‘Breast’ Cover Gets Mixed Reaction
“I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine,” one person wrote. “I immediately turned the magazine face down,” wrote another. “Gross,” said a third. These readers weren’t complaining about a sexually explicit cover, but rather one of a baby nursing, on a wholesome parenting magazine — yet another sign that Americans are squeamish over the sight of a nursing breast, even as breast-feeding itself gains greater support from the government and medical community.
OH MY GOD! THERE’S A WOMAN BREASTFEEDING!!! WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?? Never mind the fact that breastfeeding actually IS about a child. Jeebus, some folks really need to learn how to lighten up. If they channelled even half of their misplaced outrage against…oh, I don’t know…violence on television, perhaps they might actually accomplish something. Instead, they waste their time and energy having conniptions over…GASP!!…the sight of a woman breastfeeding her child in public. As if the sight of a naked breast with a baby clamped onto it would automatically turn impressionable children and horny guys into insatiable sex addicts.
Get a grip, willya??
Could someone please explain to me what could POSSIBLY be dirty or sinful (or even titillaing) about a woman breastfeeding her child in public? What is it about the sight of a naked breast that members of the American Taliban find so threatening? And yet these same trolls will sit their children in front of 2 hours of Kill Bill 2 without so much as a second thought. Graphic, grotesque violence is perfectly acceptable…but I’ll be damned if I’ll sit by while someone shows my child a naked breast…..
One mother who didn’t like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son 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.”
OK, so call me naive, but a breast is simply a part of the female anatomy. It’s not dirty, it’s not nasty…it’s just a body part. Really, it’s ony dirty and nasty if you choose to see it as such. And it appears to be in the best interests of the American Taliban to brand anything even remotely sexual as sinful and dirty. And yet how many murders and how much senseless violence will be broadcast today? How much blood- whether real or theatrical- will be shed? Apparently the American Taliban has no problem with violence, but man, show a breast and there’s gonna be Hell to pay
It’s the same reason that Ash, 41, who nursed all three of her children, is cautious about breast-feeding in public — a subject of enormous debate among women, which has even spawned a new term: “lactivists,” meaning those who advocate for a woman’s right to nurse wherever she needs to.
“I’m totally supportive of it — I just don’t like the flashing,” she says. “I don’t want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn’t want to see.”
WTF? What self-respecting male DOESN’T want to see a breast? It’s not like it’s a traumatic experience or anything. Somehow, I think that the only complaints forthcoming would be from uptights members of the American Taliban, who wouldn’t know how to relax and enjoy life if you gave them a manual and a personal coach.
How about we find something important to worry about? People are dying in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. We have a President who values the lives of embryos over those of sick and suffering Americans. Our country is being run by bullies, thieves, and thugs. Yes, there are plenty of other things available that one could reasonably obsess over. Public breastfeeding is NOT one of them. Frankly, if it’s a choice between seeing a naked breast or death and destruction in Lebanon, I’ll go with the breast every time. If you disagree, you really ought to go to the Lost and Found counter and check to see if anyone has turned in your misplaced humanity.
