Well, you’ve probably seen Aram Grumet. He’s the three year-old seen breastfeeding on the cover of the upcoming Time magazine issue, “Are You Mom Enough.” The youngster shown clad in camouflage pants and standing on a stool with his eyes slightly tilted toward the camera as he latches on was posed by photographer Martin Schoeller who wanted to make Aram seem bigger, taller, older and more independent to emphasize the unusualness of the activity. But the question remains how all of this, let’s say notoriety, will impact him?
Many say that Aram is undeniably screwed.
While Aram’s mother, a 26-year old lactation consultant, breastfeeding advocate, and mother of two who blogs at I Am Not the Babysitter, claims that she was raised this way, is it fair to expect that Aram won’t find shame in it some years later when undoubtedly a classmate brings the magazine to school? Sure, our society does have a fixation with the MILF mom, so more than a few responses have run the gamut from wanting to give the kid a high-five, which is more than a bit odd, to some expressing that they’d like to trade places with him, which is even creepier.
Take this tweet sent by Dane Cook, horrible comedian and confirmed God of Frat-Bros.
This is the commentary that’s coming from adults, imagine what kids will say one day down the road.
So, does Aram have the right to be angry with his mother later on? I’d dare say yes. He has no say in what position his mother puts him in, and many find this particular activity more than a bit exploitive. Shawna Cohen from the website, Mommyish says:
This is about a 3-year-old boy who, at his age, can’t comprehend what his appearing on the cover of TIME magazine will mean for him one day. And it ain’t pretty! He will be teased and ridiculed to no end. It doesn’t matter if Grumet finds it beautiful, and it doesn’t matter if Aram himself grows up one day to find it beautiful; he will one day be a teenager, and he will pray to god that nobody grabs hold of this cover (but oh, somebody will).
On the same website an article appeared today called “My Mom Breastfed Me Until Age Three And I Wish She Hadn’t” that describes one young woman’s troubling experience remembering what it was like being breastfed until the age of three. She says that it caused a few body image problems, and made her view breasts as solely used for lactation. It was confusing in addition to other concerns that it raised within the family dynamic.
You do have to wonder if Aram’s mother, Jamie Lynne Grumet, gave this any thought before going forward. She tells Time:
“There are people who tell me there’s going to call social services on me or that it’s child molestation,” Grumet says, adding that her mother breast-fed her until she was 6. “But people have to realize this is biologically normal. It’s not socially normal. The more people see it, the more it’ll become normal in our culture. That’s what I’m hoping. I want people to see it.”
And it would seem for the time being Aram’s feelings on the matter are negligible. But we can imagine that making a statement about the reaction to attachment parenting isn’t something really in his wheelhouse. He’s just a kid who’s getting this said about him:
It’s also interesting to note that this isn’t little Aram’s first foray into the spotlight. A YouTube video from 2010 featured Aram as a baby cooing along to Lady Gaga. The video gained 1,414,987 hits.
