Image via Instagram

Tess Holliday shared a photo of herself breastfeeding at the Women’s March

Model Tess Holliday, her husband Nick and their infant son Bowie attended the Women’s March in Los Angeles this past Saturday. When the seven-month-old got hungry, Holliday did what any mother in her situation would do — she fed her baby. For Holliday, this meant breastfeeding. In the ultimate girl power move, she posted a photo of herself breastfeeding at the Women’s March to her Instagram account captioned, “Breastfeed anywhere.”

Holliday’s a vocal advocate for both breastfeeding and body positivity. This isn’t the first time she’s posted a photo of herself breastfeeding without a cover. Yet some of her followers still took the opportunity to share their outrage and disgust at the photo. “You are so disgusting. I don’t care if California law or any other law says you can breastfeed and pull your tits out in public you need to learn to be respectful of others as well,” said one comment. “It’s OK but you keep making the same point. We’ve seen you do this before. It’s like you are doing it for attention. We got it the first time you showed a breastfeeding pic. We support it but please let it go,” said another.

Nursing Bowie⚡️backstage at the #torridmodel event this weekend. So grateful I can take my little guy to work with me #worldbreastfeedingweek #normalizebreastfeeding A photo posted by Plus Model✖️ Mom ✖️ Feminist (@tessholliday) on Aug 8, 2016 at 9:30pm PDT

There was also a side order of fat shaming tacked on to all the breastfeeding shaming. “Ain’t going to be alive long enough to raise that baby smh,” said one commenter.

Holliday made an addition to her original post in response to all the negativity her photo was getting. “Edited to add: Those saying that I should ‘cover up.’ You mean when I’m breastfeeding MY baby who was a) hungry & b) screaming because he was overly tired & the crowd overloaded his senses & it was the only way to comfort him?!” she said. She added, “I will feed my child anywhere I want. Also CA state law protects me to do so. Keep your uneducated opinions off my body.”

The very fact that her photo sparked such negative comments is exactly why we need fierce moms like Holliday to keep posting them. Commenting on a person’s size under the guise of being concerned for their health is not okay, and either is attempting to shame a breastfeeding mother into covering up.

We know Holliday won’t let this stop her in her campaign to normalize breastfeeding. We’ll be following her in solidarity, and hoping to pick up a hair tip or two along the way.





