Apparently, moms can’t seem to do anything without the angry critique of something else. In this case, a young mom’s attempt to breastfeed her child at a Target store in Connecticut turned quite ugly after an irate man started screaming at her and using profanities.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to defend herself alone. Jessie Maher, who lives in Collinsville, CT, was at a Target in Torrington this past Monday–where she was minding her own business when she sat down in the cafeteria area to feed her 1-month-old daughter.
This is when a man who was purchasing food looked said to her, “Can’t you do that somewhere else? That’s f****** disgusting.” He also called her a “whore,” which you know, is terrible and unnecessary. Way to be someone a kid can look up to, right, dude?
Maher, who is also a doula, started taking video, which she later posted on Facebook. Here’s what Maher wrote in her status:
“Anybody know this a**hole who verbally assaulted me in target this morning while I was breastfeeding my baby? (He’s wearing an Avon shirt).
Before the video started rolling he looked at me and said (very angrily), “can’t you do that somewhere else?… That’s f***ing disgusting.. You are nasty” (he said a few other things under his breath) I responded with, “I am feeding my baby, and I have the right to do it here…walk the f*** away..leave me the f*** alone” He responded with, (as he’s walking closer and closer to me and getting louder) “you are f***ing disgusting…you are f***ing disgusting…you are f***ing disgusting…you whore” he said a bunch more bullshit that I can not remember ….by this point EVERYONE came to my defense! Target staff and shoppers… Then I started rolling the camera….”
Luckily, as Maher was defending herself, a few Target employees came to her defense, as well as another customer. The man was so outraged, he apparently demanded a refund because he was offended by a woman breastfeeding in public. Sounds like he just wanted a free meal and a reason to be a jerk.
The unidentified woman patron can be heard speaking with Maher and defending her to the angry man:
“You shouldn’t be ashamed of feeding your baby. He can go the other way. This is a beautiful moment. If he doesn’t like it he can go.”
Then, she spoke to the man, saying, “Then don’t look, okay? I’m here to protect her.”
After that, the man left the store while followed by a Target employee. As of now, Maher’s Facebook video has been viewed more than 3 million times–which she made public as a way to spread awareness about what women face when they breastfeed in public, stating:
“The only way we are going to eradicate this behavior is to put it out there and show this is happening. It’s unacceptable that a peaceful woman, especially with all the stuff that has been going on, the awful hatred going around, this man thought it was okay to attack a peaceful women feeding her baby.”
I’m absolutely horrified this happened to her–that kind of attack is scary, especially given the climate we’re in after the Orlando shooting. It’s not excusable to speak to anyone like that, but especially not a mother who is simply just trying to feed her child.
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