Facebook vs Nursing Mother: Hitting Back at Accusations that Nursing is Sexually Explicit
There is a hot debate in the media right now about the right to post breastfeeding pictures online. Facebook recently began removing profile pictures from members showing mothers nursing their babies and it has resulted in a global uproar. Members have been threatened with expulsion from the site if they repost the pictures. Facebook claims the pictures violate their policy on “obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit” material.
Breastfeeding is a very special nurturing experience to share with your child. Breast milk is the way nature designed our bodies to nourish our babies. It really upsets me that the biologically correct way to feed our babies is coming under fire and being attacked as explicit when it is the most natural thing in the world.
Perhaps this is more of a reflection of our deformed society that believes that breastfeeding is a sexual act or even obscene. It is sad to realize that breasts have become such a sexual symbol that some people can no longer understand their primary role: to nurture our children. I know many conservative mothers who would never sunbathe topless but have no problem nursing their baby in public. They are simply feeding their children after all.
I find it interesting that there are just as many men backing the campaign as there are women. One gentleman in an online forum discussing this debate asked if we should now start banning pictures in National Geographic to keep in line with the Facebook trend. This juxtaposition shows just how ludicrous Facebook’s policy is.
On 27 December, Stefanie Muis, a mother of five from Ottawa, organized the virtual nurse-in on Facebook called the Mothers International Lactation Campaign. She was supported by the 11,000 mothers who changed their profile pictures and 153,950 members of the “Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!” group. The campaign continues to encourage women to post profile pictures of them breastfeeding in protest of Facebook’s policy. The aim is to change Facebook’s policy regarding breastfeeding photos and its stipulations about how much of a woman’s breast can be seen on the site. As well as the online nurse-in, women protested in person at the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
Unfortunately, so far there has been no change in Facebook’s stance. They will remove photos of a “fully exposed breast,” which they define as a picture showing the nipple or areola. Barry Schnitt, a Facebook spokesman, said that no action will be taken against the “vast majority” of breastfeeding pictures but that “the photos we act upon are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain.”
Facebook is not the only one banning images of breastfeeding. MySpace has the same policy. Livejournal, on the other hand, is more liberal, and began to welcome these images after receiving to user feedback that they want these pictures to be displayed.
Facebook says that its policies are designed to protect the children over the age of 13 who are members of their site. I think it is extremely important to teach the youth of today that breastfeeding is a natural and vital part of a child’s life and that it should be celebrated. Perhaps if we were more open about breastfeeding and treated it as a normal activity, we would encourage a society where breastfeeding our babies becomes the standard. Information would be passed down from mother to daughter and our children would reap the rewards of being breastfed babies.
If you are already a Facebook member, please post pictures of you or someone you love breastfeeding as your profile picture. Then please join the “Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!” . Let’s spread the word and continue this on all social networking sites around the globe to bring about real change that can’t be ignored.
