Big Buzz Story nominee: Time Magazine’s breast feeding cover story and image

If you don’t know the name Jamie Lynne Grumet, you’ll definitely recognize the Time magazine cover that briefly made her the world’s most talked-about mom. The cover in question features Grumet, 26, standing in jeans and a tank-top and breastfeeding her three-year-old son, who stands on a chair gazing directly into the camera. Next to the image are the words, “Are you mom enough?”

The image illustrated a story about attachment parenting, and Grumet has said she knew the image would stir some controversy, but wasn’t expecting the vitriolic response it earned from many viewers, who found the image bizarrely sexualized and intentionally shocking. Some critics even threatened to call Child Protective Services on Grumet. Shine Canada stories about the infamous cover garnered 230,144 page views, and while many readers questioned whether the magazine had gone too far stirring up controversy and magazine sales, others took issue with the fact that Grumet is attractive and has nice looking breasts.

Attachment parenting is based on the idea that babies and children should be touched, held and generally coddled, and part of this approach is prolonged breastfeeding, yet some critics said the Time cover failed to show the intimacy that is inherent in the attachment parenting style. In a subsequent appearance on the Today Show, Grumet defended the cover. "This isn't how we breastfeed at home,” says Grumet, as her son, Aram, squirmed next to her.  “It's more of a cradling, nurturing situation."