An advertisement in New York’s Times Square depicting a breastfeeding cook has been removed amid a spate of ‘moral panic’. Allegedly, the advertisement was simply too risqué to be shown to the general public despite only showing a pregnant belly and a couple of cookies.
Cookbook author Molly Baz was working with the brand Swehl to promote a free online recipe for cookies that help lactating women create a better milk supply. The image shows a fairly pregnant Baz with a bare belly, a silver bikini top under an open shirt, and two cookies held over each breast.
Mother’s Day
The advert was supposed to run for the entire week leading up to Mother’s Day in the US. Instead, Clear Channel Outdoor, the company that owns and operates the majority of billboards in the square, removed it after just three days.
Clear Channel Outdoor stated that the ad was removed because it allegedly violated guidelines on acceptable content and was deemed ‘inappropriate’.
Baz posted on Instagram, saying that she was “extremely disappointed and yet not at all surprised” by the removal of the image, adding that “as soon as my pregnant belly and breasts got involved, things apparently got real uncomfy for some folks.”
Hypocrisy
Baz then rightly describes the hypocrisy of the surrounding billboards advertising underwear and bikinis, which show women in far more scantily clad outfits than Baz’s. “Bring on the lingerie so long as it satiates the male gaze,” she writes.
And she has a very good point. There is absolutely nothing scandalous about Baz’s photo. The image would pass all the rules for not showing *gasp* female nipples. I can only see double standards and an over-the-top puritanism that seems to surround breastfeeding in some countries (yes USA I am looking at you!).
Nudity is not pornography
Really, in 2024, we should be much better at discerning the difference between sexualising women’s bodies and showing them in the way that nature designed them for. There seems to be some sort of Madonna-Whore issue at work here. Why is it okay to show a woman wearing a lace bra but not a pregnant woman wearing the exact same amount of clothing?
And Baz’s followers agree, with one commenting: “I hate the message this sends! You can be a sex object but not be an actual mother with children??? Wtf?”
Breastfeeding should be celebrated, not just tolerated
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Five years ago, I did a personal photography project exploring the themes of motherhood and breastfeeding. I interviewed the women I photographed, and many said that they had been made to feel awkward or ashamed for feeding their babies in public. Clearly, things haven’t improved much since then.
It’s an extremely vulnerable yet beautiful period of time in a woman’s life. It’s so important that women get the support they desperately need, not just from health workers and family but from all layers of society. A mother feeding her child in the most natural way possible should not generate outrage, shock, and censorship.
Just last year, award-winning photographer Renee Jacobs had her exhibition censored due to inappropriateness and nudity, when apparently Helmut Newton’s nudes were absolutely no problem at all.
Baz’s billboard is not the first time that a woman’s body has been censored, and sadly, it probably won’t be the last.
[via Petapixel]
