What the hell is happening to us as a nation?
I can’t decide whether this story surprises me or not, but it is an outrageous example of how the United States is becoming more and more puritanical since this administration has taken over and religious zealots are enjoying unprecedented influence both socially and politically.
Here is the magazine cover that has sparked outrage among many readers.
One mother felt the need to protect her 13-year old son from seeing it.
“I shredded it,” said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. “A breast is a breast – it’s a sexual thing. He didn’t need to see that.”
Um, okaaay. But chances are, at 13, her son has probably seen a breast, or even two, on TV or in one of the magazines he and his friends page through when she thinks they’re simply playing “M” rated video games.
Apparently it’s the “accidental” sighting of a breast that bothers her.
“I don’t want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn’t want to see.”
Now those are the kind of breasts her husband and son want to see – not that subtle, nippleless hint of a side view of an almost unrecognizable breast of that slutty woman feeding her infant.
Personally I find the sight of a mother nursing her infant to be one of the most beautiful things imaginable – but maybe that’s just me. I breastfed all four of my children until they were about a year old and usually it was in the comfort of my own home, but sometimes the baby would be hungry when I was out and I would discreetly feed them wherever I happened to be. A nursing child pretty much obscures the breast anyway so you have to work really hard to accidentally see a breast that you didn’t want to see. A lot of people think that women should go to the restroom to feed their child. I would like to tell them to eat their cheeseburger and fries in the bathroom of Hooters.
What did surprise me about this story is that the offended people were just as likely to be women as men, and many of the women had nursed their own children but still found the cover of that magazine, which BTW is only available in the waiting rooms of OB/GYNs, to be highly offensive.
What the hell?!
Have we really come no further in our view of the female breast?
Ignorance never ceases to amaze me. And who do you think needs a shrink more, the husband and son who accidentally see a breast, or the woman who SHREDS(!) the photo to make sure they don’t?
everyone knows that breasts are for playing with…any suggestion of any actual functionality is just obscene.
Heh. Sadly, you’ve just summarized their thinking.
…he’s most certainly seen more breasts than that!
Honestly, she should have kept it as a learning tool so that he can grow up knowing what the primary purpose of breasts are. Her reaction strikes me as the absolute opposite of what it ought to be.
In fact, I find the whole reaction to the cover as painfully moronic. I read about this in Salon.com and I was just floored by the hysterical reactions of the people who complained about the cover.
So it’s perfectly OK to use breasts to sell everything from toothpaste to cars, but it’s friggin INDECENT to show a baby breastfeeding?
I’m sorry, but we’ve got some truly sick, demented people among us when you can vilify baby’s nourishment. I just didn’t realize it was that bad among some people.
AP, it’s not only worse than you realized, it’s worse than you can imagine.
Actual quote from this morning’s roundyround…
“You should be less worried about losing your civil rights and more worried about losing your country!”
“If we lose our civil rights, we HAVE lost our country.”
“This’ll be a lot better of a country when we can just SHOOT traitors like you!!!”
At the end of the day, there will be no reasonable discussions. These People Are Deranged.
Don’t people realize God made formula for a reason. Just give it time and they’ll have all those natural antibodies figured out to put in the power.
I voted anytime/anywhere, but I do like the last one too. 🙂
Do you know I actually have a friend who said her husband “wouldn’t let” her breastfeed?!
Her husband is an idiot.
And two of her four daughters are morbidly obese teenagers.
There are studies that say formula fed babies are more likely to grow up to be fat because their parents tend to overfeed them until the bottle is gone, whereas breastfed babies just stop nursing when they’re satisfied.
Most people don’t bring children into the world and start playing russian roulette with their health. It would seem to me with the natural antibodies passed on through breast milk it would be the preferred method of feeding a baby. However, as shown in the article some new mothers are even against it.
There are militant pro-breastfeeding people who want to demonize women who decide not to do it, and they drive me crazy too. It’s a choice, really.
But it’s quick, natural, free, good for the baby, good for the woman. I can’t imagine at least not giving it a try.
My mother actually bought the hype in the 50s and 60s that formula was superior to breastmilk.
This is probably off the wall, but the thought just hit me that I wonder how many of the pro-breastfeeding people use cloth diapers. I realize it’s not even in the ballpark with breast feeding, but as I said, the thought just hit me.
I used cloth diapers for both of my girls. I was unsuccessful at nursing the oldest because of a bout of mastitis in the second week, but was able to nurse the younger one for almost 7 months. But back to diapers, the disposable ones seem such a waste. The cloth ones can be washed (ok, rinsing #2s out of them is dicey if you have a weak stomach) and reused. When the last child is potty trained, the diapers make wonderful dust & cleaning rags. I wish I still had a few but with the “babies” now 34 & 38, the diapers are long gone {g}
I guess some people are getting their kids ready to play it sooner than later.
Iraq, Isreal and Hezbollah conflict, Iran, North Korea are all places where we play it. We have elected a man who cares nothing about diplomacy, knows nothing about diplomacy, cares little about the people he represents except for the fat cats from Halliburton and some of us seem to think he represents safety? We have a fellow in charge who supports polluters. There is more mercury in fish we eat than children should ingest.
Every day I get in my car and run errands, go to work, etc. We have transit – noisy smelling buses and we have to stand out in the hot sunshine waiting for them (am I spoiled? You betcha!) and we have been told over and over that the midwest just isn’t dense enough for subways and better transit programs. And one idiot in Johnson County business group was bragging they they had FEW or NO buses in Johnson County. And you could look outside and see that the huge feeder streets were over full even between rush hours.
Here in the midwest we could do solar and wind combined and have electric bikes we could recharge with the former especially in the 6 months of summer. But it isn’t easy doing that. It is not like we have door to door salesmen giving a pitch for either. We have to do research on our own with few ideas of where to start.
I had a cousin who told me (as I was sitting there nursing my son at anoher cousin’s wedding) that she couldn’t imagine breastfeeding – with a distasteful look on her face, as if it were one of the grossest things you could ever do. Of course, that’s how I felt about feeding a baby formula…eeewww. Gross.
new husband!
I’m so grateful to have nursed both of my children. I think it a closeness that babies really need and hey, no ear infections. I nursed in public places discreetly, there was one very strange fellow one day who kept trying to see my breast. He came over to talk to me and he kept changing where he was standing and staring in the breast direction. I thought he was very messed up and I laughed about it, but my husband was just about ready to Bop him when the guy finally wandered on. I don’t know what to make of such people who can’t look upon a nursing baby as anything more than a nursing child, but my theory is that they have a very “sexualized” mind.
I was on a plane awhile ago and the woman next to me was trying to breastfeed her baby while also trying to make sure that no part of him got into my “airspace”. I told her not to worry about it.
As we were deplaning she thanked me profusely and I said “but I didn’t do anything” to which she replied rather plaintively “but you were so nice about it”.
That she should feel so grateful for so little struck me as a pretty sad commentary on how nursing mothers and their babies get treated.
…you didn’t react like Barbara Walters:
Made her uncomfortable?
I’m sorry, but anyone who’s uncomfortable with breastfeeding are morons. You see more boobs in a beer commercial, and no one is up in arms. In fact, we’re perfectly OK with it. Where were the protesting parents for slow-motion breast bounce in the recent Adam Sandler movie trailer? But nourishing your child is “disgusting”?
Say it with me: It. Is. Just. A. Breast.
There’s people I don’t like to watch eat. Nursing babies aren’t among them. We should be encouraging mothers to nurse more and longer. Formula companies do their best. But, even they admit they can’t come close to what nature provides. It is absolutely magical for the babies! And, I would no more be offended at seeing it than I would at seeing an older kid brushing and flossing, or getting lots of exercise.
Have Oreos…Will travel ;o)
…so I guess you’re the ‘over 35’ answer? 🙂
Yep!
Never let go of your inner child…I always say :o)
As if men ever do…
You’re gonna have to share those oreos, bub.
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE……………
If we’re talking Tyra Banks you’ll have to share her with me. There are very few women I’d say that about.
Ah geeze, SN. . .Okay, just cuz it’s you. I’m not real good about sharing the really nummy stuff, though! LOL!
I’m over 35, * I WIN * !!!
IMO, the woma who found it necessary to shred that magazine cover, and any woman who found it “objectionable”, are no longer full fledged autonomous women.
They are Stepford Clones.
Interesting and sad that something that has been a completely natural process for thousands of years is now a big issue a la Janet Jackson. I’m guessing this is purely a U.S. phenomenon???
BTW, our daughter-in-law can do it in a crowded room and be almost invisible. I don’t know how she does it, but we don’t usually know the little guy is fed and full until we notice he’s sound asleep:-)
I could go on and on about this….
They want us to feed our babies in a hot car, a dirty restroom, in a dark closet… fuck that.
Plus these women make nice, honorable men feel bad and awkward when near a woman who is feeding her baby. That’s wrong too. Men can look at a beautiful sight of a woman nursing her child. Ther’s nothing wrong in any of it.
I truly think this shows how fucked up the “offended” really are.
If these people think a nursing baby is sexual then they are pedophiles or some type of sexual pervert.
Great diary Second!!!
Some nursing mothers staged a ‘nurse-in’ at various Victoria’s Secret stores after a woman was asked to stop breastfeeding in one of their stores. The irony of that is just astounding.
A letter to the editor regarding the nurse-in was by a man who basically said ‘if breastfeeding is natural then they shouldn’t mind if I urinate next to them since that’s natural too.’ Comparing feeding a child to getting rid of body waste?
It makes me wonder how artists are ever able to control their urges when drawing nudes as a part of their education?
I wonder if these same peopel object to figure studies?
Heh. That’s why I do landscapes. Otherwise I couldn’t control myself.
In other words, fear keeps your local systems in line…
OMG!!!
Breast diary…I mean best diary I’ve read on the subject of breasts.
Ms. Carnacki was a militant breastfeeder and would whip out her breasts any where. How about them apples? she’d say (or something like that) if someone would stare or complain.
No telling how many unsuspecting men and boys she traumatized along the way.
As for me, I have to turn my head at the beach when man-boobs walk by. Why is no one bitching about them? 🙂
Are you saying a manzere should be worn on the beach. 🙂
Yes. If they’re bigger than mine, which many of them are, manzeres should be worn.
Yes but then how would the man be able to flex his chest on the beach, or are they able to do that?
Reminds me of a story about someone who asked if a friend was going to go see a Tyrone Power movie. They basically said no, they weren’t interested in any movie where the leading man’s tits were bigger than the leading lady’s.
One of the better SNL fake ads
So, the two people who voted “only in private”, um, do you only eat in private, that no restaurants, no hot dogs on the beach, no popcorn at the zoo?
I wish I could have breast fed longer, but it was just impossible with work. But while I was breastfeeding, I would not hesitate to breastfeed in public. Sure, I was as discreet as I could make it, breastfeeding worked best in a quiet and undisturbed location, but when my baby was hungry, I would be damned to try and coax it while I found a filthy bathroom or back alley.
Whenever I pass an infant and mother in that bond, I can’t help but smile. It is a beautiful thing.
Hurts advertising
are the men and women who claim to believe in “rapture” but don’t believe the miracle of breast milk. And who never have heard that MEN can deliver breast milk in a pinch (of course they have to be willing to try!)
Breast milk is an amazing substance for our babies. It comes prepackaged especially for them. Nothing else can substitute inspite of Nestle trying to con people into their hellacious product.
Why is it that the so-called Christians want to bottle up God and bottle us up into something so tastless as Nestle’s substitute formula?
Because uncaged Deities performing miracles are unpredictable…. they can help anyone, anytime, on a whim. This happens regardless of whether the recipient has been found to have conducted him/herself appropriately by meeting his/her material and political obligations to the Church and therefore declared to be worthy of a miracle in accordance with procedures set out by Duly Constituted Authority.
This should not be allowed; miracles should only occur to those who have been approved by the Godspeakers. Otherwise the “credibility” of the Godspeakers might be questioned, and who knows where that could lead?
No, no. Far better to have the Gods under control, especially when they’re the only thing keeping the peasants with the pitchforks away from the priests’ door.
So the “Christians” and “Muslims” and “Jews” (capitalized because of the importance of the identity to these folks) are happy with that caged God. And yet it must be like holding onto the tail of the tiger. If you acknowledge power in a God, even caged, is not that God capable of gasp smiting you? No wonder all the fearsome imagery they project.
I don’t want to poop on the parade route, or imply that this woman was in any way reasonable in shredding this magazine cover. But, evolutionarily speaking, the part of the breast that you can actually see in that photo does serve a primarily sexual function. Humans are the only mammals that have breasts that protrude when they are not lactating. Humans also have a menstrual cycle rather than an estrus cycle – meaning that the female is “always” sexually receptive – not just when she is “in heat”. The size of the breast has no bearing on a woman’s ability to nurse. (As they say in La Leche: “They are factories not warehouses.) The mammary gland and nipple are all that are absolutely necessary for nursing. The rest of the protruding breast evolved as a sexual attractant. Ironically, the nipple is the only part of the breast that the law considers to be “obscene”. And, you can’t see that part in this photo.