Facebook vs. Breastfeeding 2012 Year in Review
Monday, December 31, 2012 Four years ago, I wrote a post about facebook deleting breastfeeding pictures and addressing some of the issues people were discussing. I gave three reasons people may want to post breastfeeding pictures and three stupid reasons for wanting to ban breastfeeding pictures from facebook. Since then, facebook has said that breastfeeding pictures are allowed, yet they continue to delete, delete, delete. Here are just a few examples from this year compiled by Jodine Chase from Human Milk News...
The issue with breastfeeding photos being deleted on facebook is the same as the issue of people being discriminated against for nursing in public. Despite moms being encouraged and even pressured to breastfeeding, bottles are "normal" and breastfeeding is "gross" in the eyes of society. We still need more women breastfeeding, more often, in more public places to normalize breastfeeding. It is important not just to keep moms from being discriminated against, but also to help new moms see breastfeeding as a normal part of their lives, not something that will inconvenience them and keep them from enjoying life.
Have you been discriminated against for breastfeeding online or in real life?
Reader Comments (7)
Hello
We do need more public breastfeeding- and more diverse breastfeeding too! My toddler is 2 and still nursing and I am yet to encounter any public discrimination- it has all come in private! Mostly by health professionals- my doctor told me I was rotting her teeth, a midwife disparaged me for it.
Thank you for this reminder- it is easy to forget that this is an ongoing battle with Facebook.
I agree with Lulastic. I feel quite lucky to have avoided any overt discrimination in public (my daughter is 21 months old). However I am getting very sick of discrimination and judgement in private. I too have been told by numerous health professionals that she doesn't need to feed anymore or feed as much and have had family members comment that my dietary restrictions for her allergies are reason to wean.
I definitely think it is vitally important to keep feeding in public to normalize the practice and find that has gotten easier for me now that I associate more with others who practice full term breastfeeding.
I can see reason for removing SOME of those photos - not because they're breastfeeding photos, but because there is other blatant nudity. HOWEVER, not given the fact that child pornography is something FB still doesn't seem to have an issue with or be willing to address.
I mean c'mon, REALLY? You can post pornographic photos of young children, but not a photo of a mother nursing her child?
I participate in our county's breastfeeding coalition (a fledgling group just a year old). At our last meeting we were discussing upcoming events and where to hold the world wide latch on next August. One member suggested a place that has less public traffic "in case some moms are uncomfortable nursing in front of other men." I said I think it needs to be as public as possible because that's the whole point of our organization. To make breastfeeding normal it needs to be seen. Over, and over, everywhere we go. The longer I nurse my children, the more I see every public breastfeeding not just feeding my baby, but also as a public service announcement.
Not that I'm a huge fan of Facebook's corporate policies, but I might have to play a little devil's advocate here. I'm a software developer that works on extremely complex systems and from a technical stand point, Facebook is stuck between a rock and a hard place. There are probably 2 reasons for this:
1) Facebook has millions of photos uploaded daily. In order to prevent malicious or inappropriate photos from being uploaded an automated system is necessary. My guess is roughly 75-80% of the removed breastfeeding photos will be accidentally removed by this system. Not because Facebook considers breastfeeding photos pornographic, but because this automated system is getting confused (no software is perfect).
2) As you stated there is some sort of stigma attached to breastfeeding. I never realized how much until I had my first child a couple weeks ago. My wife hasn't been discriminated against but there are always judging eyes. With Facebook these judging eyes can spring into action. There is a "Report" button next to every photo. My next guess is that the rest of the removed breastfeeding photos are "Reported" by "Facebook friends". Facebook most likely would remove these photos immediately, again because they get so many of these requests.
That being said, the issue is a good one to bring up. Software will not get fixed if the right people don't know it's broken. Your post from 2007 is a good indicator of that. In 2007 the Facebook workforce was tiny, breastfeeding pictures were probably not even thought of until the Facebook group was created.
I formula feed. I have had horrible things said to me online but nothing in person.
I agree that breastfeeding must not be stigmatized, ever. But I think that ANY parenting choice can be stigmatized. I only breastfed for six weeks or so and stopped for lots of reasons (severe allergies of my son, my own pain because of recurrent yeast infections, reflux-related issues). At two different new mom groups for babies of my son's age when he was a few months old, I started bottle feeding and you would've thought I was feeding him poison. All the other mothers breast fed and had all sorts of useful advice, such as "I've known lots of mothers who can breastfeed despite allergies" or "Sometimes it's tough, but you just have to plug along."