Hide Your Eyes, It's a Naked Hippo!

Trending today: Boobs. Specifically, executives at Facebook who are inexplicably grossed out by breastfeeding mothers.

My column on the latest skirmish involving a woman lifting her shirt to nourish a child pretty much says it all. But just had to share one of the better reader responses I've received so far:

Dear Ms. Kinney,

Although I am usually annoyed by the messianic attitude expressed by many breastfeeding mothers (i.e., the attitude that any woman who elects not to breast feed is somehow guilty of child abuse plus, some claims about breastfeeding that aren't even accurate), I was appalled by Facebook's decision to remove the photograph taken at Adventure Aquarium by Lynn Heinisch's husband — the one showing her looking up at a hippo as she breastfeeds her infant.  

It is clearly not offensive and is, without a doubt, one of the better images that has appeared on Facebook since its inception.  As a longtime collector of photography, I would be pleased to have it in my collection.  The Heinisches should consider obtaining an excellent print* of the image (8" x 10" or a bit larger perhaps) from a first-rate photo lab and entering that print in photography competitions (e.g., Perkins Center for the Arts' Annual Juried Competition).


*I think I prefer this particular image in black and white (shown in the newspaper), as opposed to the color version (shown on your website);  however, I would love to see it printed both ways. online.

-- Monica Yant Kinney

(read more at philly.com/blinq)