This:
Hot!
This:
Says Jezebel:
For those who need a refresher course: Facebook banned some photos of mothers breastfeeding their children because they said it violated their Terms of Use. Naturally, this angered a lot of breastfeeding mothers who created a group with 80,000 people titled “Hey Facebook, breast feeding is not obscene!” and some of the mothers even staged a small protest outside of Facebook’s main offices in California.
A spokesman for Facebook says that the site does not ban all breastfeeding photos, just ones where a nipple is fully exposed:
“Photos containing a fully exposed breast (as defined by showing the nipple or areola) do violate those terms (on obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit material) and may be removed,” he said in a statement.
“The photos we act upon are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain.”
The Facebook spokesman claims that the company’s standards for “indecent” breastfeeding photos are not just found on Facebook: the social networking company called several U.S. newspapers and asked if they could run an ad with a woman breastfeeding with a fully exposed breast, which the newspapers declined (and we all know how great newspapers are doing right now).
Which makes me wonder: What kind of tools spend their days searching on Facebook for photos of breastfeeding moms and complaining that they violate the terms of use? The same sort of tools that create Facebook apps like “Hot Naked Sexy Breasts Nude Bikini Chicks” and “Send Some Tits to Your Buddies,” perhaps?
History repeats. AOL had this same problem ten years ago, only then it wasn’t photos, it was just the word “breast”. They banned not only breast-feeding but breast cancer until someone pointed out how fucking stupid they were making themselves look. Possibly someone from Scunthorpe, all mention of which was also banned. Fail.
reporting in to epic thread
I’ve got another question for you: What kind of tools feel the need to post pictures of themselves breast feeding on a public forum?
Isn’t in someone’s (banal) job at Facebook to actually review every image posted? Or at the very least, run each image file through software that determines indecency based on the image data?
there’s your tool right there
@3 – it’s not exactly public – only one’s “friends” can see one’s photos. That said, certainly not something I would do, but if my friends wanted me to see photos of them breastfeeding I wouldn’t begrudge them. Actually, now that I phrase it that way, maybe I would begrudge them. Still, they should be allowed to post ’em if they want.
@3
Beat me to it… why would anyone even want to have a picture of a breastfeeding kid on their page?
What andice @3 said…but also, I must comment on ECB’s implication that men who create applications for breast lovers are somehow the most likely anti-breast-feeding-pic suspects. How does that follow? Are you implying that men who like boobs in a sexual context suddenly hate them when there’s a baby attached? Honestly, I don’t think that’s the case (maybe Charles would agree with you, but he’s insane as everyone knows).
Likely, the people complaining are just your garden variety born-agains and repressed clench-butts.
Most new mothers are inordinately proud of their new creation, and find the sight of it suckling at the teat to be the most endearing vision in the history of the world. They are not far wrong. Wanting to show off such love and loveliness is the most natural thing imaginable.
Let me turn it around on you, @3: what kind of a tool would want to post a picture of themselves doing anything at all? The answer is, of course, just about everyone.
LoL!
Excellent distracting post – as Palestinian children are blown up by the rockets of Israel.
American media is a new war zone for Israel. We must distract the public as Obama ramps up war in the Middle East. Gaza is only the beginning, soon we’ll be at war with Pakistan. America needs a huge troop surge in Afganistan and Obama and ‘alternative’ publications like The Stranger have to carry water for Obama in selling these wars.
I’m glad there is no mention on the Stranger of the Israeli censorship, Israeli attack of peace protestors and all the other activities of the ‘peace’ idiots out there.
The Stranger is PRO WAR and that is how it should be for Seattle’s Jewish community. We must stand by rightous Israel in these times.
I breastfeed my son – and while I don’t feel compelled to post breastfeeding pictures online, I think the whole Facebook things is another sad observation on American society. Somehow, breasts are ok in any sexual context but so many people get completely freaked out at the idea of seeing them used to nourish a baby. Hence why Victoria’s Secret used to kick nursing mothers out of their store – and tell women looking for nursing-friendly bras that they weren’t welcome at VS. Hence the need for laws protecting nursing mothers in public. I’m proud to be part of a family and group of friends (both mine and my inlaws) who are supportive and don’t feel a need to banish a nursing mother out of view.
ECB FTW
@6 … uh… pictures of mother’s with their babies are well-known sentimental favorites. the second picture here is I’m sure appreciated by someone.
Is there really a “Send Some Tits to Your Buddies” app?
For lots of people I know, one of the primary uses of facebook is the dissemination of pictures. Plenty of pictures of the babies of friends of mine on that site… if a friend wanted to post an artsy picture of their baby breastfeeding, what is the big deal? Particularly if those pictures are available only to friends and family? I’m pretty surprised that anyone here would have a problem with that…
Fnarf @8 – Exactly. Bravo.
Wasn’t it Bill Buckley who said, “One person’s license, is another person’s strait jacket”?
He probably didn’t have exposed nipples in mind though. America’s congenital sexual prudishness is only surpassed by its refusal to see dead people – caused by any war, any government.
One reason people want to post pictures is to normalize it, so people will stop freaking out when babies need to eat in public. When mothers think it’s disgusting or inappropriate to feed in public they are much less likely to start or continue to breastfeed… something has been proven to be healthier for the baby and the mother.
To follow @7, in my experience, the people who object most strongly to public breast feeding are conservative women who feel it shouldn’t be done in public.
Every straight guy I know loves to see breasts in any form, any time, even with a baby attached.
Wow, Fnarf nailed it at only #8
Seriously, what kind of tool even uses Facebook?
@13 for the win.
And it’s not conservative to be ashamed of breast-feeding, since humans have done that for millennia.
ecb. could you not get a more fake looking rack than that of the BOY TOY variety to make your point. and the mom shot is just so supple and so – well, nice. oh yeah, and hot.
just saying.
I’m all for breast feeding and I know a few women who are so descreet about it you’d never know they were feeding a kid. It’s pretty easy to cover your tit while in public.
Fake boobs ruin everything.
Newborns breast feeding pics who cares but what really freaks me out are the women who are still breast feeding their 3, 4, 5 or even 6 year olds. One of the main advocates who is fighting Facebook over the breast feeding pics ban says she proudly breast feeds her 1 and 3 year olds. Kinda creepy.
@19
Actually, you nailed it.
@24 I was watching some lame talk show a few months ago… Oprah or Tyra whatever. There was a couple woman who were breast feeding their older kids. One lady had a 7 year old attached to her!
Yikes!
Talk about some mommy issues that kid’s gonna have to deal with later.
Birdy num num! I love that Peter Sellers flick
c to the andice and Sad Comment, you are totally ignorant on this subject. Just leave it alone.
24, wtf are you talking about? it’s “creepy” to breastfeed 1 & 3 yr. olds?! it’s creepy to think there’s anything creepy about it, imo. in 3rd and 2nd world countries it’s the norm. throughout all of human history until very recently it was the norm. when is it not creepy? you gotta stop promptly at 6 mos or you’re some kind of freak?
you know what’s really freaky and unnatural, actually? treating the breast as a sex organ. it isn’t. native americans knew that. breasts exist to feed children. that our culture has sexually fetishized them is not a bad thing per se, but let us not lose all perspective, hmmm?
Facebook is the suburbs of the Internet — not surprised at all that this is an issue there.
I agree with #3. Seriously, what kind of weird person posts pictures of themselves breast feeding on their Facebook profile? Can we just agree that this is a particularly strange thing to do in the first place?
And since people are on Facebook, frequently, to meet people or find dates, it is not at all weird for a person to post provocative pics of themselves. That is normal behavior. Saying “Hey, friends I know and friends I don’t know, here’s a baby drinking milk from my boobs” – not so normal.
wow, you guys are pathetic. C to the andice is the only one who has it right. And “facebook makes me sad”? What’s wrong with getting in touch with friends and family and sharing pictures with them? If you don’t like other people’s use of social networking you are one pathetic loser.
Nursing babies are always so adorable. And they often make this awesome chuckling noise right before they latch on.
And the sight of a woman nursing her baby OUGHT to be as unremarkable as the sight of an adult eating a sandwich.
I’m not offended by the pics, but I wonder why post them in the first place. I say the same thing about people who love posting pics of themselves smoking weed. You’re not impressing me.
Also, while I doubt it’s a cause with most of the breastfeeding pics, but I bet some folks do it because they get off on it. Do a google search for breastfeeding porn (or don’t — I recommend the latter) and tell me it’s not possible.
@29, breasts are sex organs. They exist in their current form primarily to sexually excite males for mating. That’s why they’re so large. 90% of the breast tissue is unnecessary for feeding — look at a gorilla’s boobs for comparison. Big boobs are the female equivalent of a bird of paradise’s plumes and quills.
Which doesn’t make their feeding function obscene in any way.
@34: your argument fails, because I can also find porn for foot fetishists, but feet are not obscene. If the existence of internet porn made a thing obscene, photography itself would be illegal.
@28
In what way?
@29
Sorry but this is not a third world country – you gotta ween the tots off the breast sometime right. There is a certain point in which solid food ought to be introduced. Hell using your argument you could justify breast feeding them until you kick them out the door to college. I am not and I emphasize not saying that breast feeding is bad or wrong just that if someone feels compelled to breast feed say their five year old that perhaps mom possibly has some sort of separation issues that might need to be addressed. And yes I do find the visual of a 7 year old being breast fed kinda creepy and troubling. And not from the idea of the breast being “fetishized”. (Even though you rant and rail against some people getting sexual enjoyment from their partners breasts and then turn completely around and say you have nothing against it.) There is a prudish fear of breasts here in the US that you don’t find in many other countries but that is not what my comment was about.
Not everybody uses Facebook the same way. Not everyone has hundreds and hundreds of “friends”. My general experience is that by the time people are old enough to be having kids and posting breastfeeding pics, they are probably more likely to limit something like facebook to closer friends and family.
So, yeah. @31, we can’t just agree that this is not a normal thing to do. If you have a cute shot of your kid breastfeeding, I see nothing wrong with posting it. And, I personally think it’s really strange that people find that weird…
What could be more natural than a baby sucking a teat? Maybe, like so much of our culture, we don’t want to be reminded that we are animals.
36, you said you were creeped out by her breasfeeding her 1 & 3 yr. olds–look back at your sad comment at 24. and do you really think that because a toddler is still sucking teet he/she isn’t yet on solid food? you obviously have never had children. why don’t you reserve judgment on this subject until you have.
Fnarf, why do only some human cultures sexualize breasts? If this were an evolutionary fact, wouldn’t it apply to all? You might consider that humans require fewer extra calories and other nutrients compared to other mammals, leading to differences in breast physiology. Also, humans can use breastfeeding to space births apart, and ensure healthy children in spite of famine or contaminated drinking water.
That’s only the beginning. The role of breasts in culture, reproduction and sex is a lot more complicated than the reductionist American view of things.
Sad Comment, please. You are a clown car vomiting a stream wrong ideas. Please? It really is sad.
@19: So, the millions of people who use Facebook (including virtually every college student alive) are *all* tools?
And all the cool kids, we know, hang out in the comments area of Slog. No tools here…
“What kind of tools spend their days searching on Facebook for photos of breastfeeding moms?”
The same tools who spend their days complaining about sexy Halloween costumes?
it’s obvious that an organ can play two roles, to be both a sex organ and fulfill another function. take for instance, the penis. addressing another point, just because it is natural, that doesn’t mean it is appropriate for public display.
just because something happens elsewhere in the animal kingdom, or in the world, or in the past, doesn’t mean it must be that way now.
i don’t feel very strongly about this one. some people, however, seem to. some feel it is entirely inappropriate for breastfeeding to occur in public. others feel that it a misogynistic to think it shouldn’t happen in public.
i think that people are just uncomfortable or unfamiliar with it. i don’t think it is repressive in all/most to not want to see an obvious display of breastfeeding it public. as long as it is done discreetly, it should be fine.
facebook seems to have a clear and simple policy: no visible nipples. this seems, given the current view on public breastfeeding, an appropriate one. i’m not sure why someone would complain, but no, i do not think it is the same guys who drool over pictures of fake breasted-women also on craigslist. it is probably the same people complaining about both kinds of pics. finally, facebook applies the same policy in both cases: no visible nipples, which takes the wind out of a double-standard argument.
@40, talk about reductionist! Those other human cultures have no other interest in breasts at all, nope, nada, and we’re positive because why, exactly? We don’t even know how most cultures feel about breasts; it’s been a taboo question until very recently.
In Australian Aboriginal cultures, the female breast is a complex locus of identity and art. I’m only halfway through Breasts, Bodies, Canvas: Central Desert Art as Experience by Jennifer Biddle, so I don’t know exactly what the connection is between the ritualized breast painting and the commercial art the women produce (two fantastic examples of which are hanging in SAM, by Dorothy Napangardi, the greatest living painter in any culture), but it’s there.
But that doesn’t have anything to do with evolutionary function. Boobs attract mates even in cultures that don’t make a publicly big deal about it, just as ludicrously oversized penises do (again, check out a gorilla sometime). Evolution doesn’t take place in the conscious mind.
@39
No, I don’t have kids but having a very extended close family and many close friends all with kids (plus a wife who is an OB/GYN). Most of them have breast fed and most weaned between 6 months and a year from what I can tell. I can also tell you that my sister in law was probably the most vocal about chaffing and chapping issues. I can also tell you that my niece’s daughters were probably breast fed the longest and they also are the biggest brats. Everyone in my family cringes when they come to visit. When my father died my niece and her family stayed at my house and their daughters proceeded to break everything that was breakable every time they felt that the adults weren’t giving them the attention they desired. So, don’t discount me or my opinion as being invalid just because I have chosen not to have children of my own.
Right. Breasts exist only to sexually excite men. Ignore the fact that women are the ones who get the most pleasure out of touching them, and that women are the ones who can get orgasms from them (some even from breastfeeding). Just like penises only exist to sexually excite women, right?
No elenchos, I’ll tell you what “sad” is when someone has to proclaim themselves an “intellectual” on their own blog. Usually those who go around making such declarations aren’t.
But if all you can come up with are insults and personal attacks then I’d say that I won this argument with you.
@40: “Also, humans can use breastfeeding to space births apart, and ensure healthy children in spite of famine or contaminated drinking water.”
Tell it to my mom. She was still breastfeeding me when I was 9 months old, and she STILL got pregnant. And I refused to breastfeed after she got pregnant, she tells me. I also refused to eat baby food of any type, and she had to feed me Campbell’s soup. And yes, I turned out OK.
Oh, Fnarf, I’m disappointed.
Infrequent, conservative Utah has the strongest law in the country protecting public breastfeeding, because they’re pro-family. Hippie dippie liberals obviously love that it’s natural and so on. Libertarians don’t want the government passing laws on their bodies. Nobody but outcast freaks opposes public breastfeeding; they are enemies of all, finding a home nowhere. They are, in point of fact, the Taliban, literally and figuratively. And that’s what makes breastfeeding appropriate for public display.
I’m actually tired of this topic; the rest of the internet was all over it days and days ago, back when it was new news. Oh, Slog.
@45. WTF? Because your bratty nieces were breastfed for a long time, then breastfeeding for a long time is somehow bad? Why on earth would you even bring that up?
Really? Nobody’s going to say it? Fine.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBIES!!!!!
@50
Side bar, got distracted and wandered off point – just thinking about how my niece and her husband feel their daughters can do no wrong even when they’re bring down the house. Spoiled rotten.
Sorry for the off message message.
elenchos – that’s fine. do you know how in the open breastfeeding is in utah?
i was just talking about the problems i saw with some of the argumentation used in this thread. facebook has a pretty simple and straightforward policy, and i don’t think i have any problems with the facebook policy. this thread, however, originated with a complain against their policy. the arguments in this thread seem to be about breastfeeding and breasts more than an examination of that policy.
i don’t agree with people who say there shouldn’t be breastfeeding in public, but neither do i think those people must be fake titty lovers trying to keep women down. nor do i believe that breastfeeding should be done without discretion (not that anyone is arguing it should be, though it feels like some people think it should be okay because “it’s natural” or something).
that — as you say — only weirdos are not okay with breastfeeding in public is perhaps noteworthy, but i’m more interested in what that has to do with the facebook policy at hand, and what reality and the policy say about our culture right now.
ellarosa’s right.
Until about 1000 years ago, most human children were breastfed until the age of between 3 and 5 in most societies.
That said, it’s regarded as abnormal since then in a small fraction (what we call the “West”) and more globally for the last couple of decades.
Infrequent – you’re right about the facebook policy. It’s pretty clear, no nipples/areola, and I don’t really have a problem with that. They had to create rules and guidelines, and they did so. Maybe they mismanaged or miscommunicated the guidelines, but I haven’t paid as much attention to that angle.
What some of us have been responding to is the notion @3 (and others) that posting a breastfeeding picture on facebook is a really weird thing to want to do. And, probably the fact that anybody would actually complain about a breastfeeding picture that they saw on facebook, which is how this whole thing got started.
@49, why are you disappointed? I absolutely support the complete freedom to breastfeed in public.
@46, you added the word “only” to make a straw man out of my argument. If anything, the pleasure that women derive from their breasts strengthens my argument, not weakens it.
But you’re right — you, and everyone else — indeed, every THING — on the planet, exists for the sole purpose of sexually exciting me, and only me. And it’s working! I’m jerking off into the fridge as I type this.
By the way, the jezebel post quoted an awesome comment:
Cleaning up vomit is a “special time”, eh. Good to know.
I didn’t cover my kids heads with blankets while I fed them in public. Sue me. Oh wait, completely legal. They didn’t like eating under blankets. Do you?
Infrequent, the question of what Facebook ought to do is only a matter of how much they think it will cost them to continue to antagonize 87,197 (and counting) of their members. There isn’t much to debate as far as I can tell. Maybe Facebook can afford to ignore them; I’m not sure anybody but Facebook has the data to answer that question.
The reasons why women don’t want anyone telling them when, where and how to breastfeed go far beyond the naturalness of it. I suppose the best way to sum it up is that mothers want the power to do what works best for themselves and their babies, and since nobody else is able demonstrate a compelling interest that they deserve a say in that, the law doesn’t give them a say.
Maybe Sad Comment or somebody knows a compelling reason why they should be involved. I don’t think he can even come up with data to support his claims about weaning or anything else.
But, you know. Anyone who does have any facts on their side should start lobbying the legislature, because as it stands moms can let it all hang out if they so desire, and that’s then end of it.
Fnarf, honestly, I’m pretty sure that one or two anthropologists has worked up the nerve to ask about breasts. In some cultures the lips and the face are sexual organs that must be covered. Anything can be sexualized, and of course breasts are to varying degrees. The question is whether some degree of sexualization makes something taboo. No, of course it doesn’t. It takes more than just sexualization, even a lot of it, to make it required to cover up. And the physiological and evolutionary context doesn’t provide any definitive answers, mostly because human reproduction is qualitatively different than other primates and mammals.
Why are you all still posting on this thread? Will in Seattle has already declared a winner. This post is over, forever.
@58, I’m with you. I’m a breastfeeding mom and hate nursing in public — not because I’m embarrassed, but because it’s almost a requirement to cover everything up and my little one doesn’t like it.
I’m not posting photos of myself nursing my baby, but I’ll never understand why anyone would find it offensive.
35: I wasn’t talking about obscenity. I was talking about what turns people on. For instance, I remember Savage posting something here last year about a female principal who became a human sundae when the student exceeded expectations. He pointed out that this was a fetish among some people, and boy did she look happy in the picture. Some people get off on breastfeeding. I could care less if I see a picture of that, but I also wonder why it’s important to post in the first place. Hence, the question of motives.
And I have never, ever understood the foot fetish. Feet look funny and usually smell bad.
Brandon J. @51 raises a subtle but important point, concisely expressed. Of course, @21 and @23 are entirely correct as well.
@60 – there’s always runner up.
elenchos — i had a hard time understanding your last message — or what the point of it was. reading it, though, i think you might have misunderstood a couple ideas i was putting out there. i’ll just try to clarify what i was getting at.
i’ll say again, i don’t care if women breast feed in public. and when i say discreet, i don’t mean “under a blanket”. i say that because i can envision a situation where it might not be appropriate (as i’m sure anyone can).
but as a general rule, people don’t decide laws purely based on what the mother feels is most appropriate. (just like there are other criteria we don’t solely base laws or policies on.)
i do feel #3 did get at the interesting part of it all, which is very similar to the issue of breastfeeding in public. the only think i was getting at was that the facebook policy isn’t wrestling with those concerns. i don’t feel the facebook policy is designed to discourage people from posting breast feeding shots, as is implied by the original post and others here.
thanks for you comment, julie. i think people think it’s weird because at this very instance in time, it is infrequent. like it or not, when you haven’t had a baby of your own, it might seem odd. i only occasionally see breastfeeding in public as is, so it does stand out. just like the guy with the cross on 45th and the ave stands out.
of course i can agree that there is no “reason” breastfeeding in public should stand out — other than the fact that i don’t see it that often. a quick thought about it, and i say it’s not big deal. just like wheelchairs are no big deal — but i still notice them.
to go from noticing to thinking it’s wrong is an interesting question, and i will let you return to your discussion about that. i just didn’t want to misrepresent my opinion on the matter.
People post these pictures on Facebook for the exact same reason they post pictures of themselves eating or drinking or hanging out. It is their normal, everyday life, and they are offended at being called indecent, abnormal, dirty, weird or anything else for it. How would gays feel if Facebook deleted pictures of two men kissing? Same thing. Exact same thing.
Re: the breastfeeding in public thing- it’s all in the presentation. I’ve been in situations where a woman was breastfeeding so discreetly it took a while for me to even figure it out- a small light cloth draped over the baby/boob. Then again, I’ve seen someone whip out a tit on Metro and proceed to the milking in front of god ‘n everybody..
In every culture, in every time, from the dawn of our species to the present women have nursed their children. Why? Because the baby is hungry and wants something to eat and what it wants is its mother’s milk. Read in any conotation you like about what you see when you see a woman nurse a child, but in the end this alone is what it’s about.
So try and restrain your scolding thoughts and odd reactions. Remember—it’s not about you, in fact it’s none of your business. Give the kid the peace to eat his meal and the mother the peace to provide it.
Thank you.
Breast, nipple, bush, cock, hands, ears…none of it is obscene.
The human body is not obscene.
Only the perverted mind is obscene.
It makes me think of former US Attorney General John Ashcroft, who insisted that the nude breasts of a statue in a public building be covered with a blanket.
To that man, all nudity, at least of the female, is obscene (I assume his wife when she is alone with him is an exception).
The world is indeed an obscene place to a perverted mind.
Okay everyone. Back to your corners and I think it is time for this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi1d81bhZ…
Would you like some milk with that? An oldie but a goodie. Enjoy!
I like monkeys.
elenchos – you compare it to two men kissing — but it’s not the same. facebook has an policy regarding nipples showing regardless of the context. for instance, using your example — you wouldn’t take the same offense if facebook didn’t allow pictures of anyone kissing and they didn’t allow pictures of two men kissing.
if someone wants to argue that pictures of woman’s nipples ought to be allowed on facebook, that’s one thing. but most people seem to be thinking this is a policy specifically designed to discourage pictures or women breastfeeding — which it is not. your own example shows the the false analogy.
Infrequent, the Seattle Police Department’s policy on nudity is exactly the same. Context is everything. There is no law in Seattle against being nude. Lewd conduct can get you arrested, and for that to happen somebody must complain, and then they need to show that your actions or the setting of your nudity were lewd. All sorts of nudity appears in non-sexual contexts, printed in medical illustrations, or on television such as when Schindler’s List was broadcast. I believe one bozo congressman from Oklahoma couldn’t deal with that last one, but the rest of humanity was fine with it.
Same sex kissing has historically been considered indecent, and as recently as this year got two women in trouble right here in our very own baseball stadium. The problem is that it sends the message that gays are not regular members of the community and can’t go about their lives in the same way that straights can. Gays take that as a slap in the face, and nursing moms feel the same way.
In many cases Facebook wasn’t just deleting pictures that showed nipples, but also those where it wasn’t in view. Regardless, the overall goal is to argue that even fully exposed breasts are not obscene in the context of feeding a baby. Breastfeeding is the normal way that babies eat, and quite often they can’t be fed without exposing the entire breast. It really is the same as same sex kissing: the fact that some are grossed out is their problem. Breastfeeding advocates don’t think of themselves as radical, alternative-lifestyle weirdos, and they don’t accept the implication that they are.
I think the only way Facebook could have a consistent policy would be to ban pictures of eating. Breastfeeding is the normal way that humans eat when they are young, and eating isn’t obscene, it’s a normal thing that normal people do, very often in a social context. One reason this battle is happening at Facebook is that breastfeeding has won in most every other context and there are only a few pockets of resistance left, making their appeal to community standards a little odd. True, newspapers wouldn’t print the photos, but then look at how people today are turning away from newspapers as irrelevant dinosaurs.
Sad Comment,
I’ve copied and pasted this from the World Health Organization – this is their recommendation for breastfeeding.
***********
As a global public health recommendation, infants should be exclusively breastfed(1) for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health(2). Thereafter, to meet their evolving nutritional requirements, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond.
************
Or beyond, you’ll notice. Also, the American Institute for Cancer Research finds that for every five months a woman breastfeeds her child, her risk of breast cancer lessens by 2%. But whatever, breastfeeding toddlers is so weeeeeird.
I weaned my son at 2 and a half, but that’s only because I got pregnant again and it was too unwieldy to continue. I would have kept it going until sometime during age 3, otherwise. And he’s a TALL bastard, my son. Looks four. Could have really wigged the people out.
Why does anyone give a shit, honestly? That’s what I don’t get.
“Evolution doesn’t take place in the conscious mind.”
Fnarf, thank you. I am an evolutionary biologist. This is a key concept that is always a challenge to explain to people. I’m going to add this sentence to my arsenal.
i think we pretty much agree on everything, elenchos. so maybe i need not post. i guess i just thought the facebook policy, unlike the SPD policy you refer to, did not have to do with context. if facebook’s policy is context-based — or if they were removing non-nipple shots, then they were playing unfairly.
the problem, of course, originates from those who have a problem with this sort of thing. they are likely the type who think all forms of nudity are pornographic. i guess that’s kind of still what i’m getting at, though. these aren’t the people who like the hooters fake breast shots, as implied originally. and they aren’t trying to sexualize breasts in one context while make them seem indecent in another. like a black and white policy, they seem nipples and freak. pornographic! they say, and look to flag. there is a difference that i think need to be acknowledged.
the second problem being, in 2009, there are still many of these people out there.