Maryann Sahoury's goal was to teach others about breastfeeding. Instead, she learned a few lessons herself: To read things before you sign them. And that people can be creeps.
After her daughter was born three years ago, Sahoury worked with a lactation consultant to "overcome her fears of breastfeeding," according to papers filed with the US District Court in Newark, and quoted by the website CliffviewPilot.com.
That consultant asked Sahoury to participate in an instructional video, to be posted on the Meredith Video Network website as well as tv.parent.com and YouTube. She agreed, the court documents say, "because she felt her own personal experience would be insightful and helpful to other first-time mothers who are considering breastfeeding."
She says she was very clear that she did not want her name, or her daughter's, made public, and that the producers gave her verbal assurance the video would be anonymous. But at one point before filming she was hastily asked to sign a piece of paper, which turned out to be a complete waiver. She says she learned this when she happened to Google herself one day and found a video created by a third party, combining "actual footage from the breastfeeding video with pornographic video using a woman with similar features and stature."
Her name was on that porn video. So was her daughter's. Lest there be any doubt that her privacy had been shattered, she soon received a Facebook friend request from the creator of the cut-and-combine. Frightened, she closed her account. (His has apparently been closed as well, or made private, because it does not come up in a Facebook search.)
Now she is suing the producer of the original nursing video for, quite literally, exposing her.
Yesterday a judge ruled against Meredith's request that the suit be dismissed, saying the company "should have known that such careless actions would result in damage to Sahoury and [her daughter]."
Of course the person Sahoury would really like to sue cannot be found -- at least not thus far (she and a team of lawyers are looking). All she knows is that he goes by the name "Nizarddd" online, and that she can't completely scrub his handiwork from the Web.
The fact that someone would take a breastfeeding video and equate it with pornography rather than nutrition speaks to how far we still need to go before nursing is just another thing mothers do, rather than fodder for fantasy and perversion.
There are birth videos on the Internet also, Nizarddd. Please tell me you don't get off on those, too.
WATCH:
View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.
Follow Lisa Belkin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lisabelkin
Death Race : Q&A With Lisa Ann, Star of Who's Nailin' Paylin
Moreover, the dueling notions of our society to capture everything on film yet demand privacy and anonymity is delusional and narcissistic. My wife breastfed our child every day until solid food, worked 40+ hours a week the whole time and never found herself needing to breastfeed in a Target or fast-food restaurant. Oh, and we took a a few airplane trips and a 4 day cross country road trip during that time. Never once needed to breastfeed in public. Wanna know the secret? Simple planning and acceptance that being a parent means living a life that is different from when we weren't parents. Denial of the responsibility to adjust your life after having a child is the single worst thing new parents can do.
What is at stake here are moral codes,which varies from society to society, as it should be. Why on Earth are we looking for a consensus when this topic will always be judged with the canon a certain society wants to judge it.? So we must as well judge why Near-Eastern women have to cover the their head, or even face and whole bodies when entering Target, and must judge why a South American native could follow her into the store almost naked.
We are not talking about breastfeeding here, nor even culture, we are talking about gender issues here. Unfortunately.
And no, this isn't about gender. Gender is a societal designation, not a natural one- so the only people making this about gender are the few (like yourself, I assume) who believe in such oppressive notions.
I love it.
1. You assume there is only one culture in the USA. Hint: There isn't.
2. What gives you the right to impose YOUR "cultural standards" on anyone else, regardless of where they come from?
"When will women learn that the sight of a bare breast is ,in fact, sexually provocative to men."
Again, more blanket statements. Not all men freak out when they see a breast. When I see a woman breastfeeding, the last thing in my mind is anything sexual. Those same people that get all hot and bothered over a bare boob, likely just have an easy trigger anyways.
"This sense of modesty needs to be retaught to our young people."
Or maybe you need to loosen up a little and realize not everything is sexual in nature because you think it is. Sorry you have such a nasty image of the body and sex in general, but that's your problem, and not anyone else.
Directly regarding the article, however... I'd say the woman should have read the waiver before signing it. It's her own fault for not being assertive enough to actually read the thing despite being "hastily asked" to sign it. I don't think her case would hold up in court on these grounds.
And congratulations on your further victimization and victim blaming in your 2nd paragraph. Way to lead society into a more compassionate and understanding existence. Please don't breed.