At a Sports Illustrated swimsuit show in Miami, a lot of extraordinary women strutted down the catwalk. One model was a cancer survivor, one model was about to go to boot camp, and one model was a two time Paralympic gold medalist. However, model Mara Martin stole the show by walking down the runway while breastfeeding her five month old daughter, Aria.
Breastfeeding is totally natural, but women still get shamed for doing it in public. Sometimes babies gotta eat, and it's not always at the most convenient time. Thousands of people praised Mara on social media for normalizing the act of breastfeeding. In an Instagram post, she thanked them, writing, ""Wow! WHAT A NIGHT! Words can’t even describe how amazing I feel... I’m so grateful to be able to share this message and hopefully normalise breastfeeding and also show others that women CAN DO IT ALL!"
Of course, some people berated Mara for breastfeeding her daughter in public. On Facebook, one woman called the model "attention seeking," while another called her "totally disgusting." One person scoffed, "What's next, viewing on someone on the toilet...that's natural too." And one lady complained, "What a pathetic way to get attention on a subject that I'm so over hearing about as I'm sure many others are too. Breastfeeding in public is fine but cover up."
However, Mara's best friend, Samantha Montroy Purcell, jumped to her defense, writing a savage response to all the haters. She reveals that Mara's decision to breastfeed on the catwalk was totally unplanned.
"To the people with negative comments: Mara is my best friend in real life. She spent 12 hours during the casting IN HEELS holding her 20 pound baby during each day of the elimination process. The crew loved her baby and had even suggested she do one of her walks with her during the show. When it came time to walk, right before the show started, the baby was nursing. The editor suggested she just go for it and take the baby with her. It wasn't planned; she actually texted me freaking out right afterwards to tell me what had happened. There is nothing wrong with it. The baby was hungry. End of story."
"Is it "necessary" to have a woman with a prosthetic leg on the runway? No, but they did it, and that was beautiful too. The whole point of SI doing an open casting was to celebrate all types of women, including moms. And they made it clear where they stand: that moms should be able to feed [their] babies WHENEVER, WHEREVER, and HOWEVER they want to, without taking crap from a bunch of busybody keyboard warriors with nothing better to do than trash someone they know nothing about. Mara is an amazing mother, woman, and friend. She deserves nothing but support. #feedthebabies #normalizebreastfeeding"
Take that, "busybody keyboard warriors"! Maybe on the next Sports Illustrated swimsuit show, all of the models will be breastfeeding.
.jpg_FBttod?tr=h-184)
.jpg_79wBwt?tr=h-184)
