By Calvin Palmer
Angry mothers have organized an online petition and picketed the Californian headquarters of Facebook after the social networking Web site removed thousands of pictures showing women breastfeeding their babies.
The online petition has attracted 82,000 supporters and the campaign staged a virtual “nurse-in” at the weekend by posting a profile image of a mother breastfeeding and changing their Facebook status to read “Hey Facebook! Breastfeeding is not obscene!”
Under the banner of Mothers International Lactation Campaign, Facebook’s offices in Palo Alto, California, were picketed to complain about the policy, which they believe stigmatizes breastfeeding and demeans women.
Patricia Madden, from San Jose, had a photograph of her breastfeeding her daughters Zoe and Isobel removed from the site.
“It’s amazing to me that we’re living in a world where people are upset by this,” she said. “You can’t see my nipples. It’s completely legal to breast-feed in public. Breast-feeding is completely natural and healthy. They took off the photo, without my permission,” she told the San Jose Mercury News.
A spokesman for Facebook, Barry Schnitt, said the site allows most pictures of women breastfeeding because they follow the site’s terms of use, but photos showing nipples were indecent and had to be removed.
Schnitt said: “We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful and we’re very glad to know that it is so important to some mothers to share this experience with others on Facebook.
“Photos containing a fully exposed breast – as defined by showing the nipple or areola – do violate those terms on obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit material and may be removed.
“The photos we act upon are almost almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain.”
It is legal to breastfeed in public in most states in America and in many countries around the world including Britain and mothers say breastfeeding is natural and healthy and should not be bracketed with pornography.
Heather Farley, 23, of Provo, Utah, said she was surprised when Facebook took down two photos of her nursing her 6-month-old daughter, one of which was her profile picture. She became one of the protest’s organisers.
She said: “Where I live, I can breast-feed in public or private, and there are laws that say it’s not obscene or lewd or indecent. If I can do it in public, why can’t I do it on Facebook? Censoring such images reinforces stigmas that discourage mothers from a healthy, natural practice.”
Angry at the site, but not wanting to lose her online friend network by unsubscribing, she decided to take action.
Mothers in Britain are just as incensed by the Facebook action. Katherine Brierly, from Brighton, said: “Breastfeeding is natural… Prudes like you would wish every mother to complicate their lives and potentially endanger their children’s health so that you don’t have to see a bit of nipple.”
Nicky Cartwright, from Sheffield, said: “When I go to the beach I see people’s arses and breasts exposed in bits of string pretending to be swimwear. I would much rather see the beauty and love of a mother feeding her baby than be subjected to complete strangers’ gratuitous flesh flashing.”
The issue has sparked a massive debate with more than 1,500 threads on the petition’s home page. Most comments are supportive but some ask why breastfeeding mothers don’t join another free site that does allow them to post their pictures.
[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Times.]
2 Comments
December 30, 2008 at 3:08 pm
What absolute nonsense from Facebook. If anyone really wanted to have a daily leer at a pair of knockers they need only buy publications like The Sun “newspaper” or Nuts magazine in Britain, or visit one of the thousand websites that offer far more than a glimpse of breast free of charge. If folk want to post photos of themselves and babies indulging in such a natural act as breastfeeding let them. What prudish twaddle.
Supporters of Stoke City hoping to see a complete tit need look no further than striker Ricardo Fuller, sent from the pitch in the last game for slapping his own teammate!
December 31, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I agree with AndyP!