Respect Authority

There are few things I’m not interested in on Facebook. After all, without the status updates of people I barely know, photo albums from long-lost middle school friends and awkward wall-to-walls between mind-numbingly boring couples, what would be left to peruse on the five-year-old social networking site? Actual updates on my actual friends? Psh.

So it’s with mild trepidation, and no small sacrifice to my perception of civil liberties, that I say recent spats over Facebook’s stance on breastfeeding photos have me straddling a fence between what I consider socially nauseating and legally fair game.

Facebook has long barred its now 140 million users from posting what it calls “obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit” content, a limitation I’ve only personally seen the effects of once, when a male high school friend’s waist-up (and more ironic than seductive) naked shower photo was pulled. But in yet another turn of events that proves the world would be a better place without indignant young mothers, the Facebook policy has come under fire lately from women who say their inability to post photos of themselves breastfeeding is a hindrance to — well, to their ability to post photos of themselves breastfeeding. Read More ›