04 February 2012

Question: Do you share your breastfeeding photos online?

The Facebook debacle.  How many blog posts have been written about his?  *sigh*  I shudder to think of the real estate that is being occupied by this idiotic situation, when TRULY, it is avoidable.

***** If you are just reading/hearing about this now, go check out this page: FB! Stop.. and this regularly-updated blog post on Jodine's World to read the history of the most recent chapter in Facebook's persistence in being a bully and participating in the digital harrassment of breastfeeding mothers worldwide. *****

Boba, a baby carrier maker, posted this pic on the facebook page on 2 February, with the caption: "Press *LIKE* if have photos of your baby breastfeeding. Do you share them online?"

How cute is this pic?!?! LOL!
And I posted this in the comments:
"yes I do. I LOVE my pics of breastfeeding my boys. breastfeeding has been SO HARD for us, and there have been different challenges with each of my 3 boys, but amidst the tears and the struggles, we have succeeded, against all odds. I've been breastfeeding for a combined total of 50 months, none of my boys have ever had a drop of formula, and we're still going strong with baby #3. And I'm PROUD of that fact. Because it's NOT easy for everyone. And because I had NO ONE close to me to help me. If breastfeeding was NORMAL, and everyone SAW it, perhaps I'd have had someone in my life I could call on, to help me through the pain, the spasms, the pinching, the blood, help me with latch, with nursing strikes, with mastitis, with supply issues, etc etc. But it's NOT NORMAL. Even though "they" say it is, here in North America, it's not. Breastfeeding isn't even allowed on Sesame Street anymore. Breastfeeding needs to be RE-NORMALISED, and how else to do it than by making breastfeeding photos NO BIG DEAL? And how do we make them NO BIG DEAL? By posting them, by dealing with the backlash, and by desensitizing our society to the sight of *gasp* a non-sexual breast, and a baby feeding as God designed it to do: at the breast.

I feel that our goal, as "those militant lactivists who post their breastfeeding photos" is that we WANT people to say "meh, whatever, another breastfeeding photo." You don't have to think it's beautiful like we do.... but it should be commonplace, and NO. BIG. DEAL. I do NOT want people to be gawking at my boob. FAR FROM IT. I want to feed my baby when he's hungry, without people getting all up in my face. I want my grandchildren to be breastfed when they need it. I want my great-grandchildren to be breastfed when they need it. I don't want their mothers to feel the shame of feeding their children in public like so many do today. Because that is sad. Sad that any mother should feel shame in providing for her baby. And it IS NOT NECESSARY."
 
Not long after I posted it, a few people (including the lovely Emma Kwasnica, and Jennifer V T) shared the second paragraph with their peeps... and as I read it back again, this response is probably the best I've pulled out in regards to the photo debacle. 
 
Sometimes, I can be eloquent, but others, when emotion comes into play, well, I become a cursing, blubbering moron.  I was apparently calm enough to articulate my views on this heated debate in a way that I feel proud of my communication skills.  LOL.  (So yes, folks, English class in school DOES have a purpose.)  I wanted to post it on here for posterity, oh, and for a broader audience than just the likers on the Boba page. ;)
 
So what about you?  Do you share your breastfeeding photos online?  Do you scrapbook them?  Oh, and next question, are you going to a Facebook nurse-in on 6 February?????  I'll be in Seattle - meet me there! 

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