Breast-feeding boob sees calls for BBC to fire broadcaster

LONDON: A BBC local radio DJ has sparked an outcry after claiming unattractive mothers should be banned from breast-feeding in public.

Alex Dyke said the practice was indulged by “librarian-type, moustached” women.

He claimed he was embarrassed after seeing a “big girl” breast-feeding on a bus and claimed “yummy mummies” know it’s “not a great look”.

Following an angry backlash from listeners, the BBC has suspended the broadcaster, pending an investigation, and is facing calls to sack him.

By yesterday, more than 5 000 people had signed a petition calling for him to be axed from his job at BBC Radio Solent.

During the phone-in show on Wednesday, Dyke called breast-feeding “unnatural” and compared it to having sex in public. He went on to claim that “men don’t like it”.

He said: “It was okay in the Stone Age, when we knew no better, and people didn’t even have their own teeth. A public area is not the place for it.”

The father of three said it was a “special breed” of women who breast-fed, adding: “I blame the Earth mothers, the ones who wear hessian.”

Even when he was challenged on his Facebook page, Dyke refused to back down, saying: “My point was fat chavvy mums with their boobs out on buses isn’t a good look. A classy, discreet mum is absolutely fine.”

Anne Marie O’Leary, of parenting site Netmums called his comments “silly” and not worthy of an “educated and impartial” broadcasting corporation.

The National Childbirth Trust called the outburst “outdated, ridiculous and potentially damaging”, while Mumsnet said women who breast-feed were being given a “public shaming”.

Outraged mothers also inundated the station’s social media pages to protest, with 14 lodging formal complaints with broadcasting watchdog Ofcom.

One listener likened Dyke to Steve Coogan’s tactless comedy character Alan Partridge.

“Another, Eli Murton said: “You don’t like seeing women feed? Don’t look.”

Maisie Jameson, who set up the petition calling for Dyke to be fired, called him an “ill-educated misogynist”.

Dyke apologised to listeners, before the BBC confirmed that he had been taken off air following “unacceptable comments”. – Daily Mail