With all the negativity in the world today, it’s nice to see people trying to be there for one another.
This week, a woman was bullied at a Connecticut Target for breastfeeding her baby. When customers and employees realized what was happening, they rushed to the aid of the woman in order to get the man away from her.
When the man began verbally assaulting her, Jessie Maher started recording. As people heard him call her a “wh*re” for breastfeeding, they could be seen walking into the area. At least three people in the customary red shirts of Target employees can be spotted in the video.
“Because I’m feeding my baby, this man is going crazy,” Maher is heard stating.
Just after that, the man yelled to the Target employee behind the counter that he wanted a refund.
“He wants a refund because I’m breastfeeding my baby,” Maher added.
After that, a consumer at Target made her way over to the scene and began standing up for Jessie and her baby. Her powerful voice is heard in the background describing the breastfeeding as a “beautiful moment” and saying that the man was being disrespectful.
When the man said that Maher was disrespecting him, the superheroine Target consumer responded by telling him not to look.
“Who are you, my mother?,” he asked, a palpable sense of irony in air.
The entire video is two and a half minutes long, but to the woman being verbally attacked, it likely seemed a great deal longer.
Jessie Maher posted her video to Facebook on Monday and, by Thursday, the video had amassed upwards of five million views. Now, the video has over eight million views and more than eighty thousand shares.
People from all over came out in favor of Maher and the brave employees at Target who stood up to the irate man.
“Kudos to the Target employees and customers that stood up for you and kept him away from you,” Jennie Hendry, one of the people responding to the video on Facebook, said. “He was actually scary, like he wanted to come over there, where you were. You didn’t do anything wrong. So sorry that you and your baby had to endure this creepy mean guy.”
Jessie’s mother, Melanie Maher, stated in the comments that she called the Target manager and expressed her thanks for the employees that came to the rescue of her breastfeeding daughter.
The majority of commenters responding to Maher’s breastfeeding and the man’s verbal abuse were about praising the Target employees and standing up for Jessie’s breastfeeding rights.
Target has some very specific breastfeeding rules in place that allow mothers to go about breastfeeding their babies wherever and whenever they choose.
“At Target, we want all of our guests to feel comfortable shopping with us,” Kristy Welker, a Target spokesperson , told the Washington Post . “Our breastfeeding policy, which applies to all stores, is just one of the ways in which we support our guests. Guests who choose to breastfeed in public areas of the store are welcome to do so without being made to feel uncomfortable.”
In case a woman would prefer privacy, Welker added, “we support the use of fitting rooms for women who wish to breastfeed their babies, even if others are waiting to use the fitting rooms.”
In this case, people around Target came to the rescue of Jessie Maher. Regardless of one’s opinion on breastfeeding, it’s the vehemence in the man’s reaction that’s at question here. She felt unsafe in a public place.
After terrible current events, like the shooting in Orlando, it’s more important than ever that people be good to each other. People everywhere are calling for heroes like the employees at that Target and the consumers that stepped in to help.
Would you have answered that call?
[Photo by Evgeny Atamanenko/Shutterstock]