90 DAY FIANCE Paola Mayfield breastfeeding photo stirs debate
90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever after couple Russ and Paola Mayfield welcomed their son Axel on January 1. Since Axel’s birth, the proud parents have continued being prolific on Instagram with regular updates for their followers. That trend continued this weekend as Pao, Russ, and Axel made a trip to the farmer’s market, including a photo of Pao breastfeeding Axel.
“First stop at the farmers market ? the boys are thirsty ?,” Russ captioned the photo above. He added a string of hash tags that included #russandpao, #babyaxel, #normalizebreastfeeding, and #dadlife.
The photo sparked quite the debate in the comments section over whether or not it is appropriate to breastfeed in public and share photos online. Here are some excerpts:
Yes breastfeeding is normal. What’s not normal is having someone take your picture while breastfeeding in a public place and then posting on social media for attention. Now if you were discreetly feeding your child in a public place… That would be a different story. But then you wouldn’t have a risque picture to post.
How many times has someone taken your pic at an event, while eating? A picnic, bbq or restaurant? Stop sexualizing what is perfectly natural AND normal. You’re shaming and it needs to stop.
She’s posing for a picture that was probably planned… Not like it’s a candid shot. And she’s not covered up like a normal breastfeeding mother would be. She wants people to look… That’s the whole point.
Lol normal breast feeding mother? Moms EVERY WHERE aren’t covering! And its completely legal and anyone who has an issue with it is just that. Its a boob. So friggin what?!?!?! Get over it. Babies do not need to eat under a blanket because someone can’t mind their own business.
Maybe they took the picture to draw attention to the topic of normalizing breast feeding instead of just attention. And risqué? Don’t know. It’s not like she was uptight before her pregnancy. Why would that suddenly change? I see a mom nourishing her child and a boob doing it’s one real job ?♀️ most act like the baby is transparent #ilookedatthebabyfirst #thentheboob
The farmers’ market photo was just the latest in a string of breastfeeding photos that Pao has shared since Axel’s birth. Here are some more, arranged from oldest to newest:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvnQCeynfKH/
The breastfeeding photo controversy is nothing new for 90 Day Fiance cast members. Season 6 star Kalani Faagata kicked off a similar debate tempest late last year when she opted to breastfeed her son Oliver without a cover-up while recording the Tell All special. Mama bear Kalani was having NONE of it as she laid out a bullet point defense:
If you think breastfeeding in public is comparable to sh*tting in public, please make sure you try the latter in front of a cop.
If you liken breastfeeding in public to having sex in public because both are natural, realize that
1) eating is necessary to live, while sex is not and
2) breathing is also natural and necessary to live—you should try to cover up while doing that.
The bottom line is that I was away from my son all day and he wanted to eat, so I fed him. I will never apologize for prioritizing my son’s comfort over the comfort of people who are more outraged by a baby being breastfed than kids who don’t even have food to eat.
The Tell All controversy came after a similar issue after Kalani posted numerous videos and photos touring New York City with her sister, Asuelu, and Oliver — including some in which she was breastfeeding. We shared a screen cap of one of those videos on Instagram because it featured Kalani breastfeeding Oliver in front of the Statue of Liberty with her sister Kolini. It was a poignant image to me about America, and the fact that Kalani was breastfeeding her son only made it more so. I was surprised when the comments section on the post quickly filled up with folks angrily arguing over Kalani’s decision to feed Oliver in public!
Here’s the post — you can click on it to hop over to Instagram and read the discussion:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqQPwswAz63/
Getting back to Russ and Pao, it is great to see Russ finally seeming to embrace Pao’s lack of shyness when it comes to public photo sessions. Hopefully that means we will not see Russ’s concern over her posing for the photos as part of their story line on the new season of Happily Ever After! 😉
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
