I have the feeling, that many who oppose it, are the same ones in favor of nudist colonies, nude beaches, and public nudity, along with supporting the thong wearing, spaghetti straps and band aid tops in public. (a matter of freedom dontcha know).
Simply because THEY cannot imagine a breast as anything other than a source of sexual pleasure, they think everyone else cannot see them as something else.
The same people that are in favor of oral sex, but against their spouse/partner using their toothbrush or taking a drink from the glass a partner had a beverage in ……. Very odd thinking!
It is a very odd custom in my mind.
On the other extreme, As I was growing up, a neighbor (1 of only 3 on that road lol) there was a family of Serbian immigrants. As children we called them Mr. and Mrs Mile (Mee-lee) - their last name was too hard to say.
Anyway, Mrs Mile as was the custom of extremely poor people from her homeland, breastfed for a VERY long time.
I remember the Mister yelling, that once the boy could nurse standing up, it was time to wean! Thoi he said it with at least a dozen M-F's, and Somma da Beeches etc.
"breast pump">
"Nipple confusion"
"Nipple confusion" is a very real problem and one of the leading causes of early weaning of babies. Prior to 3-months-old, pumping and bottle-feeding can cause the baby to refuse the breast because the milk flows much easier from a bottle. Secondary to the nipple confusion, it can have a devastating effect on the mother's supply as breastfeeding works on supply and demand. For example, you nurse your baby at 1 PM. You need a bottle of breast milk because you are going to the beach (where Heaven forbid you show a breast!) at 5. Since newborns nurse every 1-3 hours, you have to give your baby...what...at 4? Formula? Unacceptable. Less breast milk and he'll just deal with it? Nope. Pump and then nurse or vice versa? Hmmm, maybe, but tomorrow at 4, the breasts shall overfloweth, or worse, pumping doesn't mimic the action of nursing well enough that early so her body thinks she skipped a feeding and so she makes LESS milk the following day. The supply and demand system is very delicate and fragile for a 3-month-old or younger child. Many women pump and nurse successfully, however, many babies will not switch between the two and it WILL undermine breastfeeding with those babies. There is already enough of a fight out there from idiotic doctors in the 60's ("Breastfeed at least until 3 weeks old! But, no more than 3-months or you'll spoil the child!") and especially the 70s with "The daddy needs to 'bond' with the baby so he needs to give it a bottle a few times a day." To this day, people believe that garbage. Babies bond wonderfully with their fathers without having to be fed by them. Nature figured it all out. And, my breasts were put on my body to feed my infants. Until women can stop hiding and stop getting attacked by all the self-righteous people who's delicate senses have been offended, we have to fight for the right to not be ridiculed for feeding our babies!
Painful