In this country, we want our breasts to be large, full, and barely covered by skin-tight Hooters' t-shirts. What we DON'T want, apparently, is to see pictures of babies doing what babies have done since the dawning of mankind: nursing at the nipple of their mother. The outrage over a cover shot on BabyTalk magazine for an article on breastfeeding is hysterically ironic.
For the affront, the magazine received anguished comments such as:
"I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine."
"I immediately turned the magazine face down."
And, of course, the obvious, "Gross."
A society obsessed with erectile dysfunction, desperate housewives, coin slots, and camel toes can't seem to handle the basic function of the human milk delivery system. While no one is advocating breasts flopping in the breeze and milk squirting willy-nilly a la A Clockwork Orange's Korova Milkbar, this whole shock and awe over nursing infants is beyond ridiculous. What's most appalling about this overreaction is that those who are expressing the most outrage are primarily women and mothers themselves.
Excuse me while I roll my eyes completely in the back of my skull and dislodge them from their retinal nerve endings.
Only in the United States is it 
considered a "sexual" thing to see a breast performing as it was designed to perform. Babies don't consider it sexual, and any mentally stable lactating mother certainly doesn't find it sexual. Who finds it sexual? The prudish, sexually repressed mentally ill, that's who. There are even mothers who breastfeed who find public nursing "uncomfortable." This really is, perhaps, the most disturbing notion of all. If anyone should understand the fundamental nature of breastfeeding and its health function, it should be those who actually engage in it.
As with many bad things in our society, I blame the religious fundamentalists. And Mel Gibson.
Sadly, the downside of this self-inflicted concern over modesty merely makes women who might otherwise want to do the healthiest thing in the world for their newborn that much more reluctant to do so. Just as the American Academy of Pediatrics is in the process of pro-actively promoting breastfeeding as the healthiest choice for infants under one year (though many experts suggest the benefits continue well past the first year), we are still saddled with the subconscious baggage of our forefathers.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Lady Dragonfyre
lol awesome! I reacted with disgust when I heard about the Babytalk breast scandal as well. Apparently, it's ok to have revealing pictures of women showing off their cleavage (among other parts) on the covers of men's magazines, but God FORBID we see a breast in a magazine that's not used strictly for the sexual pleasure of men (and some women!). But, to be fair, the mag's intended audience probably plays a strong role, too. I just can't comment on that because I've never read the magazine.
2 - lori
Great rant, Dawn, especially in pointing out the absurd double-standard for breast "exposure."
3 - DJRadiohead
Well said, Dawn, and I mostly agree with you. It is funny that the only time anyone gets upset with a breast being bared is when it's on the halftime show or when it is attached to a baby.
That said, I guess I will risk the scorn of millions because I am one of those repressive, evil, backwards cavemen who would prefer to not see them plopped out at a restaurant or at the mall when I go to buy a CD.
4 - lori
Turn your head, DJ, turn your head.
5 - DJRadiohead
That seems akin to telling people not to rubberneck at accidents along the highway thus bottling up traffic. I get what you're saying, Lori. Maybe I'm all the wrong in the world about this but I don't feel comfortable on those rare occasions when I am out in public and *BAM!* I can't unsee it. Sure, I look away and no long-term psychological damage has been done (well, I am pretty sure that's not what did it). I am just not comfortable with it. One cavedude's opinion.
6 - Mark Saleski
dj...just imagine her in her underwe...
shit, wrong topic.
7 - lori
You're not such a cavedude, DJ, because you're not saying women shouldn't do it or that there should be laws against it. You're just saying it makes you uncomfortable and would rather not see it.
Like the everyone else, you probably wish you didn't see lots of other things in public, too. 8-)
But a baby's gotta eat. And if nothing else, it helps keep the little one quiet.
8 - Dawn
I have no issue with people feeling uncomfortable seeing someone else's breast. Any self-respecting mother will be discreet and modest. My issue is that people take it much further and act like breastfeeding is a dirty thing, and you know, it's really quite natural.
I would much rather see an inadvertent nipple glimpse of a breastfeeding mom, than a full on ballsack shot at the pool. Because honestly, that's an image NO ONE should be forced to see, except of course those who are official "ballhandlers".
9 - JadePhilosopher
Don't forget - defecating, urinating, and procreating are all natural, normal, and necessary, too!
10 - Martin Lav
I say the more breasts the better. In fact there's no more beautiful sight than of a breast doing what it was intended to do..... :-)
The issue here is that breasts have been taken out of context by both men and woman. It's too unnerving for most of society to see them used as intended, while we see them "diplayed" so proudly most of the time. Hell as the article points out most of the complaints are from women, but then again, women are the ones that get the breast implants when it is well known that most men aren't that interested.
DJR: me thinks you have mommie issues....
Dawn: stay out of the pool!
11 - Angie
There is no nipple showing on that babytalk magazine cover, so I don't see what the fuss about. This magazine is geared towards mothers anyway and that's what breasts are intended for. The photo was taken in good taste and looks perfectly fine. The problem is that our society bombards us with images of breasts strictly as sexual objects of desire which some people obviously can't shake from their minds. If it bothers you look or walk away, not that hard to do people.
12 - duane
I always bust out laughing when I hear about these jug heads who find public breastfeeding to be offensive. Why can't these breastfeeding knockers simply acknowledge a basic mammalian function? When we will be able to say "ta ta" to these archaic notions and live within the headlights of reason? I think these boobs need to be smacked upside their melon heads, or maybe they should be put on a rack. I wish they would just can it.
13 - jennie
As a nursing mother myself, I choose to breastfeed in public when my son needs to eat. However, I am also one of those that don't want to see it. I cover my son and myself with a blanket or a sarong of some type. If women do not have access to something like this they can still be discreet enough with their shirt. I appreciated the article in BabyTalk and I was shocked that a large amount of the population thinks that breastfeeding in public should be illegal. Those people should be driven to the desert and deprived of food and water until they are in the "privacy of their own homes"!
14 - Dawn
Excellent point Jennie - I too am a breastfeeding mom and I breastfed/feed both of my kids well into their second year, but I also used good sense and didn't display them to the world. It wasn't so much out of courtesy to others as it was my own sense of decorum and taste. Really, you can do the right thing without being a total boob.
That last one was for you duane. PS - you need help :)
15 - granny
Jade Philosopher wrote "Don't forget - defecating, urinating, and procreating are all natural, normal, and necessary, too!"
True. Eating, however, is also natural. How would you react to somebody demanding that YOU eat in the bathroom? How would you react to somebody demanding that YOU cover up your head whilst eating?
Ridiculous, isn't it? Yet that is what mothers are told to do!
There is a simple solution. If you do not want to see a baby eat, then look away.
16 - Linda Sellars
Yep...I agree...feed 'em in public, just cover it up. No big deal....
17 - Andy Dabydeen
The crazy people are taking over!
18 - Jen
You discuss in your article that low income women are less likely to breastfeed despite the fact that its free. There's a simple reason for this. Women with higher incomes are more able to afford to take time off work after the baby, and are more likely to have jobs that offer flexible schedules. Low income women don't have these opportunities. Implementing a paid maternity leave program would give low income women the opportunity to breastfeed, allowing their babies to receive the health benefits.
19 - Matthew T. Sussman
Could be worse. Imagine if milk was made from the male reproductive organs.
20 - Jet in Columbus
Matt...... No I better not.
21 - shana
I think bfeeding hangups are a byproduct of the fact that it disappeared from our culture around the 50's. Once you do it, or are around it in an everyday setting, you get used to it, you don't feel like you can't 'not' see it. When I was pregnant I had to watch a LLL tape of a breastfeeding mother, and I did think it was kinda gross. But I went on to nurse my daughter until she was 3, and loved it. I nursed in public all the time and no one EVER gave me a hard time. God I was ready, but no one ever did. Most people smiled. It's a pretty sacred thing to see if you just calm down and stop thinking it's something you're not supposed to see. I didn't mind being watched. I was discreet but proud. It's important for women to nurse publicly so more people get used to seeing it instead of remaining woefully ignorant (of which I was once guilty).
22 - Roy Potter
Apparently, watching the mayhem and murder of humans is more appropriate to the fragile and misguided religiosity and morality of westerners than the life-giving and beautiful act of naturally nursing a child. As Isaiah said, "the world will go away backwards."
23 - Chas Warren
Those who are offended by breastfeeding are probably those who undress in the dark, who have never seen their spouse naked, and who are disgusted at themselves for masturbating.
24 - Dave
I thought it was hilarious that you associate breastfeeding hangups with Mel Gibson (how many kids does he have?) and fundamentalism. The people I know with hangups are only nominally religious and came from more uptight (culturally, not religiously) families. And the exceptions to that group of anti BFers tend to care more about breast/body shape than they do about infant health.
I haven't seen prudishness play any role whatsoever. In fact, the communities you generalize about tend to have a lot of children and tend to be extremely PRO breastfeeding. Anti-BF tends to be more about narcissism these days.
25 - Wes S.
Please. The real scandal here is the way that a tiny magazine has successfully drummed up a staggering amount of free publicity and money by putting a woman's tit on the cover.
This topic has, as has been suggested, damn little to do with natural biological functions and it's useless to pretend it does.
Let's all agree we should crap, pee, masturbate, fuck, eat, breathe, sleep and breastfeed in public or else stop talking about nature and biology as if that was somehow a justifcatio of public displays and the public's reaction to them.