Unlike other body parts, breasts seem to confuse some people. Sometimes they’re sexy; other times, they’re a source of food.

You may have recently read about the male flight attendant who allegedly tossed a blanket at a passenger who was breastfeeding, ordering her to cover up. It's tempting to obsess over this one incident, but it’s bigger than that. Unfortunately, mothers are often told to cover up, and not just by flight attendants who may be unfamiliar with their airlines' policies.

Then again, when an airline's policy isn't exactly clear (or posted online), it’s easy to see how this could happen. The job of a flight attendant, like myself, is to try and make everyone happy: not just one person, but 160 people.

"United welcomes nursing mothers on board and we ask that crew members do their best to ensure their comfort and safety as they do with all customers," the airline told Mashable. "We also ask nursing mothers and passengers seated near them to be mindful of one another’s space and comfort."

So, they're welcome — but there's plenty of room for interpretation around being "mindful" of other passengers' "comfort."

“It's so stupid that boobs/cleavage are in almost every advertisement and no one cares, but when they are used for their true purpose, it is considered distasteful," my Facebook friend Cara Mclaughlin said after I posted about what I was writing. "Our world is sick!”

She has a point.

What passengers (and some flight attendants) have to understand is this: Regardless how one might feel about breasts and nipples, women are allowed to breastfeed babies on the airplane.

"She's showing her breasts!" "He's staring!" PEOPLE. — Heather Poole (@Heather_Poole) March 10, 2015

With that in mind, I decided to ask someone I know, someone very close to me, what he would do if he saw a woman breastfeeding on the plane.

“I’d yell, 'Breastfeeder! Breastfeeder!'” my son giggled.

Okay, I’m sure he was kidding — but even so, I think we might need to have a little talk. Keep in mind, he’s just 8 years old.

However, I’ve had passengers far older than 8 act a lot like my son upon spotting a woman breastfeeding on a plane. Full-grown adults who get upset by a bare breast you can hardly even see past a baby's head. No, they didn’t yell, "Breastfeeder! Breastfeeder!" Most of them just looked very uncomfortable or upset. And a few have pointed out mothers to me, even suggesting that I ask them to cover up.

But she doesn’t have to cover up.

"I wonder what people would say about me if they saw me pumping in uniform," said fellow flight attendant Bianca Collins. "I've had to breastfeed my baby while non-reving in uniform before."

"I'm so over this anti-breastfeeding thing," she added.

Women shouldn't have to think twice about feeding a child.

This shouldn’t be an issue, and yet it is — one that makes some people uncomfortable. I get it, because there are lot of things that make passengers uncomfortable.

There’s not a lot of space on an airplane, and what little space we have is like real estate. Every millimeter counts.

I'll never forget asking this little girl in first class who was "breastfeeding" a doll what she'd like to drink. We were both very serious. — Heather Poole (@Heather_Poole) March 10, 2015

Just having to sit for hours is uncomfortable. Having a chatty seatmate or a neighbor who falls asleep on takeoff, so you can’t get up to use the bathroom, can be uncomfortable. The smell of an egg sandwich makes some passengers uncomfortable. Another passenger’s arm hair rubbing against you can be uncomfortable. A coughing and sneezing passenger makes people uncomfortable.

There are so many things that make us uncomfortable, and everything seems to be magnified in the air.

These days, most flights are full, and there's not much we can do to make it better except very nicely tell someone to deal with it. So we deal with each other.

“I dare someone to say something to me about it!” my neighbor said when I told her I was writing about breastfeeding on planes.

“What would you do if someone did say something?” I asked.

My neighbor then flipped me off: “That’s what I’d say.”

Well, now. Most of the time she’s really nice.

What I've learned through years as a flight attendant is this: You can't please everyone. No matter how hard I try, someone is going to walk away from a flight unhappy, and there's usually nothing I could have done to make it better. It’s just to be expected when we have the "haves" (window and aisle seat people) and the "have-nots" (middle seats and anyone sitting near a lavatory). Now mix in a few big people, little people and couple of so-called smelly people, and somebody’s going to have a problem. Add a few pets, a couple of recliners, a tuna sandwich and a breastfeeding mom, and I'll bet you $10 I'm going to hear about it.

“No one is forcing you to gawk at the breastfeeding mom,” said flight attendant Melissa Branning.

She’s right. Just look away. In a complicated world, it’s really that simple. Look away, and it’s almost like she’s not even there. Can’t say the same for stinky food, though.

“Would the complaining passenger rather have a passenger eating a liverwurst sandwich or nursing a child? I'll bet that most would rather have a nursing child," said Vicki Howell, a retired flight attendant. "What has happened to the public that they complain about nature? It stumps me."

I remember breastfeeding once on a plane next to a parentless 10 year old boy. I might have ruined him for life. He saw a boob! Maybe! — Jill Sorenson (@JillSorenson) March 10, 2015

“When I traveled with my daughter and breastfed, no one batted an eyelash. Those nursing covers were damned hot (so I stopped using them), and EVERYONE remarked on how lovely and quiet she was on the plane,” said Ona Wang, a frequent flying attorney and mom.

A quiet plane is a happy plane.

So deal with it.

Heather Poole is a flight attendant for a major U.S. carrier, and the author of the New York Times bestseller "Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet." You can follow her on Twitter at @Heather_Poole.