Ahhh breast pumping, the last taboo. At least according to some of the comments on this Instagram post from professional selfie-ist Kourtney Kardashian. As irrelevant as the Kardashian Klan can seem they do occasionally spark the odd interesting debate.
Previous taboo subjects that they have explored include:
Is it inappropriate to send sex messages to one’s husband over social media? And is it too visually jarring to post infinite amounts of cleavage and ass pics next to cute baby pics on one’s Instagram account? The answer to both these questions is a screaming “YEEEES” if you are over the age of 25 and “no, it’s practically mandatory” if you are a Kardashian.
Lately Kourtney Kardashian has taken the Brelfie (breastfeeding-selfie to those of us who don’t speak Milennial) to the next level with a series of breast-pumping selfies.
Comments on her Insta-feed range from celebratory to hostile to downright confused with one commenter actually asking “what is that?”. This lead me to think that Kourtney is actually contributing to our society a lot than the average self-obsessed-celebfie. Who knew that a Kardashian might actually have a positive cultural impact one day?
In the last few years the breastfeeding debate has raged everywhere from news rooms and parliament buildings to local cafes and on social media. The fight to de-stigmatise breastfeeding in public has led to Facebook and Instagram changing their community guidelines to allow images depicting women feeding their babies. Happily society appears to be getting over itself somewhat and remembering that feeding one’s child in public is necessary and NOT titillating.
However in the fervency of the Breast Quest of the last few years, another valiant breastfeeder had been slightly over-looked; the pumper. As a frequent pumper myself it always irked me that I’d have to pack myself off somewhere with all my pumping paraphenalia; pump, hands-free pumping bra (ordinary bra with holes cut out for access) and a picture of my baby (slightly creepy element of pumping, you need a pic of your baby to “pump to” – hey I don’t make the rules, it just helps the process). While all the breastfeeders were fighting the good fight, I felt a bit like a breast-fraudster. Something that has been missing in the long-running ‘breastfeeding in public’ debate has been the question of when it will be acceptable to breast pump in public?
A pal of mine had twin babies who were born prematurely with attendant health problems. They were unable to feed directly from her breast as their suck was too week. My friend is an absolute hero who was so committed to feeding them herself that she pumped exclusively for more than six months, and as any pumper will tell you that is practically double the time and energy that breastfeeding requires. My pal was actually a pumping pioneer; we attended the same breast feeding group and while the rest of us would feed the babs and chat poor latch and mastitis she sat serenely pumping away.
