Eyeful of breast-feeding mom sparks outrage

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OceanGirl

The Fly
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I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, but feel free to move it if it is. :)

I just wondered what you all thought of this picture?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14065706/

Personally, I am disgusted that anyone would think of breastfeeding as something that should be hidden.

I breastfed my 3 babies for between 1 - 2 years each. I fed them whenever they needed to be fed, regardless of where I was. I would have been horrified if anyone told me that they were offended by the fact that I was feeding my baby the way nature intended!

I think this photo is soooo beautiful. :) There's nothing better than seeing your beautiful baby gazing up at you while they are feeding! Seeing that picture brings back wonderful memories for me from when my kids were that little!

How could anyone be offended by it? :scratch:
 
OceanGirl said:
I'm not sure if this is the right forum

.
I think this photo is soooo beautiful. :)




.
How could anyone be offended by it? :scratch:
Click to expand...






right fourm,

if dread will come back

this thread could do it


060727_breastfeeding_cover_vmed.widec.jpg
 
To paraphrase a dodgy song from the 80s...

That's what boobs are for.

:shrug:

I find the photograph to be tasteful, and I think it's sad that so many people feel that breasts in this context are dirty, inappropriate, or sexual. In my ideal world, people wouldn't be so scared of an exposed breast here or there. Bodies are beautiful, not something to hide or look at with disdain, disgust, or shame.
 
I'm amazed that people would find that photo offensive. Especially the target audience of that particular magazine! :huh:
 
Precisely given the target audience! Bloody hell!
I know there will be people even in this forum who are going to skirt around the issue of being discreet about breastfeeding and that it does not belong in public. So, due to their thinking it is their business, I am throwing my boobs out there for discussion. After all, if it is someone else's business, then let's discuss them and it! I'm still feeding my second. I almost weened, but then retracted and am back to my little bonding moments. I'm really hesitant to give it up largely due to not feeding my first substantially being such a contributor to the postnatal depression I had. Oh yes, fellas, breastfeeding is an incredibly emotional issue for new mothers. It makes your clinical opinion so much more worth it. Truly! Nothing says "I have a worthwhile opinion that I am entitled to express" than being a complete stranger - and a man to boot! In typical Interference.com style, let me divulge altogether too much information on my first experience. See, being a new first time mum, I had no idea what to do. The nurses in my area are almost violently gung-ho about breastfeeding. They're an odd breed of midwife. They put the fear of God into you. So I left the hospital with the fear of God and no idea how really to feed. I became engorged, found myself surrounded by people who didn't allow me to feel it was natural, I lacked the confidence to say "bugger you all - I decided to feed my baby the best food available and if you dont like it then there's the door". It killed me. Because of the lack of support and it was their not knowing (rather than being cold or indifferent intentionally), I missed out on that bonding and I fell apart. Now I've thankfully learned how to tell someone to fuck off if they dont like it. Breast milk is called white gold for a very good reason. Dont be a dick and not help support this very wonderful aspect of motherhood.
 
Just thought I would add this little pearler :

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."
Click to expand...


I can't even begin to understand how a MOTHER could see breasts as a sexual thing!!! And as for being concerned about her son seeing it, then maybe she should have explained to him what breasts are FOR!
 
I've missed out on the past breast-feeding discussions around here but when I became a new mom a couple of years ago I was shocked at how controversial an issue it (still) is...particularly among new moms!

Kudos to the magazine editors for putting a beautiful, tasteful photo on the cover to continue public debate (and get some attention for themselves of course lol).

:hug: Angela. I know exactly what it is like not to get the right kind of support the first time around, even from lactation consultants...which was another huge shock...how could that be?

It's funny how everyone will agree breast is best for the health of babies yet do little or nothing to support nursing mothers except to expect them to hide behind closed doors at home. Absolutely pathetic.
 
AliEnvy, I was actually really lucky with my lactation consultant. It was because of her that my breastfeeding was so successful, so am really thankful to her for that.

I agree that it is ridiculous that it is fact that breast is best, but when it comes to the crunch, people still want it to be hidden away. :mad:
 
How on earth can breast-feeding a baby be called offensive? I don't get it. I didn't get it when we had that other thread. Dread was the life of that thread, he really should come back for this. Life doesn't come in any more a natural form than this.
 
People have issues. The human body is a marvel and to find something like that sexual and disgusting is wrong. Maybe the woman are ashamed of their body?
 
It is quite sad and ridiculous that a part of women's body is seen as offensive, dirty or something given for the exclusive pleasure of (grown up) men, by double minded people...

I still see moms giving breast to their babies in the buses, sitting quietly in the parks, waiting rooms (if the baby is hungry... well is hungry!) .... I don't really see why some people wants to hide what is natural and necesary.
 
Justin24 said:
Maybe the woman are ashamed of their body?
Click to expand...

Not ashamed per se but women can be as insecure about their breasts as men can be about penis size.

And many people of both genders bizarrely equate breast milk with other fluids expelled by the body and don't feel nursing should be any more out in the open than urinating. :|
 
Perhaps we could define what is available for discussion in this thread?

Or is this just another exercise to express outrage?

Serious questions.
 
I remember women had to buy menstrual pads in plain white boxes, lest anyone see for sure that she had 'the curse.' I don't understand it, but the US is still primarily a Puritanical society, for all its breast enhancement surgery and botox injection popularity. Consider this: it took years after 9/11 for a congressional commission to be formed, but mere days after Janet's wardrobe malfunction. :shrug:

"Gross, I am sick of seeing a baby attached to a boob," wrote Lauren, a mother of a 4-month-old.
Click to expand...

That makes me feel so sorry for that 4-month-old. :crazy:

I suppose I'm not in favor of women plopping them out for all to see, but I think that's because as a whole we still view breasts as sexual, not because I find anything terribly wrong with it. I think smart women can be discreet about it and do it in a way that everyone can feel comfortable with and not have to disappear into some breastfeeding vortex to do it.

I also find it funny that the magazine cover in question shows no more breast on it that what you'd find on the cover of Cosmo or Glamour on a routine basis.
 
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nbcrusader said:
Is any part of the body offensive? Are all bodily functions open for public viewing?
Click to expand...

well.... we relate to our reality through symbols... even we see our body as a symbolic entity, we all know that every single part of it has a natural and necesary function, and we can't help to give them a meaning beyond that (our heart is a muscle but we use it as a symbol of our feelings, for example).

If a culture consider sex as an ofensive, sinful (and private) thing, it will ban the images that represent sex, including the images of our genitals and, in the case of women, our breasts (because men are atracted by them).

The vision of sex as a private thing is more recent than we usually think: in the middle age, for example many families had to sleep in the same room (with their domestic animals in many cases), if the parents wanted to have sex they didn't care if the kids were watching. the privacy of bodily functions as urinate are related with higyene questions and the nature of the wastes (they smell bad, they look bad, they can spread diseases if they are exposed) and the invention of the acueducts, bathrooms, etc. helped to reinforce the idea that going to pee is private.

I think that many people gets offended by seeing the pic of the baby being feeded, because, unfortunately, women 's bodies are still seen as objects, pleasure objects, not for the women themselves, but for the men.
 
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