Eyeful of breast-feeding mom sparks outrage

[ismnotwasm]

NEW YORK - "I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one person wrote. "I immediately turned the magazine face down," wrote another. "Gross," said a third.

These readers weren't complaining about a sexually explicit cover, but rather one of a baby nursing, on a wholesome parenting magazine — yet another sign that Americans are squeamish over the sight of a nursing breast, even as breast-feeding itself gains greater support from the government and medical community.

"Babytalk is a free magazine whose readership is overwhelmingly mothers of babies. Yet in a poll of more than 4,000 readers, a quarter of responses to the cover were negative, calling the photo — a baby and part of a woman's breast, in profile — inappropriate.


One mother who didn't like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it.

"I shredded it," said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. "A breast is a breast — it's a sexual thing. He didn't need to see that."

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14065706/?GT1=8307



**Sigh**
I have to go to work or I'd post it in GD and start the quarterly breast feeding in public war. What bugs me is the references to the breast as a "sexual thing"--well sure, but so is my left hand,and when it's not engaged in a sexual practice I don't find IT offensive in public.

[ismnotwasm]

1. Oi, it's already in GD

Ok, someone had to start it.

On edit, most of the comments are pro-breastfeeding. I think the last time was far more acrimonious.

[Finder]

2. I truly find it heartbreaking to see women thinking like that...

and there are many. The past couple of decades, the movement has put such a focus on morality/sexuality issues as well as shunning our sisters who choose family over career that this is the result. Arghhh

What is really scary is they are raising sons who will be the men our daughters will have to deal with.

[MuseRider]

3. This is so sad.

There was nothing more beautiful than my time breast feeding my sons. I did it wherever I was but I covered up because I did not want to share it and did not want to deal with those who would be critical but I do not advocate that everyone cover. To me the only thing more beautiful than the times I fed them is seeing someone else feed their child. I simply cannot understand this reaction to such a natural and beautiful thing.

[bliss_eternal]

4. It may be different if our country didn't have such archaic

views of nudity and breasts. If breasts weren't sexualized in the media, people would see them for what they are and it wouldn't be a big deal.

In Europe, nudity isn't a big deal at all. Nudity is on television and children grow up knowing it's natural and don't get all bent out of shape if someone's breast is exposed, by a woman feeding her child or by a celebrity on the superbowl half time show. :eyes:

I'm going to see if I can find it--an article I read about a woman that created a photography project based on breast feeding photos--to attempt to challenge people's ideas of what is appropriate. I found it interesting and rather inspirational.

Glad that you didn't allow others to make you feel you couldn't breast feed your children in public... :hi:

[MuseRider]

5. Do post that article

if you find it. It is such a lovely and natural thing. Thanks.

I was stunned by the Super Bowl ordeal. Why was the guy (I have no clue who he was) let off the hook? He was the one that ripped her costume, even if it had been planned that way it seemed to me much like a rape and he should have at least had as much responsibility for it.

Yes, that little nipple shot was very disturbing wasn't it? :eyes:

[bliss_eternal]

6. I honestly wonder if the same uproar would have occured

if it was a caucasian, young nipple as opposed to a 40 year old, ethnic nipple? That's not something anyone is going to say, but I'm sure that it was a factor for many.

How dare those crazy, CBS liberals show my children a bare, black breast? :eyes: The inhumanity!

Had it been one of the girls from the lingerie bowl, I doubt there would have been the same hysteria.

I agree, it was like a rape/assault. He didn't get the same shit about it, but he did apologize. Janet apologized as well, but they seemed to expect her to continually apologize (which was why she didn't appear at the Grammy's that year). She refused to say it over and over again. I don't blame her.

I'm googling now to see if I can find it.

I recall your posting in a thread some time ago (was it in the lounge) on this topic. There was a lot of ignorance in that thread. I admired how you spoke about the issue, you kept your cool while getting your point across. :thumbsup::hi:

[MuseRider]

8. Thanks,

that thread really pissed me off!

I never thought of it as a race issue but then I am so white I could blind you! I am very sympathetic and always appreciate it when someone brings it up. A different way to see it out of my personal experience. I tend not to ever view things in the frame of race unless it is very obvious, same as with the GLBT community, we are all just people aren't we? So, thanks for adding that to the mix. Do you think it also might have been because he was white (I think he was anyway) and she is black? I never thought of this at all. Hmmm.

It seems we women end up apologizing over and over and over for every little thing. I did not know that she did not and I really respect that. Good for her.

Edit: I don't think this came out the way I really meant it to. To clarify, I have never been concerned personally with a persons color, orientation etc. It has just never registered to me as anything other than a tiny thing. I wanted to clarify in case I came across as insensitive.

[bliss_eternal]

9. Oh yes, it absolutely could...

have been a factor--that it was white Justin Timberlake and black Janet Jackson. That DOES make one go, hmmmm...doesn't it? :hi: Sadly, there's still many in this country that frown on interracial couplings on any level. Watching a caucasian male expose a african american females breast was probably disturbing for them. :eyes:

And I understand what you were trying to say--no worries. I didn't think you were insensitive. But it was so sweet of you to be concerned. :hug: I've gone round and round on that issue with many on DU that couldn't care less if they are coming off as insensitive at all (women's issues, glbt issues, racial issues, etc.). So very "sensitive" of you to be concerned at all! :D

I recall a thread where someone posted a pic of a woman breastfeeding--was that in the lounge? I thought it was gorgeous and said so...but there were some nasty remarks on that one, too. So sad. Too many never even bother to question why they think as they do...

[MuseRider]

10. Thanks.

I pretty much stay out of the lounge. I check in once in a while but rarely. They did not like a big breast in the lounge? Ahh, a baby was attached, it was not there simply to titillate the men.

People who are insensitive and don't care that they are insensitive are too ego driven to ever evolve beyond where they are. Too bad for them. Half the fun of life is learning new things and feeling the way that influences your life but then you know that!

BTW, those pictures on the sites you posted are just wonderful as are the stories. I will enjoy reading all of them over the next few days. That one gallery is just wonderful, thank you so much.

[bliss_eternal]

11. My pleasure...!

I adore photography, and it's so inspiring to me to find women doing such profound work with their art. I just love seeing that!

I don't visit the lounge anymore. I haven't been there since the Academy Awards, and prior to that it had been a loooong time. I only went then, because my thread in GD was moved to the lounge. :eyes: So, they forced me to go there. Haven't been back since. Too much hate there for my taste. ;)

[bliss_eternal]

7. MuseRider--AHA! I found it!

Picture Perfect : Breastfeeding Photography Is a Work of Art
By Kim Seidel


Australian photographer Dez Murad wants to challenge beliefs, educate and inspire with her stunning photographs of mothers breastfeeding. “My goal is to raise the standard of a breastfeeding image to at least be as equally acceptable as that of a bottle feeding image," she says. “I’m interested in raising the appeal and acceptance in our society, so a mother can breastfeed in peace knowing her community accepts her choice."

Murad, the mother of two daughters, ages 5 and 3, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, started taking an interest in breastfeeding mothers as a photography subject about two years ago. “I found the images that were around were all of newborns and mothers who are still in the hospital," says Murad, who is expecting another baby in June. “There was very little of older children breastfeeding."

Through her photography, she says she wants to glamorize and normalize breastfeeding. In many of her photos, breastfeeding isn’t the total focus of the photo. “I wanted to show that you can have an active life, still breastfeed and look good doing it," she says. “It’s not all about seeing nipples and breasts. A lot of my photos you can’t see them, but you can tell the woman is feeding." Murad hopes her photographs help to popularize the images, “so that young girls can grow up seeing them and be just as influenced as they are from magazine photos."

------snip--------

While Murad strives to redefine the breastfeeding woman and raise her profile to be accepted in the larger community, it's a big challenge. Recently she took a bikini shoot of a beautiful woman breastfeeding her second child. “I was surprised to be challenged by the very community that supports breastfeeding about this photo," she says. People remarked that she was “too good-looking" to be a mother breastfeeding.

Murad replied that the woman was a “real woman" who was “very confident about her body," so why not take the photo? “After all, we don’t lose our sensuality once we become mothers," Murad says. “If anything, I think we are more powerful and more sensual for being mothers. I don’t want to pigeon-hole what a woman should be or look like to feed, and this I find the most challenging aspect."

------snip---------

taken from:
http://breastfeed.com/articles/2763.php?wcat=59

Enjoy the other links I've provided, as it seems there are others working to change society's idea that women have to breastfeed in private. :)


Excerpt:
Amber's goal with this project is to produce emotionally moving images that will help moms all over realize that breastfeeding is normal. Nursing anytime, anywhere should be expected and not unseen or unheard of. So far this journey has been an awesome experience. Amber will be photographing moms all over the country, and if this project convinces just one mom to stop nursing her child in the bathroom stall of that restaurant
then it was all worth it.

taken from:
http://www.projectgotbreastmilk.com/meetthecreators.html

A different site, featuring mothers nursing:
http://www.whenmothersnurse.org/

A breastfeeding calendar project here:

http://www.beautyofbreastfeeding.com/wst_page8.html

While on their site, click on Our Amazing Photographers or go here:

http://www.beautyofbreastfeeding.com/wst_page5.html There are some gorgeous pictures of mom's breastfeeding!

[MuseRider]

12. OMG!

That first picture before the gallery in your first link is precious! I remember when my boys would pause and look up and me and grin like that. I am all weepy now with wonderful memories and with the beauty of women and what we can do.

I used to think that if I was ever reincarnated I did not want to come back unless I was male. That was a long time ago. I am so happy to be a woman. Even if I had never had the opportunity to give birth and nurse two children there is just nothing else that moves me like those pictures. Well, that and the fact that women just rock!

[bliss_eternal]

13. We do ROCK!

:headbang: :applause: :toast: ...to women and our innate beauty and limitless magnificence!

Anytime a woman feels good about herself and is confident, I think that's beautiful. Speaking of which, I have a friend that was put off by the plus-size beauty pageant recently. I loved the pageant and applauded the effort. Her comments really struck me as odd, particularly knowing that she is one that has worn a bigger size from time to time.

I saw those women strutting on that stage feeling GREAT about who they are and how they look and I thought it was beautiful. Ah, sorry I took this thread a bit off topic. Haha. Oh well. ;)

[MuseRider]

14. Strutting away!

Not quite a plus-size but at 52 am pretty sure I am going to have a difficult time taking off the 40 little friends who have taken residence around my waist.

Women should always strut!