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Breast-feeding pic on cover sparks backlash against Baby Talk magazine
it's da boob wrote: Breast-Feeding Cover Sparks Debate Babytalk Magazine's Photo Of Nursing Baby Angers Some Readers NEW YORK, July 28, 2006 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (AP) "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 more support from the government and medical community. Babytalk is a free magazine whose readership is overwhelmingly mothers of babies. Yet in a poll of more than 4,000 readers, a quarter of responses to the cover were negative, calling the photo a baby and part of a woman's breast, in profile, inappropriate. 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." 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." Another mother, Kelly Wheatley, wrote Babytalk to applaud the cover, precisely because, she says, it helps educate people that breasts are more than sex objects. And yet Wheatley, 40, who's still nursing her 3-year-old daughter, rarely breast-feeds in public, partly because it's more comfortable in the car, and partly because her husband is uncomfortable with other men seeing her breast. "Men are very visual," says Wheatley, 40, of Amarillo, Texas. "When they see a woman's breast, they see a breast, regardless of what it's being used for." Babytalk editor Susan Kane says the mixed response to the cover clearly echoes the larger debate over breast-feeding in public. "There's a huge Puritanical streak in Americans," she says, "and there's a squeamishness about seeing a body part, even part of a body part." "It's not like women are whipping them out with tassels on them!" she adds. "Mostly, they are trying to be discreet." Kane says that since the August issue came out last week, the magazine has received more than 700 letters, more than for any article in years. "Gross, I am sick of seeing a baby attached to a boob," wrote Lauren, a mother of a 4-month-old. The evidence of public discomfort isn't just anecdotal. In a survey published in 2004 by the American Dietetic Association, less than half, 43 percent, of 3,719 respondents said women should have the right to breast-feed in public places. The debate rages at a time when the celebrity-mom phenomenon has made breast-feeding perhaps more public than ever. Gwyneth Paltrow, Brooke Shields, Kate Hudson and Kate Beckinsale are only a few of the stars who've talked openly about their nursing experiences. The celeb factor has even brought a measure of chic to that unsexiest of garments: the nursing bra. Gwen Stefani can be seen on babyrazzi.com, a site with a self-explanatory name, sporting a leopard-print version from lingerie line Agent Provocateur. And fellow moms recognized a white one under Angelina Jolie's tank top on the cover of People. (Katie Holmes, meanwhile, suffered a maternity wardrobe malfunction when cameras caught her, nursing bra open and peeking out of her shirt, while on the town with fiance Tom Cruise.) More seriously, the social and medical debate has intensified. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently concluded a two-year breast-feeding awareness campaign including a TV ad, criticized as over-the-top even by some breast-feeding advocates, in which NOT breast-feeding was equated with the recklessness of a pregnant woman riding a mechanical bull. There have been other measures to promote breast-feeding: in December, for example, Massachusetts banned hospitals from giving new mothers gift bags with free infant formula, a practice opponents said swayed some women away from nursing. Most states now have laws guaranteeing the right to breast-feed where one chooses, and when a store or restaurant employee denies a woman that right, it has often resulted in public protests known as "nurse-ins": at a Starbucks in Miami, at Victoria's Secret stores in Racine, Wis., and Boston, and, last year, outside ABC headquarters in New York, when Barbara Walters made comments on "The View" seen by some women to denigrate breast-feeding in public. "It's a new age," says Melinda Johnson, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for ADA. "With the government really getting behind breast-feeding, it's been a jumping-off point for mothers to be politically active. Mommies are organizing. It's a new trend to be a mommy activist." Ultimately, it seems to be a highly personal matter. Caly Wood says she's "all for breast-feeding in public." She recalls with a shudder the time she sat nursing in a restaurant booth, and another woman walked by, glanced over and said, "Ugh, gross." "My kid needed to eat," says the 29-year-old from South Abingdon, Mass. And she wasn't going to go hide in a not-so-clean restroom: "I don't send people to the bathroom when THEY want to eat," she says. But Rebekah Kreutz thinks differently. One of six women who author SisterhoodSix, a blog on mothering issues, Kreutz didn't nurse her two daughters in public, and doesn't really feel comfortable seeing others do it. "I respect it and think women have the right," says Kreutz, 34, of Bozeman, Mont. "But personally, it makes me really uncomfortable." "I just think it's one of those moments that should stay between a mother and her child." photo: http://img.timeinc.net/parenting/web...6_BT_cover.jpg i do not understand what the fuss is about. americans are so behind the rest of the world when it comes to respect for the function of breastfeeding. come on. why could anyone sexualize a baby feeding from a mother's breast? one woman apparently thinks her husband's johnson cannot tell the difference between her breast and the one on the cover... and the woman with the teen son, who needs to learn about natural functions (for cryingoutloud!) is so fearful it's hilarious. get a grip, peeps. we have much more to be concerned with. sometimes i think that things like this allow us to panic over stuff that won't hurt us in return, rather than think about the cruel realities of the planet at large. americans are underchallenged and overstimulated, i tellya. - AD |
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Breast-feeding pic on cover sparks backlash against Baby Talk magazine
i do not understand what the fuss is about. americans are so behind
the rest of the world when it comes to respect for the function of breastfeeding. come on. why could anyone sexualize a baby feeding from a mother's breast? Because some people will sexualize anything. Would any of the BF moms on here have a problem with someone taking pictures of their breast or of their child breastfeeding? Doing this purley for their 'own reasons'? It is within their rights to do so. (ask any celebrity) |
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Breast-feeding pic on cover sparks backlash against Baby Talk magazine
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Breast-feeding pic on cover sparks backlash against Baby Talk magazine
"Zeb Quinn" wrote in message ups.com... wrote: i do not understand what the fuss is about. americans are so behind the rest of the world when it comes to respect for the function of breastfeeding. come on. why could anyone sexualize a baby feeding from a mother's breast? My observation is that the most strenuous objectors are usually married women who do not want other women baring their breasts in front of their husbands. Most men don't care. It's their wives. My husband doesn't care. He knows the difference, I guess. We have friends with a baby a little younger than ours, and neither of them have had issues if her or I nursed our babies while visiting - either out in public or in one of our homes. Neither I, or DH, have problems carrying on a normal conversation if a baby is nursing - either ours or a friend's or even a stranger in the mall doesn't cause him or I to stare, as it's not like the woman is nursing her husband or something. I applaud the cover. I don't find anything offensive about it. The majority of the picture shows the baby, a small portion is a breast, and even with that, it's not a wild, out of control boob shot. Rather than "Why women don't nurse longer" they should have put something like, "Why women are insecure" or "Why everyone looks down and shuns nursing" |
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Breast-feeding pic on cover sparks backlash against Baby Talk magazine
" wrote in
oups.com: i do not understand what the fuss is about. americans are so behind the rest of the world when it comes to respect for the function of breastfeeding. Yeah, right, every freakin' American feels EXACTLY that way but, hey, you know, they could only quote a few and they just *happened* to be the best ones to support the article's flavor. EYEROLL [rest of racist stuff hosed] |
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Breast-feeding pic on cover sparks backlash against Baby Talk magazine
"Zeb Quinn" wrote in message ups.com... wrote: i do not understand what the fuss is about. americans are so behind the rest of the world when it comes to respect for the function of breastfeeding. come on. why could anyone sexualize a baby feeding from a mother's breast? My observation is that the most strenuous objectors are usually married women who do not want other women baring their breasts in front of their husbands. Most men don't care. It's their wives. I couldn't aggree more. I have noticed that the ladies are the more possive of their men. Rather than it being the other way around as shown in the meida with these men who controling everything their wives or girl-friends do. Then the wemen groups do more complaining about the guys, and wonder why so many guys chose to stay single. Ie: I wonder were all the decent guys have gone? Loner |
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Breast-feeding pic on cover sparks backlash against Baby Talk magazine
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Breast-feeding pic on cover sparks backlash against Baby Talk magazine
xkatx wrote:
"Zeb Quinn" wrote in message ups.com... wrote: i do not understand what the fuss is about. americans are so behind the rest of the world when it comes to respect for the function of breastfeeding. come on. why could anyone sexualize a baby feeding from a mother's breast? My observation is that the most strenuous objectors are usually married women who do not want other women baring their breasts in front of their husbands. Most men don't care. It's their wives. My husband doesn't care. He knows the difference, I guess. ----------------------- You're wholly mistaken. He LIKES seeing breasts, and if you check his pants you'll find a stiffy! We have friends with a baby a little younger than ours, and neither of them have had issues if her or I nursed our babies while visiting - either out in public or in one of our homes. Neither I, or DH, have problems carrying on a normal conversation if a baby is nursing - either ours or a friend's or even a stranger in the mall doesn't cause him or I to stare, as it's not like the woman is nursing her husband or something. I applaud the cover. I don't find anything offensive about it. The majority of the picture shows the baby, a small portion is a breast, and even with that, it's not a wild, out of control boob shot. ---------------------- What makes a photo of a breast "wild" or "out of control"?? I've got lots of DVDs and movies of breasts, and lots of stills, and I've never seen one that was "out of control" yet! Or is it that this is what women fear from men? Steve Rather than "Why women don't nurse longer" they should have put something like, "Why women are insecure" or "Why everyone looks down and shuns nursing" |
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Breast-feeding pic on cover sparks backlash against Baby Talkmagazine
wrote:
i do not understand what the fuss is about. americans are so behind the rest of the world when it comes to respect for the function of breastfeeding. come on. why could anyone sexualize a baby feeding from a mother's breast? For some men, like those who aren't getting any sex at home, it gives them a fantasy to wank to. Human imagination is a powerful thing in that regard. (And I'm writing this very carefully in a public place, too!) So, yeah, there is a demand for just about any kind of porn or pseudo-porn that can be thought up. It's gotta be the testosterone again. -- Curtis R. Anderson, Co-creator of "Gleepy the Hen", still "In Heaven there is no beer / That's why we drink it here ..." http://www.gleepy.net/ ICQ: 50137888 (and others) Yahoo!: gleepythehen |
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