Breastfeeding Invisibility. For Humans.
Another look into the world according to stock photos. #MayIWrite — Day 10
I got everything all set up to write another Q&A post, this time about breastfeeding in public. Then I went in search of a photo. Generally speaking I use stock photos, and because my budget requires it, I use the royalty-free sources. I have written before about stock photos and the way the free sources give a sneak peek into society:
Somehow it still managed to come as a surprise, however, that when I went looking for photos of babies breastfeeding the only thing to appear was the image of the chimps featured at the top of this post. I thought perhaps using a less technical term than ‘breastfeeding’ would bring up more search results.
‘Nursing’ brought me two more photos:
I couldn’t help the strange journey down the rabbit hole of my mind where in a split second I recalled my study of Xenotransplantation (whereby one species receives a transplant or graft from another species), and wondered if I could use that premise to justify finding a picture of a sow suckling her young when I was in fact looking for a human nursing pair. (The moral of the story may be that scouring stock photos late at night with a tired mind is best for generating disturbing fiction writing prompts.)
And this:
Let me be crystal clear that while I am a vocal advocate of breastfeeding whenever possible, FED IS BEST. But I think we can agree that this photo is not one of a baby being breastfed. So this was it. These three photos were the extent of what was available to me.
The absence of even a single photo of a (human) baby being breastfed was enough to derail me from my original post, though I’ll revisit it another time. But how sad is that that even the stock photos shield our eyes from this essential and natural bodily function? A representation of this wouldn’t have to be all-breast, either. In fact, virtually no breast may be visible depending on body type and clothing choice. Let me assure you though, that there is a plentiful selection of photos of women in bikinis, with various body parts — including cleavage — in plain sight.
Once again, via a new platform, I am reminded that the sexualisation of a feminine body with breasts is widely acceptable (in particular if said body is white or fair-skinned, thin and young). This isn’t news. A Google search for ‘sexualisation of breasts’ yields almost 6 million results. But stop it already! Good grief! Almost all people, for all of human history, have been breastfed. It’s okay for breasts to be sexy, of course, but not if it comes with manufactured invisibility of their primary biological function. It should not feel less strange to see a chimp nursing her young. Or a sow. Thank you for indulging me while I got that out of my system.
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