Yep, here we go. Another blog post about THAT magazine cover.
This one’s not about so called “extended” breastfeeding (or I should say, the opposite of the socially normal breastfeeding in the US which is abbreviated when compared to the rest of the world).
{Did you really just link to Wikipedia Carrie? Yes I did. Its a pretty good article. Mostly I love that Wikipedia has so many beautiful pictures of breastfeeding!}
This one’s not about “Attachment Parenting” or attachment theory, which is a no-brainer if you just look at the science. If you think Attachment Parenting is about adhering to any sort of parenting “theory” then you’ve bought into the hype and misinformation. I recommend you watch this brief interview with an AP leader and local (Twin Cities) mom Kristine Dorrain.
This one is about big business. Yes, I’m going to get a bit political here even; not red and blue kind of political, but in the sense of relationships and power kind of political. Its funny, really, because breastfeeding and parenting are my usual blog topics, while I avoid business and politics like the plague.
Here, though, business and the almighty dollar have gotten in the way of the second toughest job in the world: motherhood.
Do you wonder what I think is the toughest job in the world? Being a stay-at-home dad (hmmm…. I smell another blog post).
A business ploy, a money grab has tried to threaten our value and self-worth as mothers. Geez, is any amount of money worth that?
Why do so many people want to exploit mothers, pitting one against the other? Why prey on people who are struggling day to day to do the best for their families?
Because they can, and because we let them.
By we, I mean society. Where is the outcry and backlash against Time? What about the reporter and photographer? Why aren’t men and women alike standing up and saying “no”; not about me, not about my wife, not about my mother.
When did it become acceptable to exploit those of lesser power? Oh wait, I guess that’s the way its been all along. I just thought things were getting better. Maybe I’m wrong.
What do you think?
Nursing the Issue 
I saw the Time Magazine cover photo on facebook. I saw other people posting their own versions. But I have not read any articles about it. I just saw one negative post that said the boy should not have been photographed nursing because he was too young to give informed consent.
Who do you think is being exploited? Is there something I should read before posting this response?
I guess the issue of informed consent is an interesting one when you think about it; not because he was nursing, but because he was on the cover of Time Magazine. This will be with him for life, so should he, or any child be “published”? It does make me give pause to posting pictures or other comments on the internet about my children. I mean, these things do last. What will my son think about it 10, 15, 20 years from now?
I tell my students to think before they post about whether they’d want a future employer to see what they are about to post. Maybe I should think the same thing before I do the same about my kids…
As for the photograph, like I said I’m usually pretty excited when I hear there’s a breastfeeding picture on the cover of a magazine. I just wish this one wasn’t staged to look so unnatural, so unnurturing, and so provokative.
But as for who’s being exploited for the almighty dollar? Mothers AND kids (since you can’t separate one from the other). Thanks for pointing out that I had left off the kids.
I agree that the photo is staged in an attempt to be unnatural, un-nurturing, and provocative. (Though I didn’t realize that until it was pointed out to me, and in fact it looks like a friend of mine who has nursed her child in a similar way.) It is clearly the intent of People Magazine to shock and anger people, and to create discord where there should be none.
Exploiting people for the almighty dollar, yes. All for profit magazines, television, movies, billboards,etc are doing that, aren’t they? Maybe I should ask, how do you define “exploit”?