When are the nursing nazis at BabyTalk Magazine going to get the message? New parents have enough stress in their life without having to worry that their newborn infant might be inadvertently exposed to a naked, engorged breast in the waiting rooms of our nation's OB/GYN and pediatricians' offices, no less.
So is there any mystery that a national outrage is a-brewing?:
"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.Reaction to 'breast-feeding' cover reflects larger debate on public nursing [kcbs/ap via bloggingbaby]
Americans are so prude...
Nursing nazis? Are you serious? I don't see what's so offensive about the cover. I don't even think its a real breast, probably just an elbow or something.
Mary Ellen
Yes, I agree that the magazine cover is a little bit shocking. One of the parents stated in the above mentioned article, that she was concerned about her 13 year old boy seeing it because "A breast is a breast, it's a sexual thing".
I respect her concern, but c'mon, in today's society we are inundated with grossly sexually explicit images. Underwear and fragrance ads on television usually have provocative images of mostly-naked sweaty people writhing around eachother looking sexy. Walk through the mall. Look at most of the magazines at the grocery store check-out. There are half-naked breasts everywhere.
I'm certainly not saying "Awe, get over it. There are sexual images everywhere. Get used to it." Quite the opposite. I'm saying all of THOSE images should madden people a lot more than the half-exposed breast of a nursing mother. To me it's just another sign of the upsidedown backwards time we are living in. People tolerate blatant sexuality everywhere around them, but a parenting magazine publishes a photo of a mother nursing and suddenly everyone is grossed out.
On a side note, most of the mothers I know who do nurse in public do not expose their entire breast while nursing. That is unnecessary. While breastfeeding is a natural thing and I do not believe that women and their infants should be banished to dirty public restrooms to do something as normal as feeding, I also think that nursing women should be courteous to strangers that are (rightly or wrongly)totally repulsed by the act of nursing. In my experience, most nursing women do cater to people's fear and discomfort concerning breastfeeding and respectfully drape a blanket over their shoulder, or only lift up enough of their shirt to let the infant latch on. I bet the term "latch on" grosses a lot of you out too, huh? Gees.
So, you may catch a glimpse of an inch our two of skin if the nursing baby is squirmy or being especially rambunctious. So what? Are you as outraged by other flashes of skin one might see during an average stroll through the mall.....the thongs that poke out from beneath young girls' skin tight jeans, halter tops and tank tops that leave very little to the imagination (and probably exhibit more breast skin that most nursing mothers do), the display window at Victoria's Secret?
[yes, except that I don't think it's shocking AT ALL. -ed.]
These mother's who are grossed out seeing other moms feed their kids, do they not look at themselves in the shower? Its funny how, at the end of the article the last idiot states:
"I just think it's one of those moments that should stay between a mother and her child."
THAT sounds sexual to me! Someone ought to look into what exactly this woman is doing with her kid. Since when is eating an naughty, closed doors experience?
I saw that the other day on CNN and blogged about it myself. If you want to read what I had to say
I absolutely think that there is an awful lot of pressure to breastfeed when it should be a choice that everyone gets to make for herself, but I'm bothered by the prudishness of BabyTalk's readers. It's a breast, with no visible nipple.
Also, the mom of the 13-year-old boy claiming that breasts are sexual things? What? Would anyone breastfeed if they spent all their time considering breasts sexual objects?
Dear daddytype think there was some sort of HTML error and you forgot to close your sarcasm tag . It might be throwing some people off.
Are they really a mommie's boobs? Or are they stunt boobs? Did they just smear a little applesauce on some supermodel's nips to get the cute fat baby to latch on? Because if my sad little breastfeeding boobies looked as pretty and perky as the ones on that cover, I'd be doing a lot more breastfeeding in public. Bring on the adolescent boys! Besides being good for them to see boobs in a non-sexual context, at least then I'd know someone was enjoying the view, since I think my husband just says they're lovely to make me feel good.
Are they really a mommie's boobs? Or are they stunt boobs? Did they just smear a little applesauce on some supermodel's nips to get the cute fat baby to latch on? Because if my sad little breastfeeding boobies looked as pretty and perky as the ones on that cover, I'd be doing a lot more breastfeeding in public. Bring on the adolescent boys! Besides being good for them to see boobs in a non-sexual context, at least then I'd know someone was enjoying the view, since I think my husband just says they're lovely to make me feel good.
Have this issue and looked past it several times, not thinking anything was unusual about it. I am so disappointed in myself.
Good Morning America featured a story on breastfeeding in public about 2 weeks ago. The segment mentioned a recent survey by the American Dietetic Association in which 57% of responders said that mothers should NOT have the right to breastfeed in public. The show's online message boards were a predictable flame-fest following this, but it appeared that even there the majority of posting were against breastfeeding in public to differing degrees.
Here we have another situation where moms simply can't win. We are under enormous (and growing) pressure to breastfeed, yet we are not supported by our society or culture. You can bottle feed in public and risk the wrath of lactivists who yell that you should be nursing, or you can nurse discreetly and people will sneer that you're offending them. I'm not sure what can be done for the first problem other than just telling people to mind their own business. As for nursing in public, I would love to see the money that WHO spent for that silly ad campaign used instead on a series of PSAs aimed not at new or expecting moms, but at the general public. One thing that came up several times on the GMA comment board was the suggestion: "Why can't these moms just pump and give their baby bottles while they're out?" If someone thinks that just pumping before going out to run errands is a simple matter, then of course they would think that moms who nurse in public have no real need to do so.
Businesses have learned from recent legislation and media coverage of nurse-ins. Managers have had to educate employees that they can not tell a nursing mom to move or to leave. Unfortunately the rest of the public needs to be made aware of these rights, even if they don't agree with them.
Good Morning America featured a story on breastfeeding in public about 2 weeks ago. The segment mentioned a recent survey by the American Dietetic Association in which 57% of responders said that mothers should NOT have the right to breastfeed in public. The show's online message boards were a predictable flame-fest following this, but it appeared that even there the majority of posting were against breastfeeding in public to differing degrees.
Here we have another situation where moms simply can't win. We are under enormous (and growing) pressure to breastfeed, yet we are not supported by our society or culture. You can bottle feed in public and risk the wrath of lactivists who yell that you should be nursing, or you can nurse discreetly and people will sneer that you're offending them. I'm not sure what can be done for the first problem other than just telling people to mind their own business. As for nursing in public, I would love to see the money that WHO spent for that silly ad campaign used instead on a series of PSAs aimed not at new or expecting moms, but at the general public. One thing that came up several times on the GMA comment board was the suggestion: "Why can't these moms just pump and give their baby bottles while they're out?" If someone thinks that just pumping before going out to run errands is a simple matter, then of course they would think that moms who nurse in public have no real need to do so.
Businesses have learned from recent legislation and media coverage of nurse-ins. Managers have had to educate employees that they can not tell a nursing mom to move or to leave. Unfortunately the rest of the public needs to be made aware of these rights, even if they don't agree with them.
Another article I ran across today that I thought you and your readers might be interested in. Sorry, but I HATED Breastfeeding
[awesome, there's even a brutish Irish nurse and some laidback Italians. These articles practically write themselves! But clearly, the Daily Mail hates babies. -ed.]
Hi, I'm a french mom who lives in France and have been told about the baby talk cover. I think it's a beautiful picture and so natural. When I breast feeded my baby in France for 5 months ago, I had also some people who looked at me and said " why does she do that in public ?" (especially old people). It's so sad that such a beautiful and natural moment can shock some people. I also read a quite ridiculous topic on an american website : a mother who turned the magazine so her 13 y.o. boy could not see the cover because he thinks that "a breast is a breast and it's a sexual thing". Maybe we should remind this woman and her 13 y.o. boy that at the begining, women had breasts to feed their babies and not to be "sexual things". Our society made it become "a sexual thing" and it's worrying that she ignore it ;-).
Some people can be so ridiculous. How is giving your baby the healthiest start in life "sexual"? Breasts are functional, and to think of them as purely sexual is actually very sexist and demeaning to women. If they weren't meant to lactate, they wouldn't.
All this fuss over a breast and the porno industry is raking in 4 billion dollars a year. Women on the cover of magazines with everything - breasts and more hanging out - and you buy your kids music with cuss words and sexual induendos and you all are in arms about a
BREAST
attack the real enemy - not nursing mothers.
The female body is meant to breastfeed. Why else would milk come out of them? The What if there was no formula? What would you do? Society definitely made breast sexual... If you really think about it they are not.
"The breast is the upper ventral region of the torso of a primate, in left and right sides, which in a female contains the mammary gland that secretes milk used to feed infants." -wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast
People who formula feed are ignorant... No wonder formula fed babies have a lower iq.