Baby Talk Magazine!
Okay, so a mainstream magazine put a picture of a baby breastfeeding on the cover…and panic ensues.
The chaos that this created for our civilization was covered in the news: ‘Breast’ Cover Gets Mixed Reaction
and there is a POLL to help us determine whether it’s gross. I kid you not.
A friend of mine Paul, of TERA fame, sent these letters to editors and they made me laugh so I wanted to share them with you…
Letter to the Editor
The National Post (Toronto, Ontario), August 1, 2006
Re: Laid Bare: The Significance of the Breastfeeding Row, July 31.
The real significance of the row seems to escape even La Leche League.
Its executive director says that the cause of the US row, a cover photo
on Babytalk magazine, shows no more than you’d see “on a hot summer
day,” so what’s the fuss?
The point is the potential. At any moment in a breastfeeding scene, much
of the American public and press are afraid — very, very afraid —
that about 4 square centimetres will emerge and shut down civilization.
That’s quite a power to attribute to one female nipple. In reality, a
patriarchal society is telling women to cover their nipples because men
can’t control themselves and aren’t responsible for their actions.
Whether that demeans men or women more is debatable. That it is blatant
nonsense is not.
There are many people who don’t care what’s on the cover of Babytalk, or
would approve of its controversial photo. We will not hear from most of
them. Meanwhile, relatively few people with absurd attitudes grounded in
baseless fear linked to obsessive control issues end up condemning
magazines, harassing breastfeeding women, and making it much harder for
infants to gain access to good health.
On that subject, we seem to hear little too. But it lies at the heart of
American body phobia, which is commoner in Canada than is often acknowledged.
–
Dr. Paul Rapoport
Co-ordinator
Topfree Equal Rights Association
and again…
Letter to the Editor
The Hamilton Spectator (Hamilton, Ontario)
August 5, 2006
Re: ‘Breast pic gets rants and raves’ (August 1)
I am shocked and dismayed that you printed that photo of a baby feeding
at a n*k*d breast. This is not a subject for a family paper! I mean,
what if my two-month-old picks up that article and starts to read it?
What if my 7-year-old asks me what that picture is? I’ll have to say the
baby is blowing up a balloon and then run screaming from the room.
I just can’t let my teenager know the facts about babies’ feeding. If
she finds out, she may try to feed one herself some day!
Look, women’s role is to be a nice decoration. Just not that way, see.
If you print any more photos like that, life as we know it will cease.
There’ll be orgies in the streets! The sun will rise in the west! City
Council will become useless!
And children may have to learn that women’s breasts have a purpose other
than selling beer, cars, and sports gear. That’s wrong, right?
–
Paul Rapoport
hoooooooo heeeee haa ha ha! Man, I love sarcasm!
and
I, of course have some comics in response…
Julinda said,
August 4, 2006 @ 12:58 pm
In one article they said a woman shredded it because she was afraid her 13-year-old son would see it. I wondered if she keeps her son locked in his room, because if not, he will see some pretty explicit stuff on television, on magazine covers (like the Cosmo with things like “S*x secrets he wishes you knew”), and in real life. She thinks seeing breastfeeding will harm him? It might make him a little uncomfortable, but it also might teach him, like your friend said, “that women’s breasts have a purpose other than selling beer, cars, and sports gear.”
I think the photo should show more! Like the woman. And I also think people who turn this into a nursing in public issue should remember/know that moms don’t usually bare quite that much flesh when nursing in public.
Enough rambling.
alisaterry said,
August 4, 2006 @ 4:05 pm
I am proud of Babytalk for not really caring. From what I read, they are not pulling the magazine or changing the cover. Good for them! Maybe this mainstream mag has seen he light?
wiffersnapper said,
August 5, 2006 @ 1:44 pm
I found it amusing that when I clicked the link to go read the article, what popped up beside it but a formula ad!
One of the secrets of breastfeeding is that having a supportive husband is 80% of the battle- what kind of support is that young man whose mother shredded to cover going to be able to offer? “My mother said that boobies are nasty things that I shouldn’t look at, so you’d better not get them out, dear…” Just what we need.
KatyLinda said,
August 6, 2006 @ 7:02 pm
I was excited to see the cover, however I was completely upset by the negative media coverage it recieved. I did write my letter to the editor applauding them for portraying a baby feeding naturally. I hope they will get an overwhelming positive response.
apadilla said,
May 8, 2007 @ 8:59 am
I love your site, I just came across it from the Blogger’s Choice Awards and as a nursing mother of a 3 1/2 year old, I’m quite happy to have found it. You should see the looks I get when I nurse my DD in public. The first comment reminded me of this: http://www.mamac-ta.com/?p=551
One of them is about nursing in front of a boy, but it’s all too funny!