I have really enjoyed discovering how many of my old friends have joined Facebook in the last year and my participation there has increased significantly as a result.
HOWEVER, nothing is ever uncomplicated and a controversy has erupted on Facebook.
A petition started to Facebook higher-ups states:
Recently, Facebook has started 'pulling a myspace' by not allowing people to post profile pictures of babies nursing. The pictures have been reported as 'obscene' and have been removed- their posters warned not to repost or fear being kicked off of Facebook.
We're wondering: what about a baby breastfeeding is obscene? Especially in comparison to MANY other pictures posted all over Facebook that really are obscene.
Facebook, we expect more from you, and we expect you to realize that nursing moms everywhere have a right to show pictures of their babies eating, just like bottle-fed babies have a right to be seen. In an effort to appease the closed-minded, you are only serving to be detrimental to babies, women, and society.
Sigh. We've been fighting this battle for decades. I am 100% in support of the mothers who are demanding what the hell is wrong with photos of nursing babies?
The first time I ever went out in public with a nursing infant, it was to the funeral of a friend's father. Jeri was only about 3 weeks old. She got fussy during the services and I took her to a little antechamber off the room where the services were going on. It just so happened that the deceased had been a member of the Knights of Columbus and no sooner had I settled myself to, I thought, very discreetly nurse Jeri, in walks all these middle aged men wearing uniforms with plumed hats, epaulets and swords and they all came over to kitchy-koo at the baby. So much for my modesty.
Over the years, I have watched continuing uproar about women trying to nurse babies in all sorts of places and I've never understood the fuss. In case you haven't noticed, a nursing baby covers up the nipple on a breast and if it's done right, there is little to no mother skin showing. But what if some skin shows anyway? My goodness, covers of magazines in supermarkets are more provocative than a photo of a nursing mother.
It's one of those things where smut is in the imagination of the beholder. Men who will buy Playboy or frequent strip joints get uncomfortable at the idea of a baby suckling at its mother's breast.
Women are appalled that their children might see a nursing mother. Why in the world is that? We have these wonderful bodies and every part of our body was designed to perform a function. Contrary to popular opinion, the designed function of the female breast is to feed children. Not to titillate (pun intended) men.
But the overreaction to breastfeeding is so bizarre that a mother was forced off a plane in 2006 because she refused to stop breastfeeding. Another mother was jailed overnight because she refused to serve on a jury while breastfeeding.
With all the problems that have come up lately with nasty things found in infant formula why aren't we encouraging women to breastfeed rather than put roadblocks in their way and make women feel like criminals for wanting to feed their babies?
We've come a long way since the 1960s-70s when I was breastfeeding. In those days there was no support from the medical community and doctors actually laughed at us when we in La Leche League offered to come in and help the maternity nurses help women who wanted to breastfeed.
Now many obstetricians and pediatricians encourage and support breastfeeding, lactation consultants are commonplace and there is a certain sense of satisfaction knowing how it was "in my day" and how it is today.
But we obviously still have a long way to go, when photos of mothers feeding their infants are considered so objectionable that they are removed from Facebook and the mothers threatened with being barred if they try to post another photo...but sexually provocative photos of celebrities are commonplace and nobody thinks a thing about them.
Our priorities in this country are really skewed.
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