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Time's Breastfeeding Cover Causes a Ruckus

Reactions to controversial cover are generally shocked

By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff

Posted May 10, 2012 11:52 AM CDT

(Newser) – The latest issue of Time is sure to catch your eye when it hits newsstands Friday, as it shows a 26-year-old woman breastfeeding her 3-year-old son—who is standing up. At least two commentators have expressed shock that this is Time, rather than one of Tina Brown’s predictably controversial Newsweek covers. Reactions:

  • “It's a bit of a jawdropper … We had to blink, rub our eyes, shake our heads and look again,” writes Adam Clark Estes on the Atlantic Wire. “We can't figure out if Time is trolling their competitor Newsweek or trolling us.”

  • The cover has led to some shocked Twitter reactions, and a Morning Joe co-host “was visibly upset by it,” writes Dylan Byers on Politico. Morning Joe guest and Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett called the photo “a really cheap shot” and said it made her “wince,” and co-host Mika Brzezinski appeared to agree.
  • On BuzzFeed, Anna North points out that cover mom Jamie Lynne Grumet's son “might regret this later,” adding that she hopes “the magazine is planning on paying this kid's therapy bills.”
Time’s blog explains that the photographer chose this particular cover image because the accompanying article is about attachment parenting, and, he says, "I liked the idea of having the kids standing up to underline the point that this was an uncommon situation."

Time's new cover shows Jamie Lynne Grumet breastfeeding her son.
Time's new cover shows Jamie Lynne Grumet breastfeeding her son.   (Time.com)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 137 comments
brucke
May 13, 2012 7:04 AM CDT
The comments below show how America has a persistent problem with the body being exposed in any way. People have been conditioned in America to view nakedness as sexual and lustful. This has caused a double problem. There co-exists two extremes where some hate any kind of nakedness and others who are addicted to it but both are obsessed by it. The reaction to Time magazines cover demonstrates this. The obsession with breasts as objects of lust is also the reason America has taken to bottlefeeding so well. The result is that we have a horrible greedy group of companies who exploit this to squeeze money out of struggling families by giving them supplemented cows milk they dont need. Its crazy. Ok to drink a cows milk from a bottle but not human milk from the breast. When are people going to learn?
George-Jetson
May 11, 2012 11:29 AM CDT
My father in law was born in Russia during the 20's. He breastfed until the age of 5. It was common because there was very little to eat. When a was mother given extra rations it was cheaper to feed a child this way. But there's no excuse now.
slammer
May 11, 2012 10:50 AM CDT
STRANGE VERY STRANGE BUT ONE LUCKY KID! WISH I WERE 3 AGAIN WITH MOM LIKE THAT!
 

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