Hi Tim,

Totally tangential, but you asked a tempting and timely question -
considering it's summertime (in the northern hemisphere at least):

        Yes, there are swimming museums:  I found one reference to a
Swimming
        Museum in Beijing and, of course, the International Swimming
Hall of
        Fame in Ft. Lauderdale, FL (http://www.ishof.org/).

[Sorry, folks, but this discussion of breastfeeding has gone far enough.
Perhaps it's time to recognize breastfeeding was and remains an
essential act of childrearing.  If someone finds bare breasts offensive,
odds are against their visiting an art museum where bare breasts have
been a favored subject of artists - both male and female - for
centuries!  Thankfully, most in the homo sapiens line have stood up
straight and don't drag their knuckles on the ground anymore . . .]

Sincerely,

Jay Heuman
Visitor & Volunteer Services Coordinator @ Joslyn Art Museum
Soon to be relocating for different employment . . . I'll remain on
Museum-L.



  -----Original Message-----
  From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
  On Behalf Of Tim Atherton
  Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2003 10:52 am
  To: [log in to unmask]
  Subject: Re: Breastfeeding

  I'm not talking the south of France or the Italian Riviera - Quite
honestly, I think most people would be hard put to accuse the English of
wild, hot blooded exhibitionist behaviour... :-) But I grew up in an
English seaside town and my parents still live there. Topless bathing
and sunbathing  is quite normal on most of the beaches these days (and
going back 30 or so years, always was to some extent) - not everyone
does it, but no-one seems to bat an eye these days - and all shapes and
sizes seem happy to partake. And it's not unusual to come across beaches
designated for nude bathing - but it's not as if they are separated by
barbed wire. By contrast, coming to north America, I was and still am
amused by what appears to me as still something of an outsider as a
strange and somewhat repressive prudishness with regard to beaches and
bathing... now, isn't there a museum of the bathing costume
somewhere...?  :-)
  tim