Janet Fraser

I came across this marvellous group and thought I’d share in case you haven’t seen them. Love their work! Check them out at their link. Such lovely, normal images of normal human stuff!

Here we present the first page of photos banned from the social utility Facebook, as well as a few that haven’t been. With several hundred million users, Facebook still removes from its pages photographs of women breastfeeding, despite complaints about that practice beginning as long ago as June 2007.

Facebook claimed that breastfeeding photos violated its terms of service if they showed “an entire breast.” Eventually it dropped the vagueness and the euphemism and claimed that all photos with a visible nipple or areola were “obscene,” “pornographic,” or “sexually explicit.” This claim by Facebook is at odds with legislation, case law, and actual practice throughout the USA. In addition, breastfeeding itself is allowed in public, exposed breasts or not, in almost all states in the country. By its attitude and action, Facebook is wrong. It demeans and stigmatizes women and breastfeeding.

In May 2009, the same Facebook spokesperson responsible for the above claims said that Facebook removes only a small number of photos of naked women breastfeeding. That would be funny if it weren’t so ignorant. Facebook also claims that images of breasts harm children. That’s absurd. Facebook wrongly uses children as an excuse for its immaturity and errors.

Facebook is undoubtedly a great utility, both useful and fun. Its worldwide acceptance on the Internet confers upon it a responsibility to do better.

The protest against Facebook’s removal of many breastfeeding photos isn’t really about legality. It’s not even about rights. It’s about what is right.

No. of photos in this collection: 170. Of those, 154 have been banned, some more than once. The others are here for comparison. (Many, many more have been banned than we have collected.) Comments from the photos’ owners are often illuminating.

Should impending fatherhood be so scary?

The lovely Professor Cheryl Beck who researches birth trauma is doing another study with TABS NZ, this time into fathers and their responses to witnessing traumatic pregnancy and/or birth. Anything that adds to our knowledge around birth trauma is important to me and I encourage people to get on board with this study. Joyous Birth has been participating in TABS and Beck’s studies for some years now, including this article about anniversaries and birth trauma, something many women experience.

I have more info on the study I’m happy to email if you send me your email address. janet (at) janetfraser (dot) id (dot) au

Many of us find birth trauma hits us over the end of year seasonal time, as do other traumas, so spare a thought for our sisters who are living with this pain.

May peace be yours.