Breastfeeding Photos On Facebook Removed From 'Respect the Breast' Page

Breastfeeding mothers are accusing Facebook of censorship again. In what's become an ongoing quarrel, Heather Stultz and Cece Buehner, founders of a "Respect the Breast" community page about breastfeeding on Facebook, are the latest activists to call out the social network for removing photos of nursing moms.

Facebook pulled four breastfeeding photos last week, Stultz told The Huffington Post, adding that this isn't the first time the "Respect the Breast" page has been the target of breastfeeding censorship. Since November, a total of 38 breastfeeding photos have been taken down, and in response, she is circulating an online petition to draw attention to the issue, Stultz said.

"I've got 7,100 fans and they are pretty irate about it," she said. "We won't stop until we have a handwritten apology from Mark Zuckerberg." Stultz, who is from the Charlotte, N.C., area, and Buehner, of Oshkosh, Wis., founded the page in December in support of breastfeeders, according to its information area, which declares, "Breastfeeding is not sexual! it is a beautiful bond between mother and child that should be cherished!"

Facebook, for its part, has repeatedly said it supports the rights of breastfeeding mother and their posting of photos, however the photos must adhere to its policies. In a statement provided to The Huffington Post to respond to Stultz and Buehner's claims, a representative provided the following statement:

Facebook is glad that mothers and their families -- including many who work at Facebook -- use Facebook to share their parenting experiences, including breastfeeding their children. By uploading photos, joining groups, and engaging with different organizations, these families are able to share and connect on a very important topic, and we are thrilled they are using Facebook to do so.

When it comes to uploaded photos on Facebook, the vast majority of breastfeeding photos comply with our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which closely mirrors the policy that governs broadcast television, and which places limitations on nudity due to the presence of minors on our site. On some occasions, breastfeeding photos contain nudity -- for example an exposed breast that is not being used for feeding -- and therefore violate our terms. When such photos are reported to us and are found to violate our policies, the person who posted the photo is contacted, and the photos are removed.

Our policies strive to fit the needs of a diverse community while respecting everyone’s interest in sharing content that is important to them, including experiences related to breastfeeding. It is important to note that any breastfeeding photos that are removed -- whether inappropriately or in accordance with our policies -- are only done so after being brought to our attention by other Facebook users who report them as violations and subsequently reviewed by Facebook.

These latest accusations come just weeks after Canadian breastfeeding activist Emma Kwasnica took her battle against Facebook public. Last month, Kwasnica told The Huffington Post that her account had been suspended five times for the posting of breastfeeding photos and she subsequently organized nurse-ins at several of Facebook's headquarters.

Nurse-ins have become a popular way for or breast-feeding activists, or "l'activists" as they are sometimes called, to protest what they view as a bigger societal problem: Doctors and the Surgeon General's Office alike pound on the "breast is best" drum, but when mothers try to abide by that mantra, they face harsh judgment from the public. Critics ranging from managers at community pools to employees at supposedly family-friendly Target stores and a women's only gym have instructed nursing mothers to cover up and go elsewhere to feed their babies.

April Ryley, who is fan of the "Respect the Breast" page, indicated to WCNC of Charlotte that she sees a problematic inconsistency when it comes to what Facebook deems acceptable.

“I was kind of surprised that Facebook wouldn’t have a problem with a girl not wearing pants, but does have a problem with a woman feeding her baby,” Ryley said.

Comments

[Brandi Johnsen]

06:20 PM on 01/22/2013

Right around the time these photos were removed from "Respect the Breast" the Respect the Breast site and some of their members were trying to harass a friend of mine for some photos she had posted and this was not the first time they had harassed someone over photos. FYI: My friend had no nudity in her photos and they resembled the photos on the Victoria Secret site. After trying to contact the Respect the Breast site about this they were completely disrespectful and acted like bullies. Removing these photos seems to have absolutely nothing to do with breastfeeding but how this site continually violates the rules set by a privately owned company as if they are the only site out there that should be allowed to do this. I personally applaud Facebook for policing these types of sites regardless of what their site content is. If they are so concerned about not having photos removed then they should post them on a website and leave them off Facebook. I breastfed my own children but this site does more harm than good for the breastfeeding mother.

[thinkbeforeyouspeak2011]

02:22 AM on 03/06/2012

Breastfeeding in public is fine. Why? It's public space and there is nothing wrong with breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding on Facebook is not fine. Why? Facebook is a private space, and as an organization they have decided not to allow it. Find someplace that will allow you to post your breastfeeding photos if you are so desperate to do so.

It is non-sensical to argue that because breastfeeding is non-sexual it should be allowed. What makes sex something that is okay to ban on Facebook? Sex, like breastfeeding, is natural and involves a degree of nudity. So why are you deciding to draw a line between sex and breastfeeding? If you're going to make an argument that breastfeeding should be allowed on Facebook then you also have to argue that sex photos should be allowed or else you are drawing an arbitrary line just as you claim Facebook is.

Also, If I wanted to I could create a website that only allowed pictures of Italians eating pizza on it.

[GirlFriday123]

01:10 PM on 02/24/2012

There are zillions of really racy photos on Facebook that show a lot more boob that a photo of a breastfeeding baby. If you take one down, take them all down.

Sounds like FB is sticking to the MPAA criteria for rating photos - Abuse a boob, it's rated 'R', kiss (or nurse from) a breast, and it's an 'X'

[Andrea Fatkin]

10:14 AM on 02/24/2012

cont... Or, you could choose to explain to your child that the woman over there is feeding her baby, that mommies make milk that is meant for little babies just like puppies and kitties do.

Or you can raise a person who will eventually learn to discriminate against some people based on sex, race, or whatever your other hangups are. Instead of worrying so much about our kids eating their lunch, why don't you focus on the messages that you are sending YOUR kids - that it's ok to hate, ok to discriminate, and that a mother feeding her child is dirty and perverted.

Don't say... oh I don't think it's wrong I just don't think people should see it. If it's not wrong, then there's nothing wrong with people seeing it. It has NO harmful effects on anyone, it's sanitary and natural and completely non-sexual.

If you fear your child is going to have some mental issue with seeing a woman breastfeeding, I would have to venture to say that either you are paranoid or your kid already had some pretty serious issues in the first place.

No one is asking you to like it. These women are just asking to have their legal rights respected, and to not be harassed in public OR online.

[Andrea Fatkin]

10:13 AM on 02/24/2012

cont... If you feed your baby a bottle in public, are you doing it for attention? Neither are we when we feed our child - and yes I'll admit there are some "militant moms" who are doing it to make a point and draw attention - there are some extremists in every group - they don't represent the majority.

We post pictures because these are our kids, the pictures are beautiful, and because we can. Does the general public want to see pictures of your kids rubbing bananas into their hair or eating their first birthday cake? Probably not, but you have every right to post them online if you want to. We have the right to post pics of our kids eating too.

A woman can try to work her schedule around her baby, but it's not always going to work. If I was going out, I wouldn't leave knowing the baby was hungry because "no big deal, I'll just feed her in the restuarant" but if I'm already there, and she's hungry, she gets to eat too.

The needs of a child outweigh the old-fashioned, sexist, bigoted opinions of those people who want to deny women their rights. Period.

And for those of you who say "oh I don't want my children to see it..." keep your brats in the house, or cover their heads with a blanket.

[Andrea Fatkin]

10:12 AM on 02/24/2012

This is crazy! Like it or not - women have the right to breastfeed, covered or uncovered, anywhere they have a right to be. Facebook - to some extent, has the right to control content, but only so far as it complies with legal rights. Facebook can't refuse to allow black people to create a profile page, can't mark pictures of a man kissing a man as lewd, etc. If you go into a restuarant to eat the owner cannot refuse service to you because he or she does not like Mexicans... if Facebook had taken down pictures of interracial couples, claiming it was for the good of the children, all of you people telling moms to "cover it up, keep it private" would be PISSED (unless of course you're racist as well as sexist).

Women have the legal RIGHT to breastfeed their babies ANYWHERE they are authorized to be. Opposers have the RIGHT to be upset about it, but do NOT have the right to harass these women or ask them to leave. Period. You may not like it, you may want to change it, but that doesn't change the fact that it's LEGAL and infringing upon a woman's right to breastfeed is harrassment and discrimination.

A lot of people have asked why... why do you post the pictures, why can't you do it in private, why do you have to show everyone?

[Taylor Cornell]

04:45 PM on 02/25/2013

Facebook is a private organization. They establish the rules for people who join it. Facebook could make a rule to only greenlight pictures of dogs and ban anyone who posts cats, if they did so wish to.

You have every right to breast feed your children in public. When children need to be fed, they need to be fed. Taking pictures of yourself breastfeeding is not a necessity for the baby, however - it is for leisure, or commemoration, or for whatever reason you can muster, and therefore, irrelevant to your right to breastfeed when necessary. You do not sign up on a website, break their established guidelines, and then protest when you are punished accordingly. You are pretentious and self important for even trying to argue otherwise.

[usmelllikepee]

09:55 AM on 02/23/2012

Just finished marking all the pictures on the "Respect the Breast" page as abusive, lol.

[vmrs]

10:09 PM on 02/21/2012

As a breast-feeding mom's opinion I think its disgusting to post photos of that on the internet. I sure in heck don't want to see my friends boobs on my time-line!

Why are these moms making a big deal! WHY do you feel you HAVE to post a picture of it. I think these people enjoy the drama because they are the ones making a big deal about it.

[Cassandra Holly]

04:43 AM on 02/23/2012

The pictures are being posted because there are still women who are threatened and thrown out of public places for breastfeeding, despite being legally allowed to do so. By raising awareness, groups like the above mentioned group are helping to normalize breastfeeding, as well as to make people aware that even if they don't like it or want to see it, women have the right to breastfeed.

[DMiller1234]

12:07 PM on 02/23/2012

I'm a tad confused as to your reasoning for the pictures being posted.

If the point is to raise awareness of a woman's [legal] right to breastfeed in public, why the need for pics which, for the most part, are taken in the privacy of their own home?

Why is there nothing, by way of state statutes (that I could find), on the RtB FB page to help women understand their legal rights, or the [legal] action(s) they can take in the event this legally protected right is infringed upon? How does a picture of a woman breastfeeding help to provide this vital information?

"I think the issue has little to do with Facebook wanting to oppress breastfeeding mothers and everything to do with the awful working conditions they support for those who review their reported content."

Really? I thought it was about raising awareness of a woman's right to breastfeed in public, "normalizing" breastfeeding, telling others if they don't like, DON'T LOOK, and the perceived inconsistenty when determining which pictures are removed and which aren't?

[PinkLotus]

09:05 PM on 02/21/2012

Why would you want a pictures of that? When my daughter was a baby I didn't want to do that public it's an intimate act and these extremists mother's don't see that.

[BeanBoo]

06:57 PM on 02/21/2012

Are we still having this debate? How silly!!

Girls: Post your pictures on FB but make sure they follow FB's guidelines. You can't show a fully exposed boob whether it's falling out of a bikini top or if it's being sucked on by a baby.

Furthermore, why are you taking pictures of this and posting it on FB? Should I post pictures every time I feed my dog?

[N0NDescript0]

01:23 PM on 02/21/2012

So let me get this straight: Facebook is removing photos of women who are breastfeeding, because their breasts are exposed, which is in accordance with their censorship policy, and the women are mad about it because they want to post photos of their babies breast feeding, which involves the partial exposure of their breasts to an unknown number of strangers? Oh yeah, and they are pissed off because FB isn't removing every single photo of a partially or fully exposed breast, because they aren't capable of keeping up with the number of photos posted among their 500,000,000+ users, and therefore feel like they are being singled out because they think they have a right to be excused from FB's censorship policies because they are breast-feeding mothers? And they want a hand-written apology from Mark Zuckerberg before they will get on with their lives?

How pathetically immature.

If you want to post your photos, then do it somewhere that will let you.

If you have a baby, it's time to learn to act like adults!

[Cassandra Holly]

04:50 AM on 02/23/2012

Not exactly. Facebook is claiming that the pictures in question showed a fully exposed breast. The women in question are saying the images did not.Given that some have since been reposted, it is clear that some of the images removed did not actually violate Facebook's policy.
However, Facebook outsources reported content to other countries where poorly trained people are paid far below minimum wage to sift through millions of images, posts, etc... often which include extremely graphic, violent, racist, disgusting things for hours and hours. The fact that things which don't violate the ToS are often removed and things which do violate the ToS often stay up is of no real surprise and honestly, I think the issue has little to do with Facebook wanting to oppress breastfeeding mothers and everything to do with the awful working conditions they support for those who review their reported content.

[N0NDescript0]

09:02 AM on 02/23/2012

"Facebook is claiming that the pictures in question showed a fully exposed breast."

Thanks: that is news to me.

"...I think the issue has little to do with Facebook wanting to oppress breastfeeding mothers and everything to do with the awful working conditions they support for those who review their reported content."

Really? It sounds a lot to me like a bunch of moms gathering together to whine. I mean, demanding a hand written apology from Mark Zuckerberg because their photos were taken down? I think that's just immaturity over not getting their way, not concern about FBs working conditions...

[Ian Saukerson]

01:11 PM on 02/21/2012

I feel like one viewpoint neither side is looking at is that of the baby. As a person that dreads mom taking out the baby pics from childhood when I bring a girlfriend to meet her, I can only imagine what it will be like for these kids as they grow into adolescents and adults.

[Cassandra Holly]

04:52 AM on 02/23/2012

I never understood dreading the baby pictures. Personally, I've always loved when my baby pictures came out and I know many people who feel the same way. While I don't believe there are any of me being nursed, I wouldn't be bothered by that and I don't really understand why anyone would. Would you be bothered by a picture of a baby drinking a bottle?

[Ian Saukerson]

10:04 AM on 02/23/2012

That's fair enough. To each their own, if you're not uncomfortable with it then you should be able to share your baby pictures with whoever you want. But I feel like parents should leave that choice to the children, at least when it comes to the 100s of facebook "friends" that these children are exposed to. I've got no problem with mothers having a restricted album for close friends and immediate family. But personally there are probably close to 50 facebook "friends" of mine that I've maybe only met once or twice posting intimate pictures of their children. I'm not, of course, but what if I was a pedophile? These women don't know that.

[Freedom Mama]

11:20 AM on 02/21/2012

My issue here is that for every "right", there is an equal "responsibility". Yes, you have a right to breastfeed, and in public. And yes, you have a responsibility to be as discreet as humanly possible, out of respect for your fellow humans. But as with most radical causes, (breastfeeding is not radical cause, just breastfeeding with public nudity), they want the "right", but no "responsibility".

[Valerie Finnigan]

03:17 PM on 02/21/2012

Wrong. Their primary responsibility is to their children, not to strangers who shouldn't be looking and most likely won't see an indecent abount of flesh anyway.

[usmelllikepee]

06:10 PM on 02/21/2012

Their primary concern is to the public when they are in the public. If you don't like it stay at home a feed them. It wasn't the public's fault you had the kid, don't make us have to watch you feed it. Your responsibility is to stay home.

[sunnydayz20118]

09:01 PM on 02/21/2012

Not sure how one can go out in public, or post pictures on a public website, and not expect others to look at them.

[Freedom Mama]

10:55 AM on 02/21/2012

I don't understand what all the fuss is about. They aren't removing ALL breastfeeding photos, just the ones with an exposed breast not being used for feeding. Although breastfeeding itself is not sexual, bare breasts ARE sexual, to a large portion of the population. Sounds like Facebook has a very common sense oriented, balanced approach.

[Acorn Tree]

11:58 AM on 02/22/2012

breasts arent sexual can i have sex with a breast alone no.

[Jennifer K Myrna]

10:33 PM on 02/22/2012

Acorn Tree, Actually, you can. It's specifically called "breast sex" though it usually uses a more slang term for breasts.

[Just An 0pinion]

02:44 AM on 02/21/2012

The issue I see is that some women are absolutely militant about it. Some have monopolized the board with their ideas & if anyone disagrees they turn it into a personal attack. From what I have read no one is against breastfeeding. What people don't like is being exposed to bare breasts. The article states that the person exposed their breast while 'not feeding' a baby. If one knows what one's doing makes other people uncomfortable & infringes over other's rights, why do it? What is there to prove? Sure, a baby has a right to eat - but why expose the world to it? What is so difficult about being modest? One person said "Why this has turned into a criticism of breastfeed­ing mothers, or even a breast vs. bottle debate in the first place is really beyond me. The point is that breastfeed­ing should be normalized­, accepted, and considered so benign that no one thinks to criticize it. The vehement opposition to breastfeed­ing rights is saddening." I've not seen anyone against breastfeeding rights - what people do not want is to see it. Why is that so difficult? No one has even made a debate against breastfeeding vs bottles either. Ridiculous. Why should someone who wants to expose one's breasts rights go above others who do not want to see it? The entire purpose is to feed one's baby & ultimately, as long as that happens (even with a small blanket over the baby) that's what matters.Just an

[Eleanor Willows]

02:55 AM on 02/21/2012

I agree.

[sunnydayz20118]

08:10 AM on 02/21/2012

It's interesting, to me, the chosen the title of their FB page is "Respect the Breast" (the operative word being "respect")...yet respect, or even tolerance, of an opinion different from their own is completely lacking.