So Image has a new comic coming out called Saga and there’s a promotional image that has one dude’s undies bunched.
Dave Dorman (edit: original has been deleted, but cache ftw), who extensively refers to himself in the third person, finds breastfeeding a child offensive, accusing the woman of being immodest, which really makes me wonder about this dudebro. Apparently breastfeeding is a “shock measure” from a “desperate-for-sales” industry.
He claims his primary hangup is centered around this being a series “for kids.” Which, um, I dunno. It’s described as “Star Wars-style action collides with Game of Thrones-esque drama in this original sci-fi/fantasy epic for mature readers” (emphasis mine) so I guess this is one of those learning moments about reading the fine print.
I could go on about how stupid people are about breastfeeding, how we’ve unnecessarily sexualized breasts, how we’ve inextricably linked feminine with obscene, blah blah blah, but Imma let this Best Comment Ever from ashleyw say it for me, far more concisely:
Oh no, breastfeeding. Someone please think of the children.
UPDATE
I’m thinking of asking ComicsAlliance to prom. Do you think they’ll say yes?
Reached for comment by ComicsAlliance, artist Fiona Staples found Dorman’s objection perplexing, noting; “I find it a little hard to fathom why anyone would object to a depiction of breastfeeding, even if it were on a kids’ comic, which it isn’t. I have yet to hear a line of reasoning that makes sense to me. That said, anyone who wants to be grossed out by our comic is of course free to do so. I’m just going to fixate on the part where a master painter called me a ‘gifted artist.'”
Children, of course, do not think that breastfeeding is indecent or obscene until they are taught to think it. Even adults who say that the sight of a nursing mother makes them uncomfortable are surely guilty of a learned bias; they are categorizing breastfeeding among all other public exposures of private parts, when in fact it is quite distinct. Breastfeeding is not gratuitous, immoral, sexual or unhygienic. It is protected by the law in most Western countries, while any form of “indecent exposure” is condemned.
In comics, “decency” is rarely the watchword, and it seems especially extraordinary that this cover should stir up controversy when other comics make Hooters look like a nunnery. There is no shortage of adult, sexual and provocative art being used to sell comics. An image of a breastfeeding woman does not seem to qualify. Arguably this is one of the few times a comic cover has ever put a woman’s breast to non-sexual use.
so much ♥