A women’s magazine caused an uproar in India earlier this year for featuring a model breastfeeding a baby on its cover. Despite complaints that the image was too sexual in nature — with critics citing the fact that model Gilu Joseph is not the infant’s mother — a court has ruled that it’s not obscene.
As NDTV reports, the Kerala High Court has thrown out a petition accusing Grihalakshmi of violating the Indecent Representation of Women Act with its pro-breastfeeding shoot.
“We look at the picture, like we look at paintings of artists like Raja Ravi Varma,” the court’s judgment said of its ruling in favor of the magazine. “As beauty lies in the beholder’s eye, so does obscenity, perhaps.
“What may be obscene to some may be artistic to other; one man’s vulgarity is another man’s lyric, so to say. … May we observe, Indian psyche has been so mature for ages that it could see the sensuous even in the sacred. The paintings in Ajanta and the temple architecture are cases in point,” the judges added.
Joseph, who was partially exposed on the controversial cover, told the media that she was slut-shamed after the issue’s publication. Much was made of her appearing to nurse the infant on her lap, even though she is not a mother herself.
“I was slut-shamed, was termed a blue-film actor,” Joseph told NDTV. “My mother was called names. But I knew I would have to hear all this. I took it in my stride. This issue is about breastfeeding, and it’s an important cause. There is no question of regretting anything. This is my work. I have cared in films as a mother, what’s so different about this?”
Indeed, many mothers and breastfeeding advocates have praised the cover for helping to destigmatize nursing in public.
To some it's gross, to some it's a free show. To a child, it's unquestionably simple and necessary. To anyone smart in enough, it's natural. Good work, @mathrubhumieng #breastfeeding #changeyourmind https://t.co/YG5lqPvbXJ
— Shreya (@ShreyaTeresita) February 28, 2018
It's very courageous. It should encourage host of mothers to do what should be normally done for the betterment and overall growth of the infant
— Sanjay Mukherjee (@SanjayM73565536) March 1, 2018
But others claimed that public breastfeeding is “wrong,” with one critic insisting it was “morally degrading,” despite the court ruling.
“I have lost my 5-month-old daughter,” the man identified as Felix MA told NDTV. “I know the pain of breastfeeding. All the months that she was in the intensive care unit, my wife could not visit her due to her own infection. I used to carry pumped milk for my daughter. And now, in this picture, an unmarried model is seen holding an infant and posing as if she is breastfeeding. Is this acceptable?”
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
- Tia Mowry opens up about how different breastfeeding is with her 2nd child
- Chrissy Teigen shares a slightly scary side effect of breastfeeding
- Breastfeeding moms who smoke pot may be passing THC to their infants
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
