Breastfeeding pictures on Facebook have skyrocketed in the past week with a new wave of #naturalmums giving the middle finger to their haters in a world-wide F-YOU.
Facebook’s nudity reporting system is in meltdown after the influx but are having to bounce the complaints because the act is not categorised as “nudity” and is therefore allowed.
One of the influences of this post craze has been controversial Byron Bay mother Maha Al Musa, who featured on Channel 9’s Inside Story last night.
The 52-year-old mother proudly breastfeeds her six-year-old daughter anytime she asks for it: “She says to me, ‘Mummy milkie.’ I could be in the middle of doing something or talking and it’s so natural to us, we don’t make a big deal of it,” Maha said.
In the interview, Maha admitted that she has ‘been called a paedophile’ because of her extreme breastfeeding practices.
“People can say whatever they like. I know what I am doing as a mother,’ Ms Al Musah told Inside Story.
“I’ve raised three beautiful healthy intelligent well-adjusted children and that’s all that matters to me.
“I have never had anyone come to me when I am an breastfeeding and say a nasty word against me. My heart goes out to people who criticise me and I respect people’s criticism. [But] this isn’t about breastfeeding children. This is about attack and disrespect of the feminine.”
A Boston writer has also stirred the breastfeeding piccy pot when she posted a photo breastfeeding her son and a friend reported it to Facebook for nudity.
Britni de la Cretaz, who is currently nursing her 14-month-old baby, said that she posted a photo breastfeeding because she “was feeling badass.”
“I work from home and was showing off the reality of my life, nursing my kid with one hand and typing with the other,” she wrote.
Since Facebook does not disclose the friend who reported the picture, Britni took to the social media network a second time with a post guaranteed to slap in the face of the so-called-friend.
Britni called out the stigma and shame placed on women who breastfeed publicly, despite it being a natural part of life.
“We live in a culture where breasts are so sexualized that when they’re used for what they’re intended for, it’s seen as something shameful and dirty,” she wrote. “No one batted an eye when I pushed my tits to my chin and paraded around in low-cut tops. But as soon as I do something with our breasts that isn’t explicitly for male consumption, it’s deemed ‘offensive,'” she told thedailydot.com.
She has vowed to keep posting them so as long as they kept getting reported, with a flurry of others following her valiant lead.
Least we forget the #bringbackmelissajeanbabies hysteria earlier this week, when well-known Queensland birth photographer Melissa Jean Wilbraham‘s Instagram account was shut down because complaints of nudity.
The 33-year-old described the experience as ‘depressing’ and said people who commented negatively on her images often forgot about the subjects of the photographs.
“To mothers, it’s the moments that matter most,” Melissa says in response to her account being shut down, along with hundreds of beautiful photos. “How empowering to be able to grow, birth and feed a human (or many).”
Fortunately, the account has since been restored thanks to a social media campaign backed by her friends and followers, called “Ž#bringbackmelissajeanbabies. She has also gained an extra 4,000 fans. Her story has been featured on international television, online blogs in the UK and on breakfast shows in Australia.
