A man recently photographed my wife as she was breastfeeding our baby in a park. He’d even attached a telephoto lens to his camera to catch this intimate yet entirely normal moment between mother and child.
My wife approached the man, a stranger, and asked him to delete the photos. He refused, saying that it’s entirely legal to take photos of people in public. My wife spoke to the park warden and, later, the police. They confirmed that the man did not need my wife’s consent to photograph her and our baby as they were breastfeeding.
That’s not right, is it? Breastfeeding mothers deserve greater protection from voyeurs.
Our MP, Jeff Smith, promptly raised the matter in Parliament. But, as you can see below, Jacob Rees-Mogg was unable to offer a satisfactory response.
Jeff and Stella Creasy MP, who had also been victim to this type of voyeurism, have now launched a campaign to criminalise non-consensual photography of people breastfeeding. So far it’s been covered in the Guardian and The Times, and my wife was interviewed for the Legally Feminist podcast.
If you agree that strangers should not be allowed to take non-consensual photographs of mothers and babies as they’re breastfeeding, you can sign the following petition: https://www.change.org/p/a-stranger-photographed-me-breastfeeding-my-baby-let-s-make-this-disturbing-act-illegal
The link above also includes a template email that you can send to your MP to enbcourage them to vote through the proposed amendment to the Voyeurism Act. If you live in a Tory constituency, this would be particularly helpful.
Thank you for reading this post, rather different to my usual topics. Normal programming will resume shortly.