By now, I imagine everyone has seen Time Magazine’s latest cover that shows an attractive young mother breastfeeding her three year old son. I’m also certain that you, like me, have opinions about it. But I bet you haven’t seen Matthew Schmitz’s posting on First Thoughts: A First Things Blog entitled The Horror of Time’s Breastfeeding Cover. Check it out. I promise, it’s not what you fear it’s going to be.
Instinctive Philosophies
Becky! I cracked up when I saw first the Time cover. And the polarization that ensued! Wow. I haven’t actually read the article yet – just some of the deconstruction of it. What are your thoughts?
PS, Schmitz’s blog about it was hilarious. Thanks for sharing.
When I look at the cover, the only thing I found offensive was the headline.
I agree with Elizabeth in that the headline was completely offensive. “Are You Mother Enough?” As if how long a woman breastfeeds her child is a measure of her mothering abilities. Most mothers already wrestle with enourmous guilt without the help of the media. And why must this be a competition? As Rodney King would say, “Can’t we all just get along?”
But I also think that the photo was a disservice to breastfeeding mothers in that there was nothing nurturing about how they depicted the relationship between mother and child. The look on the mother’s face is completely dissociated from the child. Time Magazine’s purpose was to shove something provocative into the publics’ face to sell magazines and, I believe, they exploited a child in doing so. I have no problem with the image of a mother breastfeeding a child on the cover of a magazine, but I do have a problem with exploitation and provocation of something that is pure and nurturing (i.e. the nursing of a child). Your thoughts?
Of course, SNL has something to say about all of this. Here’s and excerpt found on CNN’s site. http://cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/showbiz/2012/05/14/nr-kaye-snl-time-magazine-cover.cnn.html
Funny stuff!