Thursday, February 19, 2009

Inyonyorri, Part 4: "I don't need to SEE that!"

One night, I was in Johnson's family's manyatta (little house made of sticks, mud, and cow dung) with Johnson's kids and some other relatives, while his wife Gladys was cooking. Gladys was holding her two-month-old son Frederick while doing this. At one point, Frederick was crying, and Gladys just whipped her boob out! I didn't know what to do! Do I leave? Do I look away and completely avoid the feeding? Or do I stare? I settled on something in between. I treated it as if it was totally natural (which I guess it is outside of the Western world). I didn't stare, but I didn't not look either. At one point, EVERYONE was watching because Gladys had pulled Frederick away, but he started crying again, so she switched to the other boob. Everyone was laughing and watching. Once I got over myself, it actually was quite a beautiful thing to see naked, little Frederick feeding. But also weird…

1 comment:

  1. Hahhaha, it is too bad that it is not ok to whip your boobs out here, because then women have to get those breast pumps and fill bottles with milk. ANNOYING.

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