Facebook’s Tempest Over Ta-Tas
Facebook’s Breast Feeding Ban results in Nurse-In.
It seems the only legimate exposure of breasts in the media is when Nature, Discovery Channel or National Geographic show a tribe in the Amazon or Africa where shirts and shoes are optional. Janet Jackson they are not. In America, public displays of breast feeding is still a sensitive issue depending on the community you live in. Now the tempest has reached into one of the main public squares online – Facebook.
MILC (Mothers International Lactation Campaign) staged a protest outside of Facebook’s Palo Alto office protesting the popular site’s policy of removing images of Mother’s breastfeeding, if the photo displays the nipple or areola. The red-dot policy has some mothers up in arms (because we should note that there are plenty of mothers against public displays of breast feeding in this country as well).
Heather Farley, organizer of the “nurse-in” outlined in an open letter why she opposed such a ban:
..”it is an issue of discrimination against breastfeeding mothers. Like issues such as pregnancy, breastfeeding discrimination is a gender issue. When pictures are removed of breastfeeding and not of artificial feeding, breastfeeding mothers are being discriminated against and a wrongful double standard is set. After all, a bottle is simply a plastic, prosthetic disembodied breast in size, form, and function.”
More than anything however, it is a public relations issue, which Heather also noted. The question is, on which side will the online public take? The issue has its advocates on both sides in the real world and we doubt it will be any different online. Facebook however, could’ve mitigated the problem and even increased stickiness on its site by simply asking its members to vote on the issue. Meanwhile, the temptest over ta-tas will continue unabated, for another online minute or two at least.
photo: a baby breast feeding. This photo, which shows some nipple, would be banned on Facebook.
Photo Credit: ocadotony via Flickr Creative Commons.
