Got (Breast) Milk?
The act of breastfeeding has been used as a powerful image of propaganda, but can it also be an image of empowerment?
A trend has arisen on social media in recent years for celebrity mothers to post photos of themselves breastfeeding. The purported intention is to celebrate women’s bodies and to normalise breastfeeding. They join a long tradition: images of staged lactation for the public eye are not new and have been used as a propaganda tactic since ancient Rome. They have not, however, always been empowering.