[blparent] Group petitions to bring breast feeding back to Sesame Street

Sat Jan 14 01:20:45 UTC 2012

I'd like to know? how do children know if women are seen as sex objects or not? some where in the article they said they want women to be seen as breast feeding for eating and not as sex objects. how is a 4 year old going to know that anyways? just seems like some one getting a wild hair in their eye and looking for some one to blame.
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On Jan 13, 2012, at 2:28 PM, Bridgit Pollpeter wrote:

> While I completely agree with the sentiments this group has, Sesame
> Street is for kids, not parents, so what really is accomplished by
> showing breast-feeding mothers on a show geared towards toddlers and
> preschoolers? Perhaps they should focus their efforts on education and
> information about the benefits of breast-feeding as well as how it's
> perfectly natural for women to do this instead of encouraging producers
> to display breast-feeding mothers on TV. And if people were in an up
> roar about singer Katie Perry and her voluptuous bosom, I'm sure
> breast-feeding mothers will be a point of contention, though I disagree
> since there's nothing sexual or inappropriate about breast-feeding, but
> I'm sure others don't see it this way. Our Puritan roots are still to
> deep in this country. Just my opinion.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
> Read my blog at:
> http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
> 
> "History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
> The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan
> 
> Message: 15
> Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:16:53 -0700
> From: "Jo Elizabeth Pinto" <jopinto at msn.com>
> To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [blparent] Group Petitions to Bring Breast Feeding Back to
> 	Sesame	Street
> Message-ID: <SNT116-DS191022B4C16C5383BF1FACAC9C0 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> I read an interesting article.  Actually, we don't watch a lot of Sesame
> Street at my house, except on videos, but this is an interesting read.
> 
> 
> Group Petitions to Bring Breastfeeding Back to Sesame Street Women rely
> on both breast feeding and bottles to feed their babies, says a group
> that supports nursing in public. So why does Sesame Street show
> bottle-feeding exclusively? 
> By Bonnie Rochman
> 
> 
> What's not to like about lovable furry old Grover and his pals Elmo, Zoe
> and Oscar the Grouch? If you're a member of the robust movement that
> saucily refers to itself as NIP - "nursing in public," natch - the
> answer is plenty.
> 
> Coming on the heels of a well-attended national "nurse-in" that sought
> to normalize breast-feeding in Target stores, NIPers are now lowering
> the boom on Sesame Street. Apparently a generation ago, the kiddie show
> incorporated tasteful shots of nursing mothers who explained that "lots
> of mothers feed their babies this way" and that breast milk was "warm
> and natural." More recently, however, when a baby gets fed on "The
> Street," it seems to be courtesy of a bottle. Not that there's anything
> wrong with bottle-feeding, the NIP moms are quick to point out. But
> bottle-feeding to the exclusion of breast-feeding, especially at a time
> when even the U.S. Surgeon General has called for more support for
> breast-feeding mothers?
> 
> 
> That doesn't make for particularly sunny days. And it's prompted more
> than 5,600 people to sign a petition to "bring breastfeeding back to
> Sesame Street."
> 
> As the authors explain:
> 
> 
> 
> If we normalize breastfeeding in our community, especially with our
> children, we can help raise a generation of breastfeeders which will
> support our economy, make for healthier children and lessen the risk of
> breast cancer for many nursing mamas!
> 
> 
> 
> Sesame Street, for its part, doesn't understand all the fuss. The
> classic kids' show doesn't have an anti-breast-feeding agenda, says
> Sherrie Westin, executive vice president of Sesame Workshop, which
> produces Sesame Street; its only agenda is educating preschoolers.
> "There has never been any edict to remove breast-feeding from the show,"
> says Westin. "We have included it and absolutely would include it again
> if it were a natural part of the storyline."
> 
> People have posted comments in support of the petition, including
> Candice Fisk, who wrote: "No one I knew growing up breastfed their
> children. The first time I ever saw breastfeeding was on Sesame Street
> as a little girl. I thought it was a beautiful thing to be able to do as
> a woman. It may be the reason I first thought to breastfeed my own
> children."
> 
> 
> 
> For sure, a brand as powerful as Sesame Street has the potential to
> influence young minds. Earlier this week, I wrote about Sesame Street's
> ambitious effort to incorporate more math and science into its current
> season as a way to inspire more children to take an early interest in
> STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects.
> 
> And who knows? Giving equal footage to both feeding choices just may
> help cool the conflict between moms who breast feed and moms who rely on
> bottles. "My kids have only seen me breastfeeding and can't relate to
> babies being bottlefed," noted Lisbeth Little upon signing the petition.
> "And most bottlefed babies can't relate to breastfeeding. All kids are
> naturally curious. We should show them both options."
> 
> 
> 
> Still, blogger Lani Michelle, who first publicized the old-school Sesame
> Street videos of nursing - which feature both interested children and a
> very curious Big Bird looking on - would like Sesame Street to return to
> the golden era of the 1970s, when she says breast-feeding was part of
> the original "You're My Baby" video. Two decades later, she says, the
> boobs were scrubbed in favor of a bottle-feeding scene. "Why not have
> both?" she asks on her blog. "Babies are fed both ways, aren't they?
> Women breastfeeding are the images we want to show to our sons and
> daughters so that they will view a woman's body [as] more then a sexual
> object."
> 
> Michelle is no producer, but she's got a suggestion for Sesame Street:
> what about asking a pro-nursing celebrity to do the honors? Bettina
> Forbes, co-founder of Best for Babes, which seeks to break down barriers
> to breast-feeding, is all for that. "Now would be a good time for a
> currently nursing celebrity like Natalie Portman or Keri Russell to
> volunteer to appear on Sesame Street," says Forbes. "We need Hollywood
> to help beat the Booby Traps and change our culture. After all, if
> George Clooney could make a Prius sexy and Michael J. Fox can raise
> millions for Parkinsons, imagine what Beyonce could do for
> breastfeeding!"
> 
> It's not yet clear how Beyonce is feeding her new daughter, Blue Ivy,
> but since daddy Jay-Z has already recorded a song featuring her cries,
> the next logical step just might be Baby Blue's television debut on "The
> Street." Bonnie Rochman is a reporter at TIME.
> 
> 
> 
> Jo Elizabeth
> 
> 
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