When is a breast (or two) deemed indecent?

Why should women be urged to cover up when breastfeeding? Why should mothers feel shame for exposing a breast during suckling?

Natashja Blomberg, from Sweden, has caused a bit of a stir, following the publishing of her “personal” breastfeeding images via an official national Twitter account.

In a way, I´m more interested in the stirring part than the actual message she is sending out. A woman´s right to breastfeed her child as and when she sees fit, as a matter of feminist or even civil rights principle, seems uncontroversial to me. But the fusion of “official” with “personal”, and then adding “breastfeeding” to the mix, proves a potent blend. It´ll be curious to see where this furore ends (if at all).

On a historical note: During the French Revolution, women used public breastfeeding as a symbolic and concrete act: a show of support for the cause - the good mother suckles her own child, as the mother-Republic “suckles” its citizens. Blomberg is Liberty leading the way here, part of a social media lactivist insurgence.

Follow her: https://twitter.com/#!/sweden

Follow the debate on Twitter: #breastfeedingriot

Facebook has a problem with photos of breasts. Breasts that have been removed because of cancer. Breasts that nourish infants. It is ridiculous to conflate these breasts (the lived breasts that really mean something to women) with the pervasive breasts of pornography. But women are fighting back, insisting there is nothing obscene about a mastectomy scar or a suckling baby. There is a real sense of good old fashioned feminist activism about these pro-breast groups. I hope they make an impact on the FB corporation in this war of symbols.