Elle Australia Magazine has come under fire this week for running an alternate cover last week of Nicole Trunfio breastfeeding her son Zion, available only to subscribers; a different cover of Trunfio holding her son appeared on newsstands. The response to the cover has launched the social media campaign #NormalizeBreastfeeding and the magazine now finds itself in the middle of two difficult demands: one, that it shouldn't have run the breastfeeding cover at all; and two, that it should have made the breastfeeding cover available everywhere, rather than just to subscribers.
Understandably, Trunfio has expressed concern that her critics are attempting to sensor something so natural as a mother feeding her infant child: “He was on set with me all day, and there were periods where I had to take off to feed him,” Trunfio tells ABC News. “I had on this beautiful outfit and the stylist was like, ‘Wow, that looks amazing. Let’s move you on set to have this picture taken.’ Not that it was going to become a part of the shoot.” But the bottom line is, what if it were? Shouldn’t there be a limit to criticism we catapult at mothers who must breastfeed to sustain the health of their babies?
She continues on to say, “There’s nothing worse as a mother than doing something that’s so necessary like feeding your child, and feeling like somebody could have an opinion about it, or somebody’s looking at you in the wrong way.”
Elle Australia’s Editor-in-Chief Justine Cullen released a statement on the magazine’s website this week, in which she says,
“This beautiful cover has, of course, been somewhat overshadowed by all the attention that’s being lavished on the version that went out to subscribers last week – the now-iconic image of Nicole breastfeeding Zion … While there’s nothing provocative about breastfeeding, it is a provocative image to see on the cover of a fashion magazine, and it’s enabled us to contribute to a necessary conversation around normalising breastfeeding and why that’s so important. That cover has been talked about all around the world, via more websites and media outlets than I can name, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Cullen makes some solid points about both deciding to run the cover for subscribers only, as well as to run it at all. To read the statement in full, click here.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments, and SHARE this post if you think this shouldn't be an issue for nursing mothers!
Here is this month's Elle Australia cover available on newsstands:
And here is the cover available to subscribers:
