True enough - but again, an entity like Facebook has the power to establish norms. If breastfeeding moms can be part of that cultural norm, isn’t that better for everyone? It’s not like these photos are just posted out there randomly, where you’ll come across them accidentally - you have to visit someone’s page to view their photos.

So strange, how hung up people can be . . .

It seems as if we Americans (though the Australians are catching up) crave a clear cut line for knowing when too much pleasure is enough. Yes, breasts are displayed and celebrated in America. Just check out our cheerleaders. We’ve set our tripwire at the areola, though. Once we’ve seen an areola, we are outraged and defiled. Unless it’s our OWN areola, of course. Or unless it’s our wife’s areola. Or unless it’s the areola of any man (which should be more repulsive than a woman’s areola because it is a broken breast—one that doesn’t provide food to babies! At least WOMEN’s breast have a real function. [Who knows why God gave breasts to men! Or is it that Darwin was right?]

Of course, there’s only one thing worse than an areola (according many Americans) and that’s a nipple (see the above exceptions).

Notwithstanding the above, I understand the political problem faced by all forms of media. They are worried that fundamentalists speak for the rest of us. They fear that most of us are horrified at the sight of areolas and nipples when, in reality, we are bothered far more by prudes who work hard to stamp their vision of propriety on everyone else.

Yes, Facebook is one of the media providers that feels that it must cater to the prudes. Too bad. I understand the politics, but too bad.

I recently read an article called “Mother’s Milk: An Existential Perspective on Negative Reactions to Breast-Feeding.” (Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2007 Jan;33(1):110-22) (I have not found a link for getting a copy of this article online). This is an article written by four researchers who are well-published in terror management theory (TMT), which I have posted about several times. See here and here.

[TMT] suggests the juxtaposition of the biological predisposition for continued existence combined with the uniquely human awareness of the inevitability of death gives rise to the potential for extreme anxiety, or terror. This potential for terror is managed by the development and maintenance of cultural anxiety-buffer composed of a cultural worldview and the self-esteem derived from living up to the standards of one’s worldview…. individuals can clean protection from anxiety associated with the awareness of their own mortality and gain a sense of symbolic immortality.

TMT is more than an idea: “mortality salience effects have been replicated in more than 300 separate studies have been conducted on TMT in 15 different countries.”

What does any of this have to do with breast-feeding?

Because people are motivated to adhere to cultural standards to transcend fears associated with death, many cultures are prone to regulate and offer standards for the physical body, an aspect of human existence particularly tied to death… the physical body may be a proverbial slap in the face to a cultural worldview that raises people above the level of other animals.

The authors found that this negativity toward human mortality is “typically directed more toward women than men.” For instance, in some cultures “menstruating women are not allowed to touch food or water that others will consume . . . worship gods or ancestral spirits . . or come into contact with men’s hunting tools.. . women often are expected to hide or conceal evidence that they are menstruating by using menstrual products and disguising packages and masking the order with “powder fresh” sense. In an experimental context, both men and women respond with disgust to a tampon.”

On the surface, breast-feeding is highly valued, but in some cultures, mother’s milk is considered “polluting and inimical to man.

In contemporary Western societies, such as the United States, there is evidence that some people perceive breast-feeding as an indecent and animalistic act . . . and are revolted by the possibility of an adult and just in human breast milk . . . although the benefits of breast-feeding are well-established, and many people consider the behavior admirable, there are physical aspects to this behavior that, similar to menstruation, women are expected to conceal (e.g. covering the breast and the expression of milk).

The authors suggest that these pressures to conceal breast-feeding “result, in part, from the glimpse into the animality of our existence that breast-feeding behavior threatens to unveil.” In other words, breast-feeding and threatens us because it shatters the facade that we are gods.

The authors suggest that in many traditional societies that live “closer to nature”, breast-feeding does not have any stigma. Many industrialized nations are different, however. The authors suggest that part of the western industrialized attitude results from the availability of alternative store-bought formulas for feeding babies. It also might result from attitudes (especially in the United States) were breast have become highly sexualized and where their exposure is highly regulated (cleavage is welcomed but exposed nipples and areolas are off-limits).

Based on four studies conducted by the authors (described in this article), they conclude that their research has contributed to “a growing body of empirical evidence adjusting that people are threatened by that which blurs the human-animal boundary due to existential mortality concerns.” They express surprise that there is so little empirical research regarding attitudes toward breast-feeding, given that it is such a fundamental aspect of human behavior “and so healthy for mother and baby.”

To answer the question in the title of the post, then, I would suggest the following: Facebook won’t let us see beautiful acts of babies taking sustenance from their mothers because too many Americans are screwed up when it comes to thinking about their bodies. I think that TMT has it about right: when they see humans breastfeeding their offspring, “civilized” Americans become offended because it reminds them too much of other mammals breastfeeding their offspring. It stresses and strains their world view that we’re not animals. If only people could get over this hang-up, we could stop wasting so much time on heated arguments about areolas and nipples and so many other things that I’ve been pointing out on this website.