Cover Up

One stupid ‘tweet’ and the world’s dumbest celebrities make news.

This week it was Kim Kardashian who ‘tweeted’ to her nearly 4 million followers that a woman breastfeeding in a restaurant without a cover was “eww”.

Yes, eww. Apparently it’s a word.

And yes. This is coming from the same Kim Kardashian who shot to fame for creating a sex tape. Without having seen this tape, one might safely assume she was filmed exposed without a cover.

Ah the logic.

Breastfeeding mothers have come under fire a lot recently. Just last week, the UKs leading parenting magazine Mother & Baby published an article by the deputy editor, Kathryn Blundell, in which she stated that breastfeeding was “creepy”, because in her opinion, breasts are “funbags”.

And last month in New Zealand, Better Homes and Gardens magazine published a list of “commandments” for eating out with children. "Yes, I have seen table-side breastfeeding at a four-star restaurant," wrote the author. "If at all possible, take it to the ladies room."

What’s truly creepy is that mothers who actually perform a natural function with their God-given breasts are shoved into the toilets, yet models and actresses who expose themselves for other reasons are protected from public scorn by a multi-billion dollar industry that earns its money by keeping these women exposed.

How did we get to the point where we can walk past a newsagency with scores of exposed breasts on the covers of magazines without batting an eyelid, but we can’t bear the sight of a woman breastfeeding in public without a cover?

The World Health Organisation recommends partial breast-feeding until the age of 2 and full breast-feeding until 6 months, but children who are fully breastfed for the first 6 months make up between 1% and 25% of babies, depending on which country you live in.

For a practice that is recommended for the health of the child and the speedy post-birth recovery and weightloss of the mother, it sure is copping a beating from so-called parenting experts and governments whose economic policies ensure that babies cannot be breastfed for even close to 6 months.

© Eva Whiteley 2010