A young mother's attempt to breastfeed her child at a Target store in Connecticut turned awkward after an angry man started yelling at her and calling her names.
Luckily, there was a happy ending.
Jessie Maher of Collinsville was at a Target in Torrington Monday and sat down in the cafeteria area to feed her 1-month-old daughter.
A man who was purchasing food looked at her angrily and asked, “Can’t you do that somewhere else? That’s f****** disgusting.” He also called her a “whore,” according to Fox61.com.
Maher, a doula, started taking video of the outburst, which she later posted on Facebook:
Here's how Maher described the incident on Facebook:
"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...."
As Maher was defending right to breastfeed, a few Target employees came into the cafeteria, as well as another customer who was livid at the man's actions.
The man then demanded a refund because he was offended by a woman breastfeeding in public.
The unidentified woman customer can be heard comforting Maher and chastising the angry man.
"You shouldn't be ashamed of feeding your baby," she tells Maher. "He can go the other way. This is a beautiful moment. If he doesn't like it he can go." Then she addresses the man: "Then don't look, okay? I'm here to protect her."
The man then apparently left the store, followed by a Target employee.
Maher said she appreciates the way Target employees and customers responded.
"The amount of people coming at me to defend me was amazing," Maher told WFSB.com. "Everyone that was right in that area was there for me defending me, so it felt really good."
Maher's Facebook video has been seen more than 3 million times. So far, no one has publicly identified the man who accosted her.
Maher said making the video public was the best way to spread awareness about the trials that women face when breastfeeding in public.
"The only way we are going to eradicate this behavior is to put it out there and show this is happening," she told the Hartford Courant. "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."
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