What is the first thought that comes to mind when you look at that picture? Discomfort? Sexual arousal? Glee at seeing a chubby little baby?

There seems to be a real problem with the American public being able to develop relational models based on context as apparently that image is pure porn. MSNBC writes:

“I shredded it,” said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. “A breast is a breast — it’s a sexual thing. He didn’t need to see that.”

Dear Ms. Ash, what kind of debased prurient interests are you pursuing in your family that a baby feeding is a sexual act? Are you unable to contextualize your body or is it simply that your body is solely a sexual organ and that no one, especially you and your family, are able to view it for the different functions it may serve? Tip for you, the breast is a milk delivery system. By your logic the milkman is a porn star. Dawn Olsen sums it up better than I when she writes:

A society obsessed with erectile dysfunction, desperate housewives, coin slots, and camel toes can’t seem to handle the basic function of the human milk delivery system. While no one is advocating breasts flopping in the breeze and milk squirting willy-nilly a la A Clockwork Orange’s Korova Milkbar, this whole shock and awe over nursing infants is beyond ridiculous. What’s most appalling about this overreaction is that those who are expressing the most outrage are primarily women and mothers themselves.

This is what worries these people, what keeps them awake at night is the sight of a tit on a magazine about babies for new mothers. “Forget the economy, environment, eroding civil liberties, constitutional crises. There is a woman’s breast in plain view of my son/husband/father/brother/co-worker/male acquaintance.” So Ms. Ash, get a grip already. It is a baby breast feeding. If you are supposedly so supportive of breast feeding than why are you sexualizing the act? And if you are so concerned with your son’s mental well-being then teach him not to objectify woman and impart the ability to relate to the things around him based on context, ergo Baby + Breast = Feeding, otherwise your reaction only reinforces in him the belief that woman are purely sexual objects aimed at inciting the lust of men. Unless of course that is your goal.

Tags: Baby, Culture, Family

This entry was posted on Friday, August 4th, 2006 at 11:44 am and is filed under Editorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.