Breastfeeding welcome at Spur: why it’s about feeding your child, not nudity

According to EWN, Spur has put up posters in front of their restaurants actively encouraging breastfeeding and mothers who wish to do so anywhere in their branches. 

Surely outraging the moral police, the eating establishment has posters at their various branches which read “breastfeeding welcome” and they then go into detail about their breastfeeding policy which includes that women are allowed to breastfeed anywhere that is accessible to the public, and that no one is allowed to ask breastfeeding mothers to cover up or move to a different area from the one they have chosen. 

READ MORE: Serious question — do you give your boobs enough love?

When asked on Twitter if breastfeeding was not allowed before, Spur answered that it had always been allowed, but they simply wanted breastfeeding mothers to feel comfortable enough to not have to ask permission to feed their children.

We spoke to Spur and asked them for a comment and they said the breastfeeding policy came into effect in January 2016 and is effective in all their restaurants. "We encourage all our franchisees to provide a friendly and safe place for women to breastfeed, and also to display the policy, so as to alert other customers. Our restaurants are family friendly and we place a great amount of emphasis on families, especially children; hence breastfeeding is welcomed."

Spur reiterates that it is a family first, family friendly restaurant and because of this they have established the Spur Foundation on 18 July 2012 with a donation of R670 000. The foundation aims to “uplift and improve the lives of South African families, especially children, in line with our core value of generosity and Ubuntu.”

“As a group with a large foot print across South Africa we’re taking a long-term view,” says Mark Farrelly Group Chief Operating Officer, Spur Corporation. “South Africa can only grow if we are able to address the developmental challenges facing its citizens. By normalising breastfeeding in our restaurants, we play our small part, contributing to the development of future leaders, the children.”

Now while it’s always been accepted that women could breastfeed in their restaurants, making a stand and putting it out there is not only great for breastfeeding mothers, but for women in general.

We asked a few other restaurants what their breastfeeding policy is in the wake of this, but only two of them got back to us.

The CEO of Ocean Basket, Grace Harding,  says "We're a casual dining, Mediterranean, lick your fingers restaurant where people go to have fun. A place people come to relax. To have a policy feels very strange to me." Grace reiterates that while she feels having a policy is strange, she thinks that women should be able to breastfeed anywhere.

“As a family brand that caters to all South Africans, our breastfeeding policy is simple,” says Jacques Cronje, Wimpy Marketing Executive. “We strive to ensure that mothers are able to breastfeed comfortably, and confidently, at all times. Our staff are trained to support the needs and rights of breastfeeding mothers as a matter of course.”

Nandos had not replied to us by time of publishing. 

READ MORE: You should be able to trust your gynaecologist, right?

Breasts shouldn't be sexualised to an extent that they are seen as something shameful. It’s our patriarchal society that has turned them into sexual organs when they’re not. Yes, they’re often used in sexual acts as a means of pleasure, but that doesn’t mean they should be seen only as such when their primary function is for feeding babies. 

Restaurants and other public places where people tend to gather are doing a great thing by encouraging breastfeeding and saying to the world there’s nothing wrong with it. They’re normalising a thing that shouldn’t even have to be normalised. Because breastfeeding your child is not about nudity. 

Being topless in general, in my opinion, shouldn’t be that big a deal anyway. They’re just breasts. But they are also used as political statements too.

READ MORE: The pros and cons of being 'gifted' with a full cup

Back in 2016, female protesters decided to use their bare breasts as a way of getting their cause some attention. They tried flipping the impression that breasts are never meant to be seen unless they are for sex and making the public see their cause as more than just a group of students shouting about rape culture, but women with voices (and breasts) who want to be heard.

This article in Mail and Guardian last year, aptly named ‘Hey Google, our breasts aren’t sexual’, also spoke about how Google was restricting videos with women in traditional attire with bare breasts because it contravened their nudity policy, but Google then changed their minds and decided that since it was culturally relevant, the videos could stay. 

In an article for Times Lives, Pearl Boshomane Tsotetsi spoke about how breasts are becoming commonplace in protest around the world and how the desexualisation of them is important in feminism. “The desexualisation of the breast and therefore the female body is an important part of feminism, which is why topless protests are becoming commonplace…”she says. 

It’s not about nudity and it should never have been, but if the only way we’re going to get people to listen to our plights and take us seriously is to expose to them the things they’re afraid of, then women must do so, even if that includes their breasts. 

Update: This article has been edited to include the statement from Wimpy.