I've become a bit of a Facebook junkie in recent months. It's a great way to stay in touch with friends and family and to reconnect with old friends. Like anything else, it can also be abused. Furthermore, when something gets really popular (as Facebook has) it takes on a life of it's own. This morning I read the following story from my local newspaper:
"Facebook nudity policy draws nursing moms' ire"
I'm a married man and all of my kids have been breastfed. I believe that it's the ideal way for a baby to be fed. I know that a lot of you who read this blog (some of you that I worship with on Sundays) are big breast-feeding supporters (Hold on, I just typed "big breast" on my blog for the very first time--I'm sure that I'll get some new visitors with words like that posted here. I should also point out that by "big breast-feeding supporters" I'm using the word "big" to describe overwhelming approval for breast-feeding and not the actual size of the...oh, never mind.).
Facebook allows you to post pictures and they do a good job of policing it from nudity. Lately, they've stepped up the policing to include pictures of breastfeeding (hence the above mentioned article). I've seen my wife nurse our babies and it's a beautiful thing. But I have no need to see other mom's nurse their kids and I'm quite certain that many (if not most) of those mothers don't want me to watch them breastfeed their children. That doesn't mean that a mom cannot nurse in public. The mother does nothing wrong when she feeds her baby anywhere. I just have no plans to stare at it and I wouldn't want anyone staring at my wife when she was breastfeeding (well, any man).
There certainly is a time and a place for breastfeeding online (like the La Leche League) , but it's probably NOT on a mass-appeal site like Facebook. On top of that, Facebook is a private company. They can make their own rules about what they put on thier site.
I found this quote to be the most interesting from the story:
A member for almost four years, Farley has nearly 400 friends on Facebook, a network she'd be hard-pressed to replicate if she moved to a smaller site with more lenient photo policies. She uses Facebook more than e-mail to stay in touch with far-flung high school and college friends. She especially likes to check out pictures of their babies and share photos of hers. But with a 9-month-old, "it's almost hard to get a picture of me not nursing," she said. (emphasis added by me)If you've accumulated 400 friends on Facebook, you have time to snap a few pictures. I've had three nine-month old children in my lifetime. Two of my sisters-in-law have had twins and, thus, two nine-month olds in the house at the same time while nursing. We've all been able to produce many, many, many, many, many pictures of our babies without their mother's breasts exposed. In fact, I can assure you that we do not have ANY pictures of our children with their mother's breasts exposed (not that I know of, anyway). It wasn't hard or "almost hard" at all.
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12 comments:
I have to get this off my chest. That was one of the breast articles on the subject that I've read. I have fond mammaries of when my kids were young, and I'm with you; I don't know who those boobs are who can't get a decent photo of a baby without a hooter or two. I hope you rack up a lot of good comments with this post.
lol- oh, you're killing me with your big breast explainations. lol
Seriously- I am fairly new to facebook but dont you have to be invited or accept an invitation to view a person's page??
and if so, if you are not happy with someone's content, just delete them from your 'friends'.
and there are much worse things on youtube than breast feeding- so why is it an issue on facebook
and I dont care how much a person supports breast feeding- sex is a natural thing too, but we aren't supposed to post pictures about it. Yes, it is your boob, a private body part that is usually covered up, so why does attaching a baby to it, make it suddenly ok to bare for all to see???
and along the same lines... pooping is a natural thing to, but I dont want to see pictures of it.
Somethings should just remain personal
I have to agree with Scott! BREAST post evar!
Thanks for the guitar tips.
Oh yes, Scott. Your comment was the icing on the cake of this post. BD kept telling me I should read it. As a member of the population who HAS boobs, I have to agree with Rebekah too.
I have to add that some of the breastfeeding pictures that are being deemed unacceptable are far less revealing than some of the pictures of teenage girls with their cleavage (or more) all hanging out. But somehow those pictures do not get near as much media attention as the "offensive" breastfeeding pictures. I think if they are going to crack down on the content of pictures they should start there.
There is quite a bit more to this story. Women's facebook photos and then their accounts were being deleted because of their breastfeeding photos. They were told that they were obscene. (Whether or not you want to see pics of women breastfeeding, I don't see how they can be deemed obscene.)
Breasts are used in advertising on facebook and I have seen many sexualized breasts as profile photos etc, there are even boob appreciation groups on facebook, complete with sexually charged photos, so taking down breastfeeding photos strikes me as hypocritical and a bit ridiculous.
~I do think that the not having other photos thing is kind of dumb and totally beside the point, though I know that there are plenty of breastfeeding photos of me here that my hubby takes without thinking, they do spend a lot of time there in the early weeks:)~
I have no interest in posting them for public consumption and all my photos on facebook are private, but if people do post them and someone doesn't like them, than don't look. I don't look at other peoples photos of their drunken partying or their new cars or new boobs or their taro card of the day... but I don't think they need to be banned.
Lawana - I agree that there are far worse pictures on Facebook. However, I think that their plan is to start eliminating these pictures as well. I think they're taking the post-Super Bowl Janet Jackson approach, which is fine with me.
MMM - Genuine breast-feeding pictures are NOT obscene. I agree. I think that Facebook is just getting rid of all of it. If they are using the word, "obscene" to describe it, that's unfortunate.
Rog,
Where do you come up with this stuff? Again, you write about things that I wouldn't even attempt. Now, I'm not saying it's bad.
I wonder though, how can a woman just kind of "flop it out there" and nurse the kid in public. Guess I'm glad I'm a dude!
Randy
Rog,
I reread what I wrote. As an addendum, I hope you know that I was teasing you about your subject matter. You definitely go "where no man has gone before" on your posts compared to mine. I'm not a prude but I guess you have more courage. As you've said before, you know your audience and how far you can take things. But, you've always been diplomatic about it. Plus, final point. And...I'm trying to say this gently. I used the comment, "flop it out there." Well, unfortunately some women weren't gifted (if it's considered a gift) enough to literally pull that off. I think my last comment shows I'm not that much of a prude. Ha! By the way, I appreciated all the nice comments left on my blog from you. We may disagree about Christmas, but remain friends and brothers in Christ!
Be well,
Randy
I've noticed some of your female correspondents have used the word "boobs" to describe the human mammary glands.
Never been a big fan of that word for some reason. It sounds so belittling to a feminine feature with a glorious function, to feed and nurture one's offspring at their most helpless point in life.
"Breasts," on the other hand, sounds powerful and empowering. I often wonder why women don't use it in the same context as men use the word "balls." As is "Susan, it took real breasts to stand up to the boss like that" or "You've got bigger breasts than I do to attempt something like that."
Or DO they use the word like that, just not around men; preferring instead we hear the self-effacing term "boobs" so our macho protective instinct is not bruised?
It's good poll material. Perhaps the BD himself could query us on this in a future entry. ;-)
I too have a facebook account. Look me up - I am Mark English from Longview, TX. The snapshot photo shows me holding an aligator. We can be friends in two places.
By the way; what do you think of the REDS for 2009?
The Reds have made some good moves (both at the end of the season last year and throughout the off-season) and should be improved. Now that the Colts are done I'm ready to starting thinking about spring training.
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