In what should really not be a problem in today’s society, breastfeeding in public has once again been shunted to the forefront of controversy by those behind the times. Self-described non-profit organization “Website for Beijing Wangshi” (meaning “The Past of Beijing”) posted a photo to its Weibo account on November 27 that depicted a mother breastfeeding her baby on the Beijing subway and commenting on the picture by saying “it is the Beijing subway, not a countryside bus.” Astonishingly, the post rebuked the woman for exposing her “sexual organ.”

As the woman in the photo later told the Beijing News, she had taken her three-month-old daughter to hospital before getting on the subway, and the infant was crying and coughing in obvious distress, calmed only by her mother’s feeding.

Despite the Beijing Wangshi account only having around 200 followers, the post sparked public indignation and heated discussion on social media, with most online comments calling the use of the term “sexual organ” to describe breastfeeding as rude and ignorant. After being bombarded by more than 22,000 comments, the original post was deleted by the blogger several days later.

More of a concern than a single instance is the growing intolerance by some of breastfeeding in public. In October, a young mother from Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, described in painful detail on Weibo the harassment she endured when breastfeeding her baby on a bus. “My baby was crying too hard because we had undergone such a long journey by bus, so I had no choice but to breastfeed her, only to see a lady beside us criticizing by saying ‘shame on you’.” Her complaint found a number of supportive remarks, yet there were more than a few netizens that candidly expressed their worries for those on the bus and how awkward they might have felt.

Chinese society has long regarded public exposure of one’s body with conservatism and taboos. However, more and more people are beginning to demonstrate their open-mindedness on the issue, proclaiming it as a natural human behavior. In June 2014, a flash mob involving 20 young mothers showed up at a park in Zhejiang’s Leqing City. The women walked to a grassy area from different sides, each holding a baby and wearing a yellow ribbon around their wrist, and then all sat down as one to breastfeed their babies, their husbands behind them for support and to take photos to publicize the issue.

It truly seems that Chinese attitudes towards public breastfeeding are changing for the better. A good many Chinese netizens referred to Victoria Donda Perez as a “heroine” after the Argentinian Member of Parliament breastfed her baby during a congress conference and the story went viral after. As in China, Perez’s decision to feed her baby when needed was the subject of great support and criticism.

In August, the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China urged that greater efforts be made to encourage breast-feeding by proclaiming that “guaranteeing women employees’ rights to breast-feeding is very important to decrease the mortality rate of infants and promote their healthy growth.” It could quite easily be argued that public services in China do not cater to the needs of breastfeeding mothers. In China’s urban areas such as Beijing and Shanghai, lactation rooms can be found in public places, and some companies have these rooms for new mothers returning to work, yet a Beijing News investigation in late November reported that many of these rooms remain locked throughout the day. In comparison, breastfeeding rooms are prevalent in many Western countries that are perhaps more breastfeeding-friendly.

Regardless of a person’s views, breastfeeding in public should never met with discriminatory or offensive censure. Mothers that breastfeed in public are not doing so to offend. They are simply trying to pacify and nourish their child. Society needs to get with the times and increase the number of public facilities available so that new mothers are able to feed their babies without threat of embarrassment by public shaming.