Today, I am pleased to present a very special guest blogger, Jennifer Magnuson (see bio at botton of post) who has previously been published on the Imperfect Parent. She writes about the brouhaha over this weeks Baby Talk magazine, which features a baby and a booby:

Just for fun go ahead and catalogue some of today’s magazine’s covers on the stands.  I did, and here are a few of my favorites: Oil-slicked young woman clad in thong and two triangles of fabric with mussed hair and heavily lidded eyes made up to indicate she was either highly sedated or, you know,  just had sex.  Teenage starlet (note: just a few years older than my sticker collecting daughter) clad in a credit card and several strategically placed flowers begging readers to ”Leave me alone!  I’m not a heroin addict/anorexic/blood collecting party girl!  I’m just like you!”  And finally, the profile of a cherubic infant nursing at the breast of its mother. And the breast?  Only partly exposed, not even a hint of nipple or aureola to be found (try saying the same  for most outfits on the red carpet).  To top it off, no headlines denying rape charges, child abuse, or secret trysts with baby-sitters while fourth wife seeks a restraining order.

Yet which image stirs up good old American “outrage?” You got it.  The child.  Nursing. 

Breastmilk is not only naturally taylor-made for baby (we are, ahem, mammals), but one that has been touted as a miracle serum, preventing or reducing everything from childhood cancers to SIDS.  Just as notable, it’s now associated with higher developmental test scores and higher IQs.

Apparently, most “outraged” Americans weren’t breastfed.  Not only that, but roughly half of polled Americans think breast feeding shouldn’t be done in public.  That’s right.  Babies shouldn’t be allowed to eat in public. At best, we should relegate them to the bathrooms.  I know from personal experience that sitting on a questionably sanitary public commode promotes milk letdown like nobody’s business.  There should be a law, people.  Just like there is against feeding your children caffeinated sodas, junk food and forgetting to teach them that exercise is necessary.  Oh, strike that.  File that one under wishful thinking.

Babytalk Magazine clearly didn’t take in to account the  IQs of many of its readers when it chose to run the shocking image of an infant being nourished at the breast for their August issue.  Thousands of readers wrote in and commented on the cover, many stating their outrage, shock, and bewilderment at such an “inappropriate” image.  Yeah, ewww, a baby nursing.  What were the editors thinking?  Hadn’t they read last month’s Vogue, which featured The Donald and Melania Trump with newborn son, and most importantly, a bottle, in Melania’s perfectly manicured hand?  Or were they too distracted by the other pictures highlighting a smirking Trump and pregnant spouse teetering on her Manolos practically straddling the ramp to The Donald’s personal jet (paging Dr. Freud)…but I digress.  Because we need to focus on the disgusting monument to motherhood that is being presented, nay, pushed onto the public by those crazed editors at Babytalk.  What’s next, an issue dedicated to Brittany Spears’ new parenting book?  Because there’s a line, Babytalk, and you have crossed it.  And crossed it big. 

There’s also a new moniker out there for people like me who think nursing has nothing to do with immodesty and flaunted sexuality: Lactivists.  Yeah, that’s clever.  I’m going to put it on my calling card, next to Feminazi. 

According to an AP article by Jocelyn Noveck, opponents to Babytalk’s cover declared it “gross” and were forced to shred the magazine lest their teenage offspring see the cover.  Because that’s what teenage boys are into you know, babies nursing at a mom’s breast.  I wasn’t brave enough to explore the contents of some of the more popular skin magazines out there, but I’ll bet you’ll find pages of lactating women on horses, or nursing moms on the beach, or twins in a barn with breast pumps.  I’m thinking of supplementing my income with a centerfold of me applying bag balm to my cracked nipples.  I just can’t figure out if my favorite thing is sunsets or kittens.

Jennifer Magnuson is a full-time parent to a brood of four (and still breastfeeding her youngest), guardian to cats, dogs, chickens and more, and has been married since the dawn of time. She is a regular columnist for Sanity Central, and has written for several feminist publications. She attended the University of Oregon and Portland State University and holds a B.A. in Sociology, as well as extensive post-graduate training in the field of domestic violence and sexual assault.

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