Facebook censorship of breastfeeding photos has been a long standing issue with hundreds of photo's being removed over the years Facebook has been active, along with entire pages and profiles removed, many had thousands of followers. The site 'Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding is not Obscene' has been created to document many of the photos removed, though this is said to be a fraction of what may have been removed over the years.
Beautiful Breastfeedings Facebook page has recently come under fire from FB censors, who warned that the breastfeeding photos used on the page were "sexually inappropriate". Eight photos were removed and the page administrator banned for a short period of time. Facebook censors warned that if any more photos were reported, the page would be removed.
Like the Beautiful Breastfeeding blog here, the FB page is filled with hundreds of beautiful photos and artworks of breastfeeding women and animals from around the world. Below are the photos removed.
These photos are not 'sexually inappropriate', these women are feeding their children, not performing a sexual act, or provoking sex. Lets remember too that breastfeeding is the most important evolutionary purpose of breasts, and standards for dress are different all around the world. Facebook argues that these photos are classed as 'nudity'. Why then are mens chests not classified as nudity, why are women singled out, particularly when women need to use their breasts so often to breastfeed their children? Logically womens breasts should remain bare, free to feed children as often as required. And in many countries they are, as evidenced in the above photos. So why not us here in Western countries?
In Western societies breasts have become a sexual icon, womens breasts have been 'fetishized', prompting women to cover their breasts so they don't appear sexually provocative. Is this fair? Shall we expect all women to cover their feet as well so we don't get potential foot fetishists all hot and bothered? No we don't cater to foot fetishists. So should we cater to breast fetishists? Many of our men have been taught that it's OK to oggle at breasts, it's OK to plaster pictures of breasts on their walls, they've been taught that objectifying breasts to the point of obsession is OK. This breast obsessed culture has been hundreds, if not thousands of years in the making. But it's not OK.
Let's get one thing clear, this is not about prudishness, this is about respect and fairness. All of us, men and women, need to respect a womans body, it's not fair to make a woman feel objectified, judged or embarrassed of an essential body part that she may one day use as a necessary tool to feed her child. The price of sexualizing breasts has been the inhibition to breastfeed. As a society our priorities are revealed by the fact we have put sexual gratification above the needs of women to breastfeed their children. We are content to perpetuate a breast obsession, while women feel too inhibited to breastfeed and children go without breastmilk.
No, this is NOT OK. The only way it will end is when we, both men and women, stand up and refuse to participate in the objectification of womens breasts; when we create nudity laws that treat men and women equally; when we as a society respect and embrace the necessity of breastfeeding.
I'm asking you to join us in changing our society, so we can free women from this objectification. Please share this blog post or write your own on the issue, or send an email to Facebook administrators, telling them their misogyny needs to end now. Tell them breastfeeding is not 'sexually provocative', tell them bare breasts are not 'nudity' just as a mans chest is not classed as 'nudity' either.
One of our goals is to change Facebook policy, to allow all breastfeeding photos to be exempt from removal for reasons of being 'sexually inappropriate' or 'nudity'. So please join us in bombarding FB administrators with your disapproval of current FB policy that discriminates against breastfeeding women.
Mark Zuckerbergs official FB profile where you can send him a private message (he is the founder and chief executive at FB):
http://www.facebook.com/zuck
Chris Cox's FB profile where you can send him a private message (he is the vice president of product at FB):
http://www.facebook.com/chris.cox
Facebooks official FB HQ page where you can comment:
http://www.facebook.com/facebookhq?sk=wall&filter=2
You can also sign the petition to exempt non-sexual breastfeeding images on Facebook from removal for nudity:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/protect-breastfeeding-on-fb/
(You can also sign the petition using the widget in the sidebar on the left of this page)
And another petition to stop removing breastfeeding support pages and pictures:
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-facebook-to-stop-removing-breastfeeding-support-pages-and-pictures
Beautiful Breastfeedings Facebook page has recently come under fire from FB censors, who warned that the breastfeeding photos used on the page were "sexually inappropriate". Eight photos were removed and the page administrator banned for a short period of time. Facebook censors warned that if any more photos were reported, the page would be removed.
Like the Beautiful Breastfeeding blog here, the FB page is filled with hundreds of beautiful photos and artworks of breastfeeding women and animals from around the world. Below are the photos removed.
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These photos are not 'sexually inappropriate', these women are feeding their children, not performing a sexual act, or provoking sex. Lets remember too that breastfeeding is the most important evolutionary purpose of breasts, and standards for dress are different all around the world. Facebook argues that these photos are classed as 'nudity'. Why then are mens chests not classified as nudity, why are women singled out, particularly when women need to use their breasts so often to breastfeed their children? Logically womens breasts should remain bare, free to feed children as often as required. And in many countries they are, as evidenced in the above photos. So why not us here in Western countries?
In Western societies breasts have become a sexual icon, womens breasts have been 'fetishized', prompting women to cover their breasts so they don't appear sexually provocative. Is this fair? Shall we expect all women to cover their feet as well so we don't get potential foot fetishists all hot and bothered? No we don't cater to foot fetishists. So should we cater to breast fetishists? Many of our men have been taught that it's OK to oggle at breasts, it's OK to plaster pictures of breasts on their walls, they've been taught that objectifying breasts to the point of obsession is OK. This breast obsessed culture has been hundreds, if not thousands of years in the making. But it's not OK.
Let's get one thing clear, this is not about prudishness, this is about respect and fairness. All of us, men and women, need to respect a womans body, it's not fair to make a woman feel objectified, judged or embarrassed of an essential body part that she may one day use as a necessary tool to feed her child. The price of sexualizing breasts has been the inhibition to breastfeed. As a society our priorities are revealed by the fact we have put sexual gratification above the needs of women to breastfeed their children. We are content to perpetuate a breast obsession, while women feel too inhibited to breastfeed and children go without breastmilk.
No, this is NOT OK. The only way it will end is when we, both men and women, stand up and refuse to participate in the objectification of womens breasts; when we create nudity laws that treat men and women equally; when we as a society respect and embrace the necessity of breastfeeding.
I'm asking you to join us in changing our society, so we can free women from this objectification. Please share this blog post or write your own on the issue, or send an email to Facebook administrators, telling them their misogyny needs to end now. Tell them breastfeeding is not 'sexually provocative', tell them bare breasts are not 'nudity' just as a mans chest is not classed as 'nudity' either.
One of our goals is to change Facebook policy, to allow all breastfeeding photos to be exempt from removal for reasons of being 'sexually inappropriate' or 'nudity'. So please join us in bombarding FB administrators with your disapproval of current FB policy that discriminates against breastfeeding women.
Mark Zuckerbergs official FB profile where you can send him a private message (he is the founder and chief executive at FB):
http://www.facebook.com/zuck
Chris Cox's FB profile where you can send him a private message (he is the vice president of product at FB):
http://www.facebook.com/chris.cox
Facebooks official FB HQ page where you can comment:
http://www.facebook.com/facebookhq?sk=wall&filter=2
You can also sign the petition to exempt non-sexual breastfeeding images on Facebook from removal for nudity:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/protect-breastfeeding-on-fb/
(You can also sign the petition using the widget in the sidebar on the left of this page)
And another petition to stop removing breastfeeding support pages and pictures:
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-facebook-to-stop-removing-breastfeeding-support-pages-and-pictures
35 Comments
Shared!!
Woot! Thankyou x
Shared also. <3
Thankyou :-)
I'm cool with womens rights and whatnot, but keep in mind that many people (myself included) don't particularly care to see these types of photos, and there are people that it actually offends(I'm only here because a friend linked me). Please keep in mind that you can not legislate morality, and you can not change the natural inclinations of men or women by legal systems. If you really want to see a change then the entertainment industries need to be changed, but please don't try to legislate morality.
There is already legislation for breastfeeding, US federal law states breastfeeding, in any fashion, is not considered nudity. Also, we're talking about women rights, and inequality, and there most definitely SHOULD be legislation around that. In many countries it's perfectly legal (as it should be) to be topless. So apparently you CAN legislate morality, and should. Thanks for your comment.
Bloody Moral high horses piss Aunty Right off!! Christians stare at pictures and statues of Jesus in bloody agony with gashes in his side - isnt this some type sadistic fettish??Oh no this is Holy and faith filled. To see a woman do the most natural thing in the world Feed their wee baby the way we were created to do, should be so beautiful and make us proud as a species that our women can do this - oh BUT NO it is treated like watching a bloody lepper pick his fingernails off! Honestly what type of bloody idiot really thinks these incredible images are offensive? Grow Bloody Up!!! Kia ora
I have reshared on my FB status, my FB blog fan page and on G+.I'll tweet this post and write my own post too.Then I'll contact the FB head hunchos.
We've been fighting this one for four years. This is the best position statement on it I've ever seen. I've linked to it here:
http://www.tera.ca
On that site are more than 300 deleted photos of breastfeeding that Facebook has labelled obscene and pornographic. Please have a look at some, and the comments accompanying many:
http://www.tera.ca/photos17.html
and similar pages counting backwards: 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 7 6 (omitting 8)
Facebook will ignore you, continue to delete photos, and act like the immature, inept, misogynist fools its bosses are. The only way to win this is a large, well-managed, continual campaign in friendly US media, or possibly legal action (of uncertain result and certain high cost).
P. S. I don't mean to suggest that your campaign shouldn't take place. It should! If your numbers are large enough, it may do something, and I'm very willing to be proved wrong about Facebook's intransigence.
Dr.P.Rapoport,
I totally agree with you, but at the same time I felt I shouldn't sit back and do nothing. I don't know if I'm the woman for the job of orchestrating a full-scale media campaign, but I can do my small part.
And thankyou for your comment, & the link to the awesome site!
The first photo you have pictured is one that I used, and for the first time ever, I received the Facebook smack down. I think what's so appalling to me, is that there really isn't any exposed breast or nipple. If her child had been a pasty or a piece of cloth, it would be no problem. It's BECAUSE there is a child attached to her breast that it is deemed sexual... how messed up is that?
I will join my other friends such as The Skeptical Mother and Natural Mama NZ and share this post. I can be found at In Search of the Perfect Birth. Maybe they will ignore us like Dr. Rapoport said, but I'm going to at least speak up about it.
Just popping to write a post now. I am so cross. I will also share this post.
I'm so happy you ladies are getting involved, it's fantastic. I think it's important we make our voices heard, even if FB policy does not change. Thanks for your comments, sharing the post & writing your own post :-)
Done. http://wp.me/p1Sk0g-8m
Thankyou!
Most critics of any kind of nudity, are the ones doing the sexualising.
When I was growing up, especially here in Europe, kids would run around the beach stark naked, and photos would form part of every family album. Now you are told that you are a pedophile, and are abusing your kids.
This sexually bullying by the critics has to stop. I know for a fact that such accusations have broken up families, with kids being put into care, only because certain individuals go apoplectic after seeing a nipple
Unfortunately in our "democratic" societies it only takes one or two complaints from misguided, prejudiced or far right Christian, Jewish or Muslim groups, and the silent majority who either do not have a view, do not mind or do not care one way or the other are not even considered. The politically correct controllers of whatever medium is involved have a knee jerk reaction and immediately pander to the minority view, regardless of any practical or otherwise reasonable viewpoint. As a naturist I am even more disillusioned with regard to peoples attitude in general towards the naked body.
I think that pictures of the contentment on the faces of babies who are being breastfed is the very essence of life. I used to love watching my wife breastfeed our children which is as far from a sexual act as you can get. I fully support your campaign.
Thankyou guys, appreciate it, couldn't agree with you more. I find it totally unfair that the innocent have to pay the price for the fetishists or sexually repressed who can't handle their own feelings. Mothers and children have to pay the price for marketing companies who use & arouse breast fetishism or nudity to sell their products. Apparently all is fair in marketing and consumerism. It MUST end.
Anonymous, You are right. You can not legislate morality, but you can legislate the "right" thing and over time it is accepted. For instance in many states it was illegal for blacks and whites to date or marry. Virgina was the last state where the courts threw out their anti-miscegenation law as late as 1967. Now, interracial marriages are way more accpeted by most people.
And just because you do not want to see breast feeding photos does not make them bad or immoral. And probably the same people that are offended by them take offense to lots of things that the rest of the world considers normal. Too bad, 99% of the world should not have to suffer just because 1% is offended.
'Morality' and 'the right thing' really mean the same thing. All countries make legislation around what is 'right'. We in the West pride ourselves on equal rights for men & women, but when it comes to dress, there is clearly discrimination & inequality. It's wonderful that federal law states breastfeeding is not nudity, now discrimination against breastfeeding mothers on the internet needs to be addressed.
All of my children have been breastfed, I've long, 20 or so years supported the boycott nestle campaign and regard the discrepancy in laws for male and female nudity, what can be regarded as obscene to expose etc an arcane nonsense. I would however disagree with the statement "breastfeeding is the evolutionary sole purpose of breasts." There is an evolutionary reason why, to the best of my knowledge, solely in the case of humans, breasts, mamary glands generally have the appearance of being permanently engourged, and why they are involved in arousal and pleasure during sexual activity. I soundly agree that there, in many cultures, is a fetishisation of breasts. In some african cultures, for example, covering the breasts was a sign that the woman was a prostitute, which caused great cultural problems when missionaries insisted that the tribal women covered up for the sake of "christian" moral decency. It is entirely biologically normal and hard wired that we look at the biological features of another human that evolution has developed to indicate compatability and availability to mate. However, we are more than stimuli response animals and how we respond to these hard wired biological behaviours, assuming we are awake and self aware enough to do so is one of the things that defines us as human
Interesting Katie, I might just change that sentence to "breastfeeding is the most important evolutionary purpose of the breasts", so that there leaves room for the other functions. Compared to other primates we do have very large breasts proportionally, which is said to be caused by a males preference for large breasts.
In saying that, when a preference for large breasts becomes an epidemic of obsession, to the point women inhibit breastfeeding because of it, it's a clear sign the obsession has gone too far. By all means like breasts, but respect that the most important purpose of breasts is to breastfeed, not titillate your senses. And most of all respect the woman.
Breasts were created for the very important function of nurturing our young, and should be treated with the utmost respect in that regard. However, we do need to remember that the very pictures we find beautiful, myself included, are the pictures that some very sick and demented individuals use to sexually pleasure themselves. Yes, there are many more photos circulating whose intent is strictly for sexual purposes that are offensively passed in front of thousands of eyes everyday, and I believe those should be censored very strictly, unfortunately most are not. Just please keep in mind the misuse your pictures are being used for.
Anonymous: So what? If some people are aroused by photos or using them for sexual purposes, does that mean that those photos are automatically bad? There are people who are aroused by shoes-- should I drape a blanket over my feet in public? This argument is absurd and offensive, and seems to suggest that we limit free speech on the chance that someone, somewhere, might misunderstand or misuse it.
This isn't misogeny, this isn't a result of repressed sexuality, no matter how much you beat your breast and declare otherwise.
Facebook is responsible for the content that is on their site. As such, Facebook is under far more risk of litigation by allowing these photos than by removing these photos. Period. That's it. They are a business, they made the only reasonable business decision. To think otherwise is to live in a well-intentioned fantasy land. You want to argue about whether or not we should legislate different dress codes in the west, or somehow talk everyone into not believing that breasts are sexual objects, good luck with that - but trying to bring this around and make Facebook out to be the bad guy is just silly.
And no, I'm not a Facebook fanboy. I prefer Google+ :)
Anon, it IS misogyny when thousands of near porn images of women are left intact on FB, despite repeated reporting. While a single report of a breastfeeding photo guarantees it's removal immediately. It's misogyny when men can bare their chests as much as they like, despite having man-boobs themselves, while a woman not even baring a hint of nipple has her breastfeeding photo removed. You have no idea what it's like to be a woman, and no matter how much you try you'll never know what women go through. So do not tell me we're being silly when you have no idea.
You want to see hypocrisy and misogyny, sure:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=253694608020227&set=a.221502091239479.53701.218289551560733&type=1&theater
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=253601574696197&set=a.221502091239479.53701.218289551560733&type=1&theater
Thanks for your comment though, it's always good to get a different perspective.
grow up facebook
http://zharenee.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the awesome message and great intention. Breastfeeding is beauty and nature in harmony and should never been shunned. Another view--Consider ditching FB altogether. I understand FB share all kinds of "private" information with the power mongers. FB may simply be no friend to justice.
Facebook was supposedly sponsored by the CIA. Big brother is all over Facebook.
And Facebook tells people not to post political opinions.
Just do some advanced searches of Facebook and tons of scary stories turn up!
Mark is as weird as they come & he isn't going to allow breastfeeding on his intelligence hub. Maybe the best way to get change is to breastfeed in public so often then people will get used to it. Also be active in the topfree equality movement.
My facebook profile was disabled last week after I posted pictures of me breastfeeding.
I was surprised after I received a warning that my profile picture, which was just a portion of my breast and a portion of my child's face were in violation of the TOU.
In response, I posted a public album with 5 of my personal breastfeeding photos and some artwork for over the centuries.
My profile was disabled that night. After 2 emails, the "facebook team" refuses to re-activate my account.
I guess I could create another facebook account with a different email, but personally I don't feel facebook deserves me. So, I am boycotting facebook for banning my breastfeeding.
Marie Smith "Banned for Breastfeeding"
I'm sorry you were treated so poorly Marie. I wish there were something legally we could do for you & everyone else who's been harassed, had photos removed or been banned, by Facebook. The one reason I do still stick with FB is because it has such a large audience. That's not to say I don't utterly despise the folks running FB for what they've done to breastfeeding women.
If Marie Smith would contact us, we're interested in her story. We may be reached at:
info@tera.ca
TERA is where we have posted hundreds of banned breastfeeding photos, thanks to the many women who believe in what they're doing and are furious at Facebook for its ignorant and arrogant harassment.
Facebook's policy is no nudity correct?
Fin.
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