Rare News Desk
Texas woman Ashley Clawson had just spent $150 at Victoria’s Secret when she needed to pause for a moment to breast feed her son. When she asked a sales associate if she might be able to use a fitting room, she was denied, but told she could breast feed in the back alley.
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“[She] said ‘no, you cannot nurse your son in our fitting room, but you can go outside to the alley and nurse him there. No one usually goes there,’” Clawson said about the experience that she described as humiliating to local TV station KTBC.
Thought she didn’t take the offer of feeding in the alley, Clawson later took to social media to describe her discontent.
“I have to blast Victoria’s Secret at the Domain for telling me I wasn’t aloud to nurse my very hungry, fussy son in their fitting room after I spent a fair amount in their store. She actually told me to go outside and walk down an alley where no one ‘usually’ goes and nurse him. Seriously?!? Lost a customer for sure,” Clawson wrote on Facebook.
She updated her Facebook making other points later.
I think I need to clear up a few things since this story has taken on a life of its own at this point.
1. First, Victoria’s Secret was not busy at all. It was a Monday afternoon. I wouldn’t have even asked for a fitting room if they had been busy.
2. That brings me to my second point. People are also wondering why I even asked. Um, I merely asked the clerk because I am polite (maybe it’s a Texasthing)?
3. For anyone that thinks this was staged, is absolutely ridiculous. I have much more to do than take my son to VS with me on a Monday and hope they deny me the right to breastfeed. However, if I actually would have thought up that story, I might just be a genius!
4. My son is a very healthy, plump four month old. He loves to eat. I do, for the most part feed him before we leave the house so I don’t have to worry about it while we’re out. However, when a growing baby gets hungry, it’s like a time bomb goes off and they have to eat that very moment or it can get ugly!
5. Someone commented that I just need to shop online from now on so I don’t have to feed him while out. Wth, so never leave my house in order for you not to have to witness a baby eat?!
6. I was not near my car. If I was close to my car, of course I would have fed him there and at least listened to the radio while he ate.
I did not expect the decision to breastfeed my son to become such a debacle for the country to create an opinion about. Truthfully, this is all pretty embarrassing and stressful. However, now that it has become such a story, I hope people will at least be more sensitive to new moms who are just trying to do what’s best for their children (whether it’s breast or bottle). ?
Clawson pointed out the hypocrisy of her treatment to KTBC as well.
“The posters and everything are just women showing their breasts and obviously to Victoria’s Secret, in my eyes, it’s looked at as a play toy, not necessarily, a means for, you know, nursing your child, which is why we have breasts to begin with,” Clawson said.
Victoria’s Secret said in a statement, however, that they actually do have a policy allowing women to breast feed in their stores.
“We take this issue very seriously. We have a longstanding policy permitting mothers to nurse their children in our stores and we are sorry that it was not followed in this case,” Victoria’s Secret said in a statement, according to KTBC. “We have apologized to Ms. Clawson, and we are taking actions to ensure all associates understand our policy that welcomes mothers to breastfeed in our stores.”
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