Boobophobia!

Part wev in yet another ongoing series that began here…

Facebook doesn't care what those breasts are for, ladies. They give teh straight boyz tumescence in their trousers; ergo, they must be obscene:

Facebook has taken down pictures of users breast feeding, and has even gone as far as banning users completely on the basis that the pictures constitute "obscene content."

…Facebook spokeswoman Meredith Chin said Facebook does not prevent lactivists from uploading photos of themselves breastfeeding, but went on to say "Photos containing an exposed breast do violate our Terms and are removed". Now I might be male so I have no recent first hand experience but I’m confused as to how breast feeding cannot include breasts?

Allow me to explain. Naturally, the only pictures of breastfeeding allowed are ones taken from an angle in which the baby's head obscures the actual breast from which it's feeding. Or a baby blanket has been carefully arranged to cover the breast right up to baby's lips.

The reason I know this, in spite of also having no recent first-hand experience with breastfeeding, is because I am an American woman, and thusly I have been trained since birth to know all the ways in which I am meant to be ashamed of my body and how best to cover its sinful shame. Comes with the territory.

Snark (with a twist of truth) aside, I remember being fascinated, when I was a wee little kid in the late 70s, by breastfeeding women. It seems I saw women breastfeeding in public much more frequently then, and they didn't feel compelled to bury their babies' faces (along with the real target—their breasts) under blankets. They didn't seem nervous or hurried, but relaxed; they would chat with my mum (who would have been breastfeeding my sister), and if I strolled over and stood on tiptoe to peer at the tiny baby doing its thing, they moved so that I had a better view. It was neither prurient nor prudish; just very matter-of-fact. Innocent and natural.

We've lost that somewhere along the line, and it's a real shame.