Breastfeeding

Thanks to this article from Rutherford, I've been reading up on the BabyTalk Magazine cover controversy of late. I've read that magazine on occasion; Jen gets it. I also know that you can pick up free copies at the entrance to Babies R Us (we have our frequent shopper card there, let me tell you.)

I smirked and shook my head sadly at the prudishness of one Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas who said:

"I'm totally supportive of it -- I just don't like the flashing," she said. "I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."

Now let's get serious here Gayle. How long have you been married to this man? How old is your son? Do you know nothing about the male psyche? Must not! I don't think there's a heterosexual male anywhere that doesn't want to catch a glimpse of a breast. You may be saying that you are "protecting" them from the evils of seeing an exposed breast, but I think your overly conservative nature is really driving you to want to prevent the possibility of them maybe seeing something they're not supposed to. No matter what the target, everyone wants to see what they're not supposed to. If there's a tent at the circus that says "horrible sights" or something people flock to it. It's human nature, for pete's sake!

And let's face facts: a breast being sucked on by a baby is not exactly the most titillating thing in the world to look at. The pregnant or recently pregnant breast is not exactly Playboy material. In fact, I don't think the breast on the magazine is even one of the baby's mother's. Not that I'm a boobie expert, but I've seen pregnant breasts and they don't look like that. That's not realistic, but who says magazine covers have to be? I expect that's heavily photoshopped, and why not? The goal is to sell magazines, after all. Well, in this case it isn't, because BabyTalk is free, but that's just a minor detail.

I think that it is a good cover and I applaud the editors for their boldness. Nothing creates interest like a little controversy, and they have certainly achieved that whether they intended to or not. As they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

----------

You can find BabyTalk's website here.

They also have a really cool (I think) License to Breastfeed on their site. Texas, as well as many other states, explicitly allow breastfeeding in "any location where mother and child are authorized to be present." For once, Texas is on the forefront of law in the right direction. That's unusual! :p