First Live Journal Now Facebook. Why Don’t Social Networking Sites Like Breastfeeding?
September 12, 2007 by kate baggott
Filed under Breastfeeding
You’d figure that web companies based on user communities could learn from each other. In a situation almost exactly like the one Live Journal faced last year, Facebook shut down user accounts and groups that featured photo icons of women and babies breastfeeding.
So much for one of my sacred traditions.
So much for one of my happiest moments as a new mother.
If you’re on Facebook, and who isn’t, feel free to join the group “Hey Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!“
The thing that makes me most angry about breast-feeding stigma is that the basic assumption is the primary function of the breast is for PORN rather than babyfood! The breast is for Food – we turned it into porn!
I can hardly believe this is still an issue.
Oy.
I hate it when I feel like I am the object of staring when I nurse in public. I try to be discreet by using a blanket and never nurse in public without one just to stay private. But sometimes, I can nurse without flashing without one and wish I could nurse that way anyway.
Like Shani I can hardly believe this is a flipping issue at all. Hasn’t it gotten old yet. Seriously. I hear mamas say all the time that they feel insecure about breastfeeding in public but super models are walking around half naked all the time. Then on the other side there’s this whole new revolution of mamas hitting the baby forums and being seriosuly rude and far too extreme to mamas having breastfeeding issues.
I saw some mama tell another mama recently that she was killing her baby for bottle feeding. No offer of support, no words to live by… just, “you’re killing your baby” then she proceeds to tell another thread how she’s a hero for saving babies.
I’m sick of the non-supporters and I’m very quickly getting sick of the extremists. I can’t take it. Everyday a new sad breastfeeding story. I have no clue what to do about it either so I just keep blogging the issues — but I wish there were more options for keeping breastfeeding an easy and non-discriminated option while also providing support to mamas rather than insane ranting.
Although, speaking of insane ranting. Guess I should sign off.
It’s really nuts how people get about breastfeeding. Most pictures of it show less breast than you’d see in many pictures of younger women. It’s not obscene or sexual.
Who complains about public breast feeding? The same women who didn’t even give it a chance. Who knows why, maybe some lingering guilty feelings for not providing their own brood the IQ boosting, immunizing natural goodness that is mothers milk
1. There is nothing wrong with breastfeeding in privacy.
2. There is nothing wrong with breastfeeding in public places (i.e. restaurants) when it is necessary.
3. There IS something wrong with posting pictures of your naked chest on a site where middle schoolers, child molesters, and millions of other people can see them. You CAN advocate breastfeeding, but displaying them on a global internet site is illegal and that is why Facebook removes PORN. ON a more extreme note, I’m sure there are a few Americans who wouldn’t mind SUING because their kids are now looking at illegal body exposure due to women “advocating their rights to do so”. You have NO right to post naked (or half-naked) pictures on Facebook. You CAN promote breastfeeding… just don’t show everyone your pictures.
Chris, if you think breastfeeding is porn, you need a lesson in normalization.
Yup. Breastfeeding is porn (whatever), but breastfeeding is not illegal in many states, nor is posting photos of it on the web. Children should be exposed to breastfeeding, and there is a reason why educated persons nurse more often and longer than those who have less education (and lower income, btw).
I couldn’t agree with you more Maria. Thanks for bringing up those links.
This is really a great topic. One that will always have varied sides and points. Unfortunately there’s not an easy answer. While I was trying to compose a comment, I realized I was writing a book. I carried my comment to further this discussion in another direction on SuperNannyRules.
Thanks for sharing so many points of view. I have one more to add.
How can that be obscene if there’s a baby covering the nipple? It seems to me that is better coverage than many articles of “clothing” people are wearing these days.
I’d just like to state my support for breastfeeding mothers, for one. I have no issue with public breastfeeding. In the few instances where I have been present during such, I just went about my business. In fact, I have carried on a conversation with a breastfeeding mother with no strange looks, comments, staring, etc.
Breastfeeding is perfectly natural. It is, perhaps, one of the most natural things you can do. That’s what the breasts are intended for! It’s why nature (or God, if you prefer) put them there! Women have been doing it for thousands of years and now we expect them to stop becuase little Johnny might see a breast being used for its intended purpose?!
I suggest that Johnny’s parents not take him to the zoo, where he can see all kinds of unorthodox things.
Second, I would like to point out that there is a line between porn and nudity. Nudity is also perfectly natural. Clothes were created for protection and to form a social norm, but there is nothing wrong with the human body. Would it really be so bad if society were a little more open about such things?
If everyone went nudist, it would make smuggling weapons on airplanes a lot more difficult. People would, in general, become more honest and open. Children would see the body as a natural feature, not something to be covered in shame. Nudie magazines would cease to be a “right of passage” for many young men. Think about it.
I tend to disagree with John because he is only counting his view. As a Christian I think that Breast feeding is natural and as God chose it But he did have a bit to say about just being naked in public “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” … 21″The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” After they sinned and knew good and evil, they were concerned over being naked and God seeing them in that state (even with loin coverings). Note that their prime concern was to cover one particular area of their bodies. Yet when God came walking in the garden to see them, they hid, because they still regarded themselves as naked. The Bible Clearly gives 2 reasons for Breasts 1.) 27 As he was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out, “God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!”
The other is Song of solomon. Read it for yourself
I don’t like the option that Women should be forced to resort to some dirty bathroom to feed her child. I think with a small amount of discretion and everything is fine. A small blanket will fix most public issues. Once the Baby is feeding I think most everything is covered. If you are not willing to cover up a little then don’t be surprised when people look or stare. I think the two sides can easily come to a comfortable understanding just use some common sense.