Up to our eyeballs in puritans

[Dardedar]

***
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Readers of a US parenting magazine are crying foul over the publication's latest cover depicting a woman breastfeeding, with some calling the photo offensive and disgusting.

"I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one woman from Kansas wrote in reaction to the picture in Babytalk, a free magazine that caters to young mothers. "I was offended and it made my husband very uncomfortable when I left the magazine on the coffee table."

Her reaction was part of some 5,000 letters the magazine has received in response to a poll to gage reader sentiment about Babytalk's August cover photo, which shows a baby nursing.

Several readers said they were "embarrassed" or "offended" by the Babytalk photo and one woman from Nevada said she "immediately turned the magazine face down" when she saw the photo.

"Gross, I am sick of seeing a baby attached to a boob," the mother of a four-month-old said.

Another reader said she was "horrified" when she received the magazine and hoped that her husband hadn't laid eyes on it.

"I had to rip off the cover since I didn't want it laying around the house," she said.

A national television program also ran a segment on the controversy, interviewing several people in New York who expressed disgust over the cover photo.

The picture in Babytalk was aimed at illustrating the controversy surrounding breastfeeding in the United States, where a national survey by the American Dietetic Association found that 57 percent of those polled are opposed to women breastfeeding in public and 72 percent think it is inappropriate to show a woman breastfeeding on television programs.

Babytalk executive editor Lisa Moran said though most of those who responded to the poll about the cover photo gave the magazine a thumbs up, she was surprised that some 25 percent expressed outrage.

"There is a real puritanical streak in America," Moran told AFP. "You see celebrities practically baring their breasts all the time and no one seems to mind in this sort of sexual context.

"But in this very natural context of feeding your child, a lot of Americans are very uncomfortable with it."

She said the controversy is all the more surprising in light of concerted efforts by the US government and health professionals to encourage women to breastfeed.

"Everyone is saying that breastfeeding is best for baby but there is so little support for it in public," Moran said.

She said the Babytalk cover photo marks the first time a major parenting magazine in the United States dares to break the taboo about showing a woman's breast and the outrage it has prompted is not about to discourage editors from doing it again.

"This hasn't scared us off at all," Moran said. "We're thrilled and hopefully this will help women get more support for nursing."

LINK

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

It not only shows the "puritanical" streak in America - it shows just how hypocritical - and sick - "puritans" are. Lusting after a baby bottle is sick and lusting after a "natural baby bottle" is normal? Only a sick society would think so. Psycologically unweaned adult males getting dibs on the adult female breast over physically unweaned babies is sick. If babies eating in public is bad, so is adults eating in public. If adults eating in public is OK, so is babies eating in public. (Of course, adults eating in public is usually putting money directly into somebody's pocket, while nursing babies' food does not - maybe that's the hidden issue.)

[Dardedar]

DAR
It's the boobs barbara. They don't want to see the boobs. It turns them on, excites them, and they fear it will excite someone else inappropriately. They are so sick in their religiously twisted heads that when they see a breast, even in this ridiculously mundane and natural/healthy context, they feel guilty as if they have done something wrong, or worse, someone had imposed upon them and made them do something wrong. And of course these people have done something wrong, they have thought a dirty thought. THEY are the real perverts.

D.

More nursing porn:

[Dardedar]

Lets see what the puritans think of this:

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Hundreds expected to come to Masturbate-a-thon

Fri Aug 4, 11:34 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of Britons are being urged to attend what is being branded as Europe's first "Masturbate-a-thon", a leading reproductive healthcare charity said on Friday.

Marie Stopes International, which is hosting the event with
HIV/
AIDS charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, said it expected up to 200 people to attend the sponsored masturbation session in Clerkenwell, central London, on Saturday.

"It is a bit of a publicity stunt but we hope it will raise awareness," a Marie Stopes spokeswoman told Reuters.

"We want to get people talking about safer sex, masturbation and to lift taboos."

Participants, who have to be over 18, can bring any aids they need and can take part in four different rooms -- a comfort area, a mixed area, along with men and women only areas.

However, the rules on the event's Web site states there can be no touching of other participants nor are people allowed to fake orgasms.

"The amount you raise will be determined by how many minutes you masturbate and/or how many orgasms you achieve," the Web site said.

The Marie Stopes spokeswoman said local religious groups had been initially outraged, but after people had heard what the event was about, most had approved it.

Police had also given it their approval.

Similar events have been staged in San Francisco for the last six years raising $25,000 (13,000 pounds) for women's health initiatives and HIV prevention. If successful, Marie Stopes said it could take place elsewhere in mainland Europe next year.

LINK

[Doug]

DAR
It's the boobs barbara. They don't want to see the boobs. It turns them on, excites them, and they fear it will excite someone else inappropriately. They are so sick in their religiously twisted heads that when they see a breast, even in this ridiculously mundane and natural/healthy context, they feel guilty as if they have done something wrong, or worse, someone had imposed upon them and made them do something wrong. And of course these people have done something wrong, they have thought a dirty thought. THEY are the real perverts.

DOUG
Yet when no one is looking, they look at hardcore porn. Just ask directors at hotel conventions. Pay per view porn views go way up when the conservatives show up.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

They're sick. They create taboos just so they have something to violate - and it really doesn't matter how close to the actual reproductive equipment the "forbidden" flesh is ("In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking...") To quote dear ol' St. Paul - "Before the law there was no sin." How can you rejoice in being forgiven if you haven't done anything to be forgiven for? Especially since they can find all kinds of justification for doing things like starting wars and killing people, tossing widders and orfans out on the street, etc - so, of course, they don't need forgiveness for THAT.

[Dardedar]

DAR
Wow, if that was a spambot that posted as Sharon, rather coincidental that it landed in this thread eh?
Don't go to the link unless you want to see a couple noodie bits.

[Glen]

America has this breast fetish brought about by Playboy, Hustler, and other magazines way back when. In Korea in 1961, it was not unusual to see a mother nursing a baby on a public bus. No one paid the slighest attention to it. Other foreign countries I am sure have the same indifference.