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Shocking or no big deal? A woman breastfeeding her 3-year-old son is the cover photo of this week's Time magazine for a story on "attachment parenting," and reactions ranged from applause to cringing to shrugs.
The photo showed Jamie Lynne Grumet, 26, a stay-at-home mom in Los Angeles who says her mother breastfed her until she was 6 years old. She told the magazine in an interview that she's given up reasoning with strangers who see her son nursing and threaten "to call social services on me or that it's child molestation."
"People have to realize this is biologically normal," she said, adding, "The more people see it, the more it'll become normal in our culture. That's what I'm hoping. I want people to see it."
Some questioned why the magazine used the photo of Grumet, a slim blonde pretty enough to be a model, to illustrate a story about a style of childrearing that's been around for a generation. The issue includes a profile of the attachment parenting guru, Dr. Bill Sears, who wrote one of the movement's bibles, "The Baby Book," 20 years ago.
Mika Brzezisnki, co-host of MSNBC's weekday morning program "Morning Joe," suggested on the air that the cover was needlessly sensational: "I'll tell you why it bothers me — because it's a profile of Bill Sears!"
On Twitter, the cover inspired X-rated jokes along with concerns that the child might be teased when he's older. But on many message boards, there was debate about whether it's OK to breastfeed beyond babyhood.
Bobbi Miller, a mother of six who lives in Arkansas, expressed disapproval in a tweet and said in a phone interview, "Even a cow knows when to wean their child." Of the cover, she said: "Why would this even be out there? It's ludicrous. It's almost on the verge of voyeurism."
But Bettina Forbes, co-founder of an organization called Best for Babes that promotes breastfeeding and supports women who want to nurse their children beyond babyhood, said she hopes the cover "will make mainstream America less squeamish" about women breastfeeding children of any age. "It's high time we talk about these things," she said.
Reaction to the cover underscored a cultural rift between traditional childrearing and what some have deemed "extreme parenting." The attachment philosophy encourages mothers to respond to their babies' every cry and form close bonds with near-constant physical contact through "co-sleeping" (letting them sleep in the bed with parents rather than in cribs) and "baby-wearing" (carrying them on slings instead of pushing them in strollers).
(Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
(Agencies) |
感到震惊还是觉得没什么大不了？本周《时代》杂志的封面照片是一位正在给3岁的儿子喂母乳的女性，讲述了有关“亲密育儿法”的故事。封面引发强烈反响，有人击掌叫好，也有人极为反感。
封面照上的人物是26岁的杰米-林恩-格鲁梅特，她住在洛杉矶，是一位全职妈妈。她说自己吃母乳吃到六岁。她告诉该杂志，有些陌生人看到她母乳喂养，还威胁“向社会福利机构举报”，说这是“儿童性骚扰”，但她已经懒得做出解释。
她说：“人们应该认识到，这是生理上的正常现象。这种现象越常见，在我们的文化中就越正常。这正是我所希望的，我希望人们看到它。”
有些人质疑为什么杂志使用格鲁梅特的照片来诠释这种已经持续了一个世代的育儿方式，因为她是个苗条的金发美女，足以成为模特。这期杂志还介绍了“亲密育儿法”的大师比尔-西尔斯博士。他在20年前出版了论述这种育儿方式的权威著作《亲密育儿百科》。
美国全国广播公司工作日早间节目《早安，乔伊》的搭档主持米卡•布热津斯基在广播中宣称这种封面是没有意义的煽情。她说：“我会告诉你们为什么我讨厌它，因为这是在说比尔-西尔斯！”
有人在推特上也拿这期封面开起了限制级玩笑，也有人担心封面上的儿童长大后会因此被嘲笑。婴儿期过后是否还可以哺乳的问题在众多留言板上激起热议。
阿肯色州一位六岁孩子的母亲鲍比-米勒在推特上表达了反对意见，她在电话采访中说：“哪怕是母牛都知道什么时候该断奶了。”谈到封面时，她说：“为什么还会刊登这种照片？这太荒唐了，和性骚扰差不多。”
但贝蒂娜-福布斯说，她希望这期封面会让主流的美国大众对母亲给多大的孩子母乳喂养不要太“神经质”。她说：“是时候我们该讨论讨论这些事情了。”她是促进母乳喂养的组织“为了孩子好”的创办人之一，该组织支持那些在婴儿期后仍给孩子母乳喂养的女性。
对封面的反应让人们看到了传统育儿方式和有些人眼中的“极端育儿法”之间的文化裂痕。亲密育儿法鼓励母亲们对宝宝的每次哭喊都做出回应，通过频繁的亲密身体接触建立亲子关系，比如让孩子和父母“同睡”在一张床上，而不是睡在婴儿床里，或者用婴儿背带抱孩子，而不是用婴儿车推着他们。 |
