Americans are SO weird about public breastfeeding, I don't know what it is. We can see a young woman walking down the street in short shorts that ride up her butt and show cheeks, but the second a mom pulls out her boob to breastfeed her baby, everybody feels uncomfortable and offended. This is why I wasn't the least bit surprised when I heard that newsstands were refusing to carry Hip Mama magazine's latest issue just because there's a woman on the cover breastfeeding her child. Seriously, what is the big deal?
Read more ¿Qué más?: This mom got kicked out of WHERE for breastfeeding!?
Hip Mama magazine decided to feature Barcelona-based artist Ana Alvarez-Errecalde on the cover of its May 2014 issue. The artist is seen topless wearing nothing but a long skirt and a Spider-Man mask on her face while breastfeeding her 4-year-old son who's also wearing a Spider-Man costume. I personally don't see anything wrong with this image. This is a pretty natural photograph. How is this any different from when we see moms breastfeeding their kids in public?
It isn't, but apparently newsstands were really offended by the image. In fact, after *Hip Mama'*s editor Ariel Gore posted the cover to Facebook letting readers know the new issue was going to hit newsstands next month, vendors contacted Gore letting her know that they wouldn't put the magazine on their newsstands. Facebook even banned the image. Are you kidding me?
Gore along with Hip Mama's art director Maia Swift and Ana Alvarez-Errecalde were confused. "The photo seemed appropriate for an issue on motherhood and creativity, and it's paired with an interview with Ana inside the magazine: Putting the photo on Facebook just made sense," Gore said. In the end the wound up having to censor it to make vendors happy.
I just don't understand how newsstands can carry magazines with half-naked celebs like Miley Cyrus and it be okay, but can't have a picture of a mom breastfeeding her child. It just goes to show that Americans still aren't comfortable with public breast-feeding in general. I can't tell you how many times I've had friends complain to me about being asked to go somewhere else to breastfeed. We're still living in a world where men only want to see half-naked women if they're being exploited–not praised!
Images via hipmagazine.com
