Below is my letter to Redbook -- the response I got was a form letter to the effect that while every letter does get read by a person, no-one can answer them all.  If my letter was specifically regarding an issue one of their columnists could deal with, or might be interested in, it would be forwarded to that columnist for further dealings.

So I don't know if my letter will go on to the cover editor, the photographs editor or anywhere at all --



    Breastfeeding is a warm, nurturing, family experience, as your cover
 helps to illustrate.  I hope this will be the beginning of a trend, which 
will make breastfeeding and exposure to and of breastfeeding,  more 
acceptable to those in the countries where it has fallen into decline for so many years -- basically the Western world.

I am sorry you felt you had to give your subscribers a different cover.
You do your readers in general, and my generation as well, a 
disservice to feel that you have to protect them from your artwork.
If this cover was appropriate for some of your readers, than it was 
appropriate for all.  I have heard a rationale  that your subscribers 
are women in their 40s and 50s, and they might be offended or saddened or made 
to feel guilty for not breastfeeding themselves.   But, if you have 
a beautiful picture of a middle-aged  woman on your cover, do you 
send it only to your subscribers, and change the cover on the stands 
so that your younger readership isn't offended or saddened or scared 
by the picture of age to come?  Probably not, so why feel you need to
 protect my generation from a picture of  our ages past.    Many of us are, 
in fact, the ones who led the way for what is now a global effort to 
increase breastfeeding initiation and continuation of nursing.

I am in my 50s, and I breasted my infant in the 70s, as did most of the
 other mothers I knew, not just hippies, but the as yet unnamed 
yuppies as well.     Although it was a fairly new phenomenon then,  it 
was mostly well-received, and I never was subjected to the hostility, 
criticism and sarcasm many moms now face when breastfeeding in
 public.  It was an idea whose time had come (back), or so we thought
 then, in beknighted San Francisco. 

I am delighted that there is now a global awareness of the 
importance of breastfeeding.  I'm sorry that we have to mount a global 
effort to increase breastfeeding initiation and continuation.    I am sorry
 we have to enact laws in this country to protect mothers' right to feed
their babies, and babies' right to feed at their moms' breasts, wherever 
either might have the right to be.

I am sorry that the issue of breastfeeding is still not so totally 
accepted that you feel you have to protect a large portion of your 
readership from a picture of it.  
 
Chanita R. Stillerman-Evans, former breastfeeding mom, RN, LC, Lactivist and CWC (Concerned World Citizen)




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From:   Terriann Shell[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Thursday, November 06, 1997 1:45 PM
Subject:        Redbook Cover

I wouldn't be too quick to congratulate Redbook on their breastfeeding
cover.  I think they were being whimpy to have two covers- one not
breastfeeding.

I would love to hear what "Dr. Laura" would have to say about this issue.
 I imagine it would go something like this: "Redbook was not worried
about protraying a immoral, shack-up relationship to it's readers but
were afraid the beautiful act of feeding and nurturing a baby would
offend.  How ironic!"

Here's what appeared in our local paper:
>From the Anchorage Daily News, Nov. 6, 1997
Daily News wire services
Brosnan Family photo not for everyone, Redbook says
Redbook wasn't sure how subscribers would feel about a cover featuring
Pierce Brosnan and his girlfriend as she breastfed their son, so the
magazine put out two covers.

The December issue hitting newsstands this week shows the breast-feeding
photo, while subscribers got a picture of the couple as Keely Shaye Smith
simply holds Dylan Thomas.  Redbook editor Kate White said the
breast-feeding shot moved her.  "I thought the cover would really connect
to readers that the people on the cover were a family, a couple," she
said.  "There's such tenderness in the photo and it grabs you.  That's
what you're going for when you put something on the newsstand."

She added: "I know there are some people who are uncomfortable with
breast-feeding.  I did not want to force that on anyone who is a
subscriber."

The magazine was mailed this week to about 2.1 million subscriber.