It’s breastfeeding. Get over it

Ariel Gore is having trouble getting some newsagents in America to stock her latest issue of Hip Mama. “Why are Americans still so uptight about breastfeeding?” in Psychology Today:

She reached out to the Barcelona-based artist and selected “Symbiosis,” a gorgeous self-portrait photograph of Ana in partial superhero costume breastfeeding her son.

I loved the selection. I thought the image invoked the unrealistic notion of the “Supermom” who can do everything and countered it with the vulnerability of being partially naked with a small child.

I added the tagline “No Supermoms Here.”

Ana, in our interview for the magazine, said she thought of the piece as showing the symbiotic relationship between mother and child, “where each being is complete by themselves but they are reinvented and strengthened by the relationships they establish with each other.”

None of us thought of the photo as being “about” public breastfeeding.

I love this photo. But you know, I love images of breastfeeding that subvert the standard mother-baby image. Also, I love Ariel Gore’s new book, The End of Eve. So poetic, as always.