Time Magazine cover: Are you mom enough ignites furore over breasts.
So why is a picture of a 3 year old boy suckling on his mother’s breast causing some browbeating…?
Looks like Time Magazine have decided to err on the provocative side to drive the point home that some mother’s may be going the extra mile when it comes to rearing their youth or maybe not at all?
The upcoming May 21 hardcover itself features an attractive young woman by the name of Hamie Lynne Grumet looking straight at the camera whilst her 3 year old son standing on a chair sucks on her semi exposed breast.
The running cover title accompanying the image reads; ‘are you mum enough.’
Of course what makes the image disconcerting or at least eye jarring is the fact that most of us think of breast feeding as an experience which involves a mother holding a child in her arms whilst a small child nuzzles in. Here instead we have a child standing on a chair to reach his mother’s breast as to drive home the issue of disconcert with the public’s appetite for breast feeding, well certainly in public anyway.
The image in some way mocks the usual questions that comes with public breast feeding: ‘is breastfeeding indecent? Is it natural? Is it too upsetting to have to watch? The irony of course is that women who do choose to breast feed their children to an extended age period (some mothers will breast feed their children until the age of 4) is that it runs congruent to opinions of some of the foremost in the medical profession(including Dr Bill Sears who is featured in the inside of TIME).
What’s interesting is the implied sexuality of the cover (and perversely the sense of indecency of a young boy suckling on his mother’s breast) which if we are to go by popular culture, has sexualized the breast as a phallic symbol whilst at the same time neglecting to realize that breasts actually exist for a biological reason- to provide milk for the rearing of the young.
Turning a personal child rearing decision on a polemic on aesthetics is merely pandering and an ingenuous attempt by Time to stir the boat….
Of course as my personal doctor once advised me: ‘Do you know why you have such good facial structure? (I kid you not)
‘Why I?’ responded
‘Because you were probably breast feed until you were at least four years old. That’s what helped make your jaw nice and healthy.’
‘No doc, you’re wrong, mom breast fed me until I was almost 5.’
As a mother who breastfed all three of her children until they were 2, I think Time could have chosen a much better photo to represent this mindset. I’m guessing this was geared towards stirring controversy and selling copies.
Why put a mother in a near-sexual pose with a robust child who looks more like 5 or 6? There could have been much more natural ways of demonstrating an activity that is nourishing for the child and creating an everlasting bond. While I didn’t choose personally to nurse my children after they turned two, it’s a personal choice and I don’t criticize someone who does. }
I do criticize this cover. How ridiculous. I can’t think of many women who have their children stand on chairs to breastfeed while they stand still.
Great cover. Breastfeeding for as long as possible should be something that should be promoted more. Those who disagree or find it either paedophilic or disturbing need to educate themselves properly.
I found Jamie’s family really cute, sure that cover was sort of strange, Found these pics of her hubby Brian and their children—-> http://fandaily.info/?p=22336
Way to go, Mom! You have just created the single image that will follow and haunt your son for the rest of his life! Yeah, you’re a true, Hard-core, cutting edge-Hipster, and you don’t care what anyone else thinks! It’s your “Duty” to be on the come of a national magazine to show how dedicated you are to your beliefs. Ever think your kid might not be as gung-*** about the idea? Ask him when he’s old enough to comprehend this. You have ruined that kids life before it even started. But hey, you got YOUR opinion out there, so what if your prop, I mean kid is scarred for life because of it, right? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSEk64wX6oo
“In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, but now God knows, anything goes…” ~ Cole Porter