I'll be honest - originally when I heard about the protest, I was disinterested. I haven't shared any photos of myself breastfeeding on Facebook and haven't wanted to. While I believe in the right to breastfeed wherever and whenever necessary, I didn't feel strongly about the Facebook issue.
But....isn't it normal for people to post photos of themselves feeding baby their bottle? Mums and Dads, Grannies and Grandads all proudly taking turns for the camera while baby enjoys their grub? Why then is it not ok to share pictures of a breastfed baby doing the same?
Despite passionately believing in breastfeeding as a completely normal activity and never having a problem feeding C in public when she was small, I am embarrassed to do it now. I would if a pressing need arose, but haven't for a long time. I would rather go into a stinky toilet and feed her there than have others look at me disapprovingly. The thought of C getting any sense that what we are doing is in someway wrong is painful to me.
Isn't that sad? That we live in a society where idiots on the internet refer to feeding older children as "kiddie porn"? That my awareness of that, despite my generally assertive personality, leads me to go to where people take a dump to feed my toddler?
So that's why I took part today. Breastfeeding is normal and natural. It is a part of family life. Societal attitudes need to change so that mothers feeding their babies the natural way in public are as relaxed as those feeding their babies with bottles. Facebook's removal of breastfeeding photos that in no way contravene their terms of service just feeds into a widely held perception of breastfeeding as something that is in some way wrong, dirty or sexual, that should be done behind closed doors or under cover of some ridiculous custom-made apron. It's not "pornographic or sexual", Facebook - it's just a baby chowing down.
The sexualisation of almost anything involving breasts, or women, for that matter, pisses me off so very much. Good for you :)
ReplyDeleteThere should be more awareness of this, fair play to you. Would have joined you if I knew!
ReplyDeleteIt was great to meet you there : ) I only realized when I got home that I already knew & liked your blog!!
ReplyDeleteAine x
That's exactly how I felt at the time - at first I thought "but why do people want to put pictures of themselves breastfeeding on facebook?" and then I thought, hang on, why shouldn't they if they want to - a bottle feeding photo wouldn't be taken down. Would love to have been involved in this but was caught up in my newborn and his tt at the time, hadn't discovered the EBI community yet and knew nothing about the protest. Lovely to discover all the blogs tonight via the document that was ressurected on EBI, will be nosing around!
ReplyDeleteAndrea Mara