Breastfeeding Is Dirrrty

I shouldn't even read stories like this one, because they make me so angry. An excerpt:

Readers of a US parenting magazine are crying foul over the publication's latest cover depicting a woman breastfeeding, with some calling the photo offensive and disgusting.

"I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one woman from Kansas wrote. "I was offended and it made my husband very uncomfortable when I left the magazine on the coffee table"...

Several readers said they were "embarrassed" or "offended" by the Babytalk photo and one woman from Nevada said she "immediately turned the magazine face down" when she saw the photo.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you (because you're not an idiot) that there's nothing offensive or disgusting about breastfeeding, and no one should be shocked or embarrassed by a photo of a nursing mother. When it comes to ways to feed a baby, nursing is tops.

This "controversy" is yet another example of how out of step America is with the rest of the so-called First World. My wife subscribes to a monthy parenting magazine that often features mothers on its cover in various stages of undress, sometimes showing their bare breasts when they're not even nursing and without the nipple discretely obscured.

As I understand it, the idea is to show that the pregnant body is natural, beautiful, and even occasionally sexy; and to help counter the fear many pregnant women have that they simply look "fat". This is positive and healthy. What's happening in America is the polar opposite of positive and healthy, and kudos to Babytalk for confronting the issue head on.

(Side note to the woman from Kansas: get a new husband.)