Losing our Choices - Updated
First Facebook did it and now YouTube is jumping on the bandwagon, banning images of breastfeeding mothers as “pornographic or lewd.” WTF?!? Now for medical reasons I couldn’t breastfeed as long as I wanted to, but while I did it never occurred to me NOT to do it in public. I covered up, of course, but the reality is that my child needed to be fed. Why on earth would I deny him that basic human need? Crazy! I think that other countries would look at the current trend of kicking mothers out of restaurants and other establishments as complete insanity. People need to get over their puritanical views on nudity. Geez.
For more, read the wonderful press release at the League of Maternal Justice and spread the word!
Updated to add: PunditMom gets to the heart of the matter much better than I can. An excerpt:
One type of video is meant for men’s amusement and pleasure and the other isn’t. When I was researching a story for Breast Cancer Awareness month, I asked one person I interviewed why so many companies are interested in jumping on the breast cancer awareness bandwagon and not other diseases that impact women as much, if not more?
Her answer? Sadly, that breast cancer has more sex appeal than heart disease.
This battle with Facebook and YouTube is really just a symptom of the larger lack of respect problem — the absence of real workplace policies that support women after they’ve had babies, the willingness of our schools to expect working mothers to take their time to work on projects for the kids but not working fathers, the presence of only one woman justice on the Supreme Court, and the rulings written by male justices that show that we really have not come very far in ridding ourselves of paternalistic views toward women.
While it’s impossible to tackle all the issues women and working mothers face at any given moment, there is something we can do now to promote the cause today as it relates to policies that protect breastfeeding mothers.
November 28th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Ummm, why do breastfeeding videos need to be on Youtube…or Facebook? Although I find it hilarious that they are considered pornographic. Believe me, my giant boobs when my milk first came in is not something anybody would want to see.
I breastfed all of my kiddos, and sometimes even in public. (Once on a plane. I felt sorry for the guy sitting next to me but my breastfed-only baby didn’t take a pacifier, and it was the only way to keep her from screaming because her ears hurt.) I fed my kids when they needed to be fed, but the whole world didn’t need to know about it. And I can’t envision any reason that videos need to be uploaded to Youtube.
November 28th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
I don’t necessarily agree that people need to be posting breastfeeding videos (although, hey, if they want to put them up there and send a link to their families, who am I to judge?), but what I really take issue with is the lack of choice. People don’t need to look if they don’t want to. If someone’s Facebook page happens to have a picture of them breastfeeding and you’re offended, don’t visit their page! I don’t agree with the fundamentalists who scream and shout outside Planned Parenthood but I support their right to do so and that is my point. Plus, when we allow “the establishment” to curtail this freedom, what’s next? This just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:15 am
I agree, Americans are entirely too prudish when it comes to nudity. I know I am, at least in certain circumstances. The last thing I want to see when I’m eating dinner, is some woman’s boob hanging out (saw more than enough of that in Europe). It’s possible to breastfeed and not flash the entire restaurant. In all fairness, I don’t want to see any man-boobs in the restaurant either. Topless is for beaches, not dinner.
I think the labeling of the breastfeeding images as “lewd” is not so much a symptom of paternalistic views towards women, but rather a symptom of the conservative backlash against “obscene” and “offensive” images in the media in general. (Janet Jackson comes to mind.) The aftermath of that, and a few other instances of live TV bad-word utterances resulted in broadcasters being afraid even to air things like “Saving Private Ryan” because of complaints by viewers of it being “offensive material.” I think it is more overreaction by the media, and now internet services, to this condemnation of “offensive” images, thus allowing the most prudish (who are also usually the most loud) to define what’s acceptable and what’s not. Enough people complaining that infant-on-boob images are lewd sadly enough results in lawsuits against media outlets and attempts at stricter government regulation of content.
Also, on a separate note, I disagree with the reasoning about why breast cancer gets more attention than other diseases. The breast cancer awareness campaign has been incredibly well-organized and publicized, with genius marketing strategy. Also, breast cancer is a “no-fault” disease, one that can’t yet be prevented, only detected early enough to treat, which invokes sympathy. Heart disease, however, is mostly seen as a disease of “fault.” Factors like smoking and obesity greatly contribute to the dramatic increase of heart disease. Heart disease is “preventable” (or is at least perceived as such) and therefore, not as sympathetic. Same with lung cancer, which has a much lower survival rate than breast cancer. The campaign focus needs to be different to prevent/treat those diseases, because everyone already knows smoking’s bad for you, and so is being obese. What isn’t so obvious are effective ways to live a healthy lifestyle to minimize the risk of heart disease.
Okay, less babble, more outlining. Sheesh.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:11 am
I looked for breastfeeding videos and images before K was born to learn more about nursing, especially different holds and positions.
As for why people would want to display videos of nursing, other than for instructional purposes, why not? You might have a video with you playing with your baby or feeding the baby a bottle, to show family members or just for posterity — why not nursing?
It doesn’t surprise me that Facebook has banned the videos because the founders don’t strike me as the most mature people. But YouTube is owned by Google. I thought “Don’t be evil” was their motto.
When I hear someone saying breastfeeding is lewd I just want to point that finger right back at them. Me feeding my child has nothing to do with titillation. The fact that you see it that way means something is wrong with YOU, not US.