Derry: breastfeeding mural unveiled.

[NitroNine]

A new mural has been unveiled in Derry, with a design intended to help challenge the stigma around breastfeeding.
BBC News coverage
Derry Journal

Oh, phew! I thought the BBC had done something extra stupid!

We have one here in Scotland, too. Here's footage with bonus very cute babies:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-62209751

Incredibly, given it’s the BBC, the article talks about “mums” & “women” & “breastfeeding” not “parents” & “people” & “chestfeeding”. They even limited themselves to the female sort of women when interviewing said mothers…

Oh that's brilliant. Absolute work of genius.

Actually, I feel a bit funny about this. Not the breastfeeding, but the painting. How many mothers actually expose anything when they feed in public? They certainly don’t take their whole tops off. To me, the painting could be seen as a sexualised image of a breastfeeding mum and as such will put off many.

@Soontobe60 I agree, and it'll be a target for pornsick fetishists in no time.

Well that's true for about anything, women in full burkas get fetishized and harassed.

Sadly true, but I still agree with Soontobe60 that this is a rather sexualised image, and that panders to men.

Is the actual mural pixilated or is it just all the photos?

I don't like the pixellated breasts

The pixelation of the painting - especially as it follows the woman’s shape to the point it could be interpreted as clothing - is surely partly to prevent any suggestion it is sexual? You effectively see a woman holding her baby - artwork depicting Mary breastfeeding the infant Jesus is far more explicit!

Women feature far less than men in public art (in the UK there are more statues of men called John than there are of women and two goat statues for every one of a woman); & there will always be someone who’ll fetishise & seek to sexualise them wherever, whenever, & however they’re depicted. Part of the stigma around breastfeeding is related to ideas about sex, sexuality & sexualisation - the mural is designed to help combat that. Women (& indeed children) shouldn’t go unrepresented in public art because [some] men will sexualise their depictions.

(@LOpportunityCestFuckingEnorme - the painting itself is pixelated.
The mural, which was created by artist collective Peaball, is located on a gable wall of the Pram Centre.
It depicts a mum breast feeding her child, with part of the painting pixelated.
"We wanted it to be censored because we wanted it to be like what it's like to feed here in Derry because as mums we do feel censored when it comes to feeding," said Sinead.
From the BBC article in my OP.)

I understand the reason given for the pixellating but to me it suggests something slightly different - that a woman breastfeeding her baby is somehow indecent. I think a picture of a clothed woman breastfeeding would be more real-world and positive personally.

Perhaps attitudes are different in Derry than where I live though, as thankfully I never felt censored or disapproved of when breastfeeding in public! I know attitudes can be very different in different countries and communities.

It seems bizarre to me to depict her naked (as others have said, how many women in Ireland take off their tops to breastfeed?) and then pixelate her breasts. Why not simply show her clothed?

Because the point is to show an image that looks like.its been censored.

Ah, thanks. I missed that aspect.

But it would look more realistic if she were clothed (like the pictures of Mary that OP linked to) and just pixelate the breast the baby was feeding from.

Instead it gives the impression that women are half naked when they breastfeed, which isn't the reality of women who do it in public so discreetly that most passers-by don't realise.

BTW, how old is that baby supposed to be? It's massive.

I also think it's a bit weird that she's completely topless. I never did that even in my own home.

@zzplex
The answer is pretty much “Because Art”: probably not terribly satisfactory, but true 🤷‍♀️