Moms Changing Society: Breastfeeding in Public & On Facebook

Breastfeeding in public is not illegal in any state. Moreover, there are 40 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgina Islands which all have laws specifically protecting a woman’s right to breastfeed in any public and private location. Furthermore, there are thousands of benefits of breastfeeding, including reducing risk of cancers, diabetes, and other life-threatening diseases. There are no risks of breastfeeding except in very unusual circumstances (for instance, when the mothers has AIDS). Finally, through laws and education, breastfeeding is no longer shocking to most of society.

In November, actor Brad Pitt took photographs of his current partner Angelina Jolie breastfeeding for the cover of W Magazine. Just today, Time Magazine reported that Salma Hayek nursed a starving baby (not her own) in Western Africa while being filmed by ABC News.

Nonetheless, the social networking site, Facebook, has been intertwined in a controversy that has lasted for over a year by banning photographs of women breastfeeding. On December 27, 2008, there was a “virtual protest” when 11,000 Facebook users changed their profile photograph to a breastfeeding photograph and changed their status updates to “Hey, Facebook, Breastfeeding is Not Obscene.” Simultaneously, one woman led a 3-hour march in front of the Facebook headquarters in California.

Last month, breastfeeding moms had a big triumph when Facebook changed their policy. Facebook’s new official policy is to remove photographs that show “a fully exposed breast,” which it then defines as showing any part of the areola or nipple. The result is that photos where women are wearing nothing but pasties are allowed, but photos where women are breastfeeding and exposing a tiny part of the areola are banned. Thus, while this change is positive (before women, like Karen Speed, had their entire profile removed for photographs that showed no skin), it is insufficient.

A woman’s right to breastfeed in a private place such as a shopping mall is protected in all 50 states. Furthermore, her right to show a picture of her breastfeeding at that same private shopping mall is also protected. In 1980, the United States Supreme Court acknowledged that shopping malls had become equivalent to public squares of years ago.

Today, Facebook and other social websites are fulfilling that same role of shopping malls. While they are privately owned and privately run, they are considered “public squares.” To ban a women’s breastfeeding photographs from being uploaded because they show a tiny bit of her areola or nipple is as outrageous as banning a women from showing the same amount of skin breastfeeding in public.

This is an example of an image banned by Facebook (banned January 10, 2009). It shows detail from "Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels" (ca. 1450) by Jean Fouquet. The painting is in a museum in Belgium.

Below is a drawing from a Facebook user; it was also banned last month.