bothered...

So, I have hit upon something that is really bothering me today. Several friends posted a link to this blog: Eclectic Effervescence on their Facebook. Apparently, this mother had posted pictures of herself tandem nursing her preemie twin boys on a breastfeeding fan page, and Facebook REMOVED it as sexually explicit and/or offensive. I am appalled.

I am certainly not a breastfeeding expert. Nor am I "Breastfeeding is the ONLY way to go." I certainly understand that there are many, many extenuating circumstances to why a person may or may not choose to breastfeed. Especially now, I certainly understand this. What I do NOT understand is our society's need to push breastfeeding in a closet! The AAP and many other medical groups all agree that, whenever possible, breast is best. So why is it that breastfeeding mothers are shunned? Asked to leave places when nursing in public? Forced to cover their child's heads while feeding so that others are not offended? In a country that must be largely desensitized to nudity based on the type of television that is commonplace, why is it that a woman using her breasts for what nature INTENDED them for is so disturbing? Why is it that it is perfectly acceptable for a networking site like Facebook to have fan pages for groups like "I love Big Boobs" or "Tits" or "Titties" with photos of scantily clad women with large appendages but it is NOT acceptable for a mother to place a photograph of herself breastfeeding her children (with more of her skin covered that what is shown in the other photos!) on a BREASTFEEDING SUPPORT page? Do people really troll sites such as this looking for these things to report? Because these photos had to be reported to be removed. So someone reports THESE but not those other pictures? Why is that? Why is is that as a society we are SO uncomfortable with the view of a woman FEEDING HER CHILD that we ask her to cover up, to take down a picture, to go in another room or another store or HOME, rather than let her do what nature intended her to do with her breasts? Why have we, as a nation, SEXUALIZED the female body SO MUCH that something as natural and NON-SEXUAL as breastfeeding is turned into such a sexual act? People act like breastfeeding is inviting voyeurism! There is NOTHING sexual about breastfeeding at all to a breastfeeding mother, I can tell you that. Who made it so sexually charged, and why?

Can you tell that this really bothers me?

I'll hop down off my soap box - for now.