I was surprised when I heard Glenda’s story of not being supported by her Church family around her breastfeeding her infant daughter (with a nursing cover no less!), but I am usually never surprised when I hear about Facebook removing yet another breastfeeding photo or art piece. But I did come close when Kate Hansen sent me the details of Facebook’s removal of her three “Madonna and Child Series” portraits. It made me wonder, would Facebook remove a classic Madonna nursing baby Jesus painting? Have they? Do they really consider Mother Mary obscene? How far are they willing to go with these inane policies?
Kate Hansen is a British Columbia artist who after the birth of her son in 2007 was inspired by her own experience of childbirth and motherhood to create art. By 2008, after the birth of her daughter she had also determined that she would accompany a series of mother and child portraits, “The Madonna and Child Series,” with the mother’s birth story.
"Gladys and Elizabeth" by Kate Hansen
Her portraits are done with conte crayon and accented with a gold leaf halo. They were made with reference to portraits of the Virgin Mary with child from the 15th century, as well as an early 20th century revival of the practice by such artists as William Adolphe Bouguereau. She got the idea for the patterned design inside the “Gladys and Elizabeth” portrait from cutting paper snowflakes with her son.
"Krista and Colum" by Kate Hansen
Three of her portraits are of mothers breastfeeding their children. Kate wanted to capture the joy, awe and reverence that surrounds a breastfeeding mother by depicting them in the same fashion as the Mother Mary portraits of the 15th century. Due to the purity and innocence that comes through in her work, it was surprising to her and many others when Facebook removed these works.
"Krizstina and Finbar" by Kate Hansen
Of course, I’m not really surprised by any breastfeeding photos or artwork that Facebook takes down anymore. A woman could be wearing a baby completely covered by a nursing shawl and just say she’s breastfeeding and get her photo taken down and I wouldn’t be a tad bit surprised, but I digress.
She says:
I posted one of them on a figurative artists group on facebook, and was surprised to see that it had been removed on March 27th, 2010. I had already posted two more portraits, and I went ahead and reposted the one in question, thinking it must have been a glitch. My new artwork was removed on March 28th, and then on March 29th the re-posted portrait was removed as well. I reposted all three in a row, as a kind of experiment, and then I received the following letter in by email:
Hello,
You posted an item that violated our Terms of Use, and this item has been removed. Among other things, content that is hateful, threatening, or obscene is not allowed, nor is content that attacks an individual or group. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in your account being disabled.
If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact us at warning@facebook.com from your login email address.
The Facebook Team
These actions have resulted in a number of guest features on radio talk shows as well as newspaper interviews and articles all over the country, as well as another deletion. Facebook deleted her again on May 13th after telling the Toronto Star it had been an accident! All this press has a lot of people talking about Kate Hansen’s work. Some people are discussing art censorship while others are discussing breastfeeding. More specifically they’re discussing breastfeeding in public.
Kate Hansen: Artist - Gallery Shot
Kate’s feels that “the treatment of my breastfeeding subject matter by facebook is indicative of the very high expectations that society holds for mothers. Mothers are expected to breastfeed, every health organization tells us it’s the best choice, yet images of women breastfeeding are treated with hostility and distain. Women are treated badly when breastfeeding in public. The result is an impossible ideal of motherhood that no mother could possibly meet.”
This got me thinking. She’s right about the impossible ideal of motherhood that no mother could possibly meet. It’s almost right up there with trying to meet the ideals of the Virgin Mother herself, which she admits that in the birth stories, she wanted to draw some parallels between our own ideals of what a mother should be, and the cultural ideal of motherhood, symbolized by the Virgin Mary. She wanted “simultaneously to honour motherhood, in all the glory of its imperfection,” and this to me, brings the whole story, her beautiful idealistic artwork, and Facebook’s ridiculous obscenity policies, full circle.
Except Facebook doesn’t even want us mothers to be like The Virgin. Unless we’re wearing sexy garters and have lots of cleavage coming out of a lacy bra. C’mon Facebook! I mean seriously!!!
Images courtesy of Kate Hansen. Information based on artist’s statement and personal communication.
For more information and to see some more wonderful art, please see the Kate Hansen Art website.
Related posts:
- Hey Facebook! Change Your Policies! Breastfeeding is Not Obscene!
- How To Prevent Your Child From Growing Up Too Fast
- Why Women Post Their Breastfeeding Photos
Tags: breastfeeding art, breastfeeding photos, Facebook, Kate Hansen
Posted by Melodie Breastfeeding General, Breastfeeding Infants, Breastfeeding Toddler, Media & News, Nursing In Public Subscribe to RSS feed
I am so, so disappointed by Facebook. When will they grow up and get over this? It’s well past time.
.-= Amber´s last blog ..Antibiotics and Agriculture =-.
Yeah that’s ridiculous. I don’t know enough about Canadian law to know what sort of free speech protection they have or what the legal definition of obscenity is there (although I suppose the Facebook user agreement probably waives those rights anyway.)Cool paintings though and very tasteful in my opinion. I really do wonder now whether there are any pictures of Mary breastfeeding Jesus posted on fb. I think I’ll go look!
.-= Maman A Droit´s last blog ..Tuesday is Newsday =-.
It’s not even about Facebook, but probably their sponsors, and just society. But seriously, many girls/women on my friends list have photos in their profiles that are VERY close to nude. I have no problem with either form of nudity, but obviously breastfeeding is the more appropriate option if they are worried about being family friendly. My head pretty much explodes at the idea that children shouldn’t be exposed to breastfeeding images. Are we supposed to lie to children about how babies are fed?
.-= Janine´s last blog ..Sunday Link Love =-.
On the other hand, to SOME people, a boob is a boob and it is something desirous to look at. Do you want some perv to look at a picture of something natural like breastfeeding and getting aroused? I’m not saying that it’s right but sadly society is obsessed with sex and it’s especially rampant on the internet. I just saw some stats about the top 50 videos on the internet, You Tube was #1 and the next 18 had to be “blurbed” over because they were pornographic sites, then they continued on with the results of the top videos. Again, I’m not saying that it’s pornographic at ALL, nor am I offended or against it. Sadly, I know someone who I wouldn’t want to share these pictures with because all he would just see “the naked boob”.
.-= Debbi Does Dinner Healthy´s last blog ..Sloppy Buffalo Joes =-.
@Debbi – I hear what you are saying, but personally, if I post a photo of myself breastfeeding on the internet I don’t care how someone chooses to view it because it is completely beyond my control anyway. Someone will always be pervy about something, even if it’s just a head shot of someone who reminds them of an ex-girlfriend. I don’t waste my time worrying about things I could never possibly know about anyway. The people that the photos might benefit outweigh any of the negative issues, in my opinion.
Oh, Man. Facebook is such an a$$h*le.
Beautiful art.
.-= Betsy´s last blog ..Three Bundles of Whoop-Ass =-.
Just one of the many reasons I deleted my FB account for good.
A woman cannot post a picture of her and her child breastfeeding without it being obscene, but there are TONS of pictures on there of people half naked and so close to naked that they might as well be naked and their pictures remain.
.-= Brandy´s last blog ..Just a Few Things we do to Save Money =-.
Why does Facebook seem to have a grudge against breastfeeding? I was actually thinking of this very thing the other day: A facebook friend of mine was tagged in an album (to promote someones erotic art work- which she did not apear in) anyway these pictures were very close to porn- full nudity (women touching themselves, etc) and they were not removed by facebook. The pictured didn’t offend me, but the double standard did. Breastfeeding (so natural and pure) is banned while erotic art isn’t?? I just find the whole thing so weird.
@BRandy – Good for you! I have thought of it many times myself but have thus far chosen to keep my account and keep up a silent protest by posting the photos I want to post and supporting other women in doing so as well. It’s funny that I have actually never had any photos or art taken down. My profile picture for my Facebook fan page is of a breastfeeding mother but nothing has ever come of it.
@Tara – It’s ridiculous. I think a lot of women feel like you do, that FB just has a thing against breastfeeding. They’ve chosen it as something to protest against and will continue to do so just to save face. I think they don’t want to admit they are wrong.
.-= Melodie´s last blog ..Madonna and Child-Like Paintings Are Obscene Too? =-.
That’s pretty disturbing… I mean, it’s not like its pornography or something – it is a child eating.
By that logic, photos of kids covered in birthday cake should be banned, too. Those children are eating, just the same way breastfeeding children are.
And yet I’m sure they wouldn’t have any problems with photos showing a baby drinking Chocolate flavored Enfamil, despite how disgusted many people would be… Us crunchy mommas, the minority. *sigh*
I wanted to let you know that I gave your blog an award! Its called the sunshine award, because I feel like your blog spreads a little bit of sunshine on the world wide web.
You can check it out, and pass it on to other bloggers here : http://crunchybusiness.com/i-r.....hine-award
.-= Cheryl´s last blog ..I received the Sunshine Award! =-.
isn’t there any mom who breastfeeds among FB staff?
.-= princess´s last blog ..Breastfeeding Care Group =-.
@Cheryl – Aw! Thanks! That’s so nice of you!
@princess – Good question!
.-= Melodie´s last blog ..Madonna and Child-Like Paintings Are Obscene Too? =-.
Oh my goodness!!!! I can’t believe art work of a breastfeeding woman has been taken down! I was unaware about Facebook taking photos down! I have posted photos of me breastfeeding. Now I expect them to take them off. Why are women treated this way when we are encouraged to bf our children? When we do what’s best it’s thought of as sexual if we are around people nursing or take pictures of us. I have seen some horrible pictures on facebook and they stay up. Something beautiful should be shown to all and be let to stay up! These pieces are the most beautiful artwork I have seen yet! LOVE IT!!!
i actually have quite a few boundary pushing photo’s on my FB account….I’m surprised they haven’t deleted them yet, I totally thought they would!
http://www.facebook.com/album......ec03858ac8
I first want to thank everyone for such kind, supportive comments! Debbie- “On the other hand, to SOME people, a boob is a boob and it is something desirous to look at. Do you want some perv to look at a picture of something natural like breastfeeding and getting aroused?”
I’ve heard this argument before, and it doesn’t hold water for me. I want to be an artist, which means I want to show my artwork. Someone has suggested before I keep my “lovely” breastfeeding artwork private, because of the reasons you gave. I cannot control how people view my work. Some people might look at nude baby angels by Rubens and get aroused, but does that mean we should censor Rubens? If we take this argument to the extreme we could put us all in burquas because our female bodies might arouse someone. I think part of the reason that SOME men find breastfeeding so titillating, (pardon the pun!) is that it’s kind of taboo still. It’s not that common to see breastfeeding in the mainstream media, for example. I think we would be doing everyone a service by making breastfeeding seem more NORMAL, by showing it more, not less.
Juleia- I love your photos! Would you be interested in participating in my project?
I agree with all posts. Whether or not an individual is uncomfortable with these posts, really is not the issue. This is purely censorship of art. Come on, Facebook, I enjoy you too, but get real.