From the Mailbag - Gawker Comments

From the Mailbag

busyness — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:13:51 EDT

@Buzz Killington: We're cool.

busyness

From the Mailbag

Buzz Killington — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:09:17 EDT

@busyness: @MisterHippity: Ok ok, so maybe I was wrong about the whole breast-pumping room thing. Soorrryyy.

Buzz Killington

From the Mailbag

ambitious — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:48:34 EDT

@lizzybennett: You have to pump even when there is no baby around to take the milk. Actually, even when the baby is around, women often pump and either store or dump the milk.

ambitious

From the Mailbag

busyness — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:34:45 EDT

@Buzz Killington: Here's the thing:

While "only a small percentage of a certain sex 'require' breast pumping" (and I'm going to ignore your quotations around the word require for the moment), the ENTIRE population requires mothers to continue said population. And, if there are mothers, there are going to be breasts that lactate. Even if a mother chooses to raise her child on a "chemical formula" the body still has to shut down milk production and, during that time, pumping is necessary. It's not a "right" to lactate, it's nature. Sorry if that little fact is inconvenient for you. It's less convenient to sit in a bathroom stall, or an empty conference room, hoping no one comes in, to take care of something that's really not optional for the nursing mother. I applaud any business that addresses this need.

busyness

From the Mailbag

BalknChain — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:30:09 EDT

@MisterHippity: I wasn't on board until September, but it is sad that that is viewed as disgusting, but hoo-ha shots are all over the news and supported. Also, I applaud women that were able to. I was not due to health reasons and with as sickly as my boys were at birth they probably could have used the boost to their immune systems.
*Lady Godiva would be so dissappointed in us.

BalknChain

From the Mailbag

BalknChain — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:25:54 EDT

@Bell County: I prefer my wetnurses shaken, not stirred, and male

BalknChain

From the Mailbag

MisterHippity — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:21:59 EDT

Here it is:

[gawker.com]

I remember thinking that comment thread was huge. I guess 141 was an incredible amount of comments in those days.

MisterHippity

From the Mailbag

lizzybennett — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:17:44 EDT

so, the nanny brings the baby to work and mom breastfeeds there? Cause I highly doubt Si would ever ok a conde nast day care center. That would be a fun place to work, though. Imagine the possibilities.

lizzybennett

From the Mailbag

MisterHippity — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:14:41 EDT

Hey, any other old-time commenters (meaning you were here last June or July) remember the great Gawker breast-feeding debate? Maggie Gyllenhaal whipped out her tit in public, and a bunch of Gawker commenters just about went ballistic about how horrible public breastfeeding was. I'll have to find that thread and link it here.

That was my first exposure to Wookie. She went nuts ranting about how disgusting it all was! I was thinking, who is this crazy fucking guy?

Ah... those were the days.

So, is Gawker trying for another argument-inspired page view explosion, I wonder, by posting about this subject again?

MisterHippity

From the Mailbag

Bell County — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:05:32 EDT

@BalknChain: Hello, wetnurse!

Bell County

From the Mailbag

MisterHippity — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:04:11 EDT

@Buzz Killington: Hey, idiot, my wife breast-fed our daughter, and having a room at her workplace to pump breastmilk was a perfectly natural, sensible thing.

Otherwise, she'd have to pump her breastmilk in the bathroom, sitting in a toilet stall. Would you like to have your meals prepared there?

Having a room for this purpose does zero no harm to anyone else, but for some reason it causes a whole bunch of people to react with outrage and disgust. Why? Because we've become so far removed from nature, there's something fundamentally sick has happened to our society.

Read Brave New World. The society in that novel was nauseated by the concept of "motherhood" too. In fact, "mother" was considered dirty word. Huxley was a genius.

MisterHippity

From the Mailbag

BalknChain — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:51:10 EDT

@UnstableMabel: @Bell County: titsy watercolor mammaries

BalknChain

From the Mailbag

Helman — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:47:50 EDT

@ambitious: Exactly right. I am proud of both of us for avoiding that particular fish in the barrel.

Helman

From the Mailbag

ambitious — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:41:49 EDT

@Buzz Killington: Too easy.

ambitious

From the Mailbag

nellicat — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:29:18 EDT

Conde Nast is doing this ONLY because breastfeeding causes faster weight loss after giving birth.

nellicat

From the Mailbag

UnstableMabel — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:27:35 EDT

@BalknChain: Tits the breast thing ever.

UnstableMabel

From the Mailbag

Bell County — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:26:12 EDT

@UnstableMabel: "Colostrum? I hardly know 'em!"

Bell County

From the Mailbag

hamburgerhotdog — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:22:43 EDT

Ours is listed as the place one can go and "express milk".

hamburgerhotdog

From the Mailbag

BalknChain — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:17:07 EDT

@UnstableMabel: @Bell County: express yourself

BalknChain

From the Mailbag

UnstableMabel — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:12:23 EDT

I am udderly amazed at all the knockers@BalknChain: @Bell County: @Frightened Inmate #2:

UnstableMabel

From the Mailbag

Buzz Killington — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:10:13 EDT

@ambitious: Hey, I was raised on that chemical formula. Never did me none bad.

Buzz Killington

From the Mailbag

#ERR404 — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:05:43 EDT

Express yourself.

#ERR404

From the Mailbag

Bell County — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:56:17 EDT

@BalknChain: A day lait, a dollar short.

Bell County

From the Mailbag

roodles — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:54:58 EDT

@Bos'un's Mate: Totally. I just heard that Men's Health is building a lactation room in their office next to the new manufactured hoo-ha machine.

roodles

From the Mailbag

BalknChain — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:53:21 EDT

@UnstableMabel: and don't cry over pumped milk

BalknChain

From the Mailbag

VirusWithShoes — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:38:17 EDT

@Don Is: I did leave. But I came back. I'm glad I did. And thanks.

VirusWithShoes

From the Mailbag

Bell County — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:30:41 EDT

@Buzz Killington: This is some pretty stupid stuff you're saying.

Bell County

From the Mailbag

ambitious — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:30:25 EDT

@Buzz Killington: You mean back when women were kept from working outside of the home? Or when CPG companies convinced women and men that chemical formulas were faaaar better for any baby than human breast milk?

Also: the breasts don't explode (the hell?) but the milk will come out one way or another. If you're cool with a (not small and getting larger god willing) percentage of one's office mates lactating all over the place (less gross I assume?) rather than having a space where they can pump (and one that isn't where aforementioned shitting and pissing is taking place) then high fives. But some work places prefer alternatives.

ambitious

From the Mailbag

SarahHeartburn — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:23:53 EDT

@Buzz Killington: Hens! Hahahaha.Hens! Honey. That's so cute.

Teehee. Hens.

SarahHeartburn

From the Mailbag

Bos'un's Mate — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:23:32 EDT

Lactation rooms are quite common in new construction: I'm dumbfounded Conde Naste didn't have them to begin with.

On the other hand, I'd be surprised if Bloomberg L.P.'s tower did have them.

Bos'un's Mate

From the Mailbag

BadUncle — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:18:47 EDT

If I could lactate beer, my cubicle would be the center of company gossip.

BadUncle

From the Mailbag

luciluce666 — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:15:43 EDT

We have this at my work, a pygmy closet of insanity they call the "nursing room". Always dark and empty and cushy and comfortable, it is where our finest go to stealthly sleep off a hangover. Under your desk is so last year.

luciluce666

From the Mailbag

Helman — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:12:21 EDT

@Buzz Killington: Hens? Oy.

Helman

From the Mailbag

lionel-mandrake — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:11:52 EDT

The Hearst building, and many other new office buildings have rooms for this. It's not exactly a new idea. It's surprising the Condé Nast building doesn't yet.

@Buzz Killington: For real? Boy, you are really ignorant.

(gets off high horse, sits back down)

lionel-mandrake

From the Mailbag

depardoo — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:09:35 EDT

Of course, if this goes through, some horny old bastard will surreptitiously cut a hole in the all and install video equipment. Or maybe I will do that.

depardoo

From the Mailbag

Don Is — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:09:16 EDT

@VirusWithShoes: That made my day. I'm glad you didn't leave on Friday.

Don Is

From the Mailbag

Bell County — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:06:50 EDT

This is commendable, unless it's just a way to fight off requests for longer maternity leave.

Bell County

From the Mailbag

Buzz Killington — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:05:19 EDT

@ambitious: Its not quite the same thing, as all humans need bathrooms, whereas only a small percentage of a certain sex 'require' breast pumping.

Usually its a few dozen hens that make all the noise about their 'right' to lactate anywhere on the planet at any given moment, and force companies to bend to this extremely specific need.

It makes me wonder how women got along for all these years without such things. Was there an epidemic of exploding boobs that I'm unaware of, which promped such drastic and immediate action?

Buzz Killington

From the Mailbag

JinxyMcDeath — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:03:35 EDT

We have a lactation room at my firm. One of my best memories here was discussing the creation and need for a lactation room at a firm luncheon for new associates...while we were eating...for a good 20 minutes...in detail. I could not stop laughing thinking about how all the guys in the room must be thinking "why!!??" I mean, I'm a girl (without kids) and I didn't want to hear about that shit.

JinxyMcDeath

From the Mailbag

ambitious — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:01:38 EDT

@depardoo: Isn't that how you keep up your milk?

ambitious

From the Mailbag

UnstableMabel — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:55:22 EDT

@BalknChain: Let's milk this for all its worth.

UnstableMabel

From the Mailbag

depardoo — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:48:15 EDT

What exactly is the connection between lactating and gossiping?

depardoo

From the Mailbag

Helman — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:47:48 EDT

@depardoo: Ha!

Helman

From the Mailbag

Helman — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:47:20 EDT

@Buzz Killington: You're joking, right?

Helman

From the Mailbag

depardoo — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:47:05 EDT

@VirusWithShoes:

The Japanese apparently refer to that room as "your cubicle".

depardoo

From the Mailbag

ambitious — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:43:01 EDT

@Buzz Killington: Yeah, that's not really how it works.

Also: If they can support shit stations at an office, why not rooms for fucking breast pumping? Or should all pissing and shitting be done at home too. Because ew gross.

@EleanorRigby: DITTO.

ambitious