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I sat back the past couple days to see all the swirling comments about yet another conversation started about breastfeeding. As a mom with a major in psychology and professional career in advertising I am unfazed by this cover.
Let me break down for you exactly what's going on here:
- First, with the print industry dying, this is a ploy to sell at the newsstand; shock value sells and in a society where breastfeeding is unfortunately sexualized Time Magazine's staff knew exactly what it was doing; choosing a mom for the cover who fits the dominant culture's standard of beauty plus placing her son in an awkward nursing position on a chair is no accident. {You can see a slideshow here of the other mothers/children featured for extended breastfeeding - too bad they couldn't diversify.}
- The cover story is NOT strictly about breastfeeding - it's actually about Attachment Parenting of which breastfeeding is one tenet; with the attention various celebs who practice aspects of AP have been getting lately (Mayim Bialik's book about her AP experience, Beyonce's weight loss via breastfeeding, John Travolta's wife Kelly's extended breastfeeding comments and Alicia Silverstone's methods of feeding her children), this is definitely great publicity for the movement but . . .
- Most importantly, it's a DISTRACTION and I'm not going to be gullible enough to fall for it! In an election year where there are so many important issues at stake in regards to women and families mass media's recent and undying focus on ways to cause divisiveness between mothers/women and capitalize on the stereotypical cattiness that exists between us is a way to keep us from uniting on important issues.
What is your take on the cover?
{P.S. I showed Nia the cover and asked, "What's he doing?" She said, "He's eating boob!"}