Olivia Wilde Baby: 'Tron' Actress ‘Shocked’ by Breastfeeding Photo Controversy
"Meadowland" actress Olivia Wilde recently spoke with the Huffington Post and discussed the her feelings towards the backlash she received for her breastfeeding photo in Glamour's September issue.
Wilde revealed she was "shocked" by the controversy over the photo of her breastfeeding her infant son, Otis.
"I certainly didn't expect people to be upset at the obscenity of public breastfeeding," she said. "I was shocked that there were still people who find it inappropriate because they think it's a sexual thing. I think that says a lot about them."
Wilde revealed that the photo was actually an impromptu shot. At the time of the shoot, Wilde had just given birth and was nursing her son. In the middle of the shoot, Wilde paused to feed Otis and the moment was captured.
"I thought, if you're taking a portrait of me, this is part of me," Wilde said about the photo.
Still, many critics slammed Wilde for revealing too much in her shoot. A Los Angeles Times writer, Susan Rohwer, even described the image as a "slap in the face" to regular mothers.
"When regular women are still being kicked out of public (and virtual) places for breastfeeding, or have to sue their employers for appropriate accommodations in which to pump breast milk for their infants at home, the glamorous fantasy of the publicly breastfeeding celebrity mother can be a slap in the face to the rest of us," Rohwer wrote.
Despite the backlash she's received, Wilde insists that a lot of good came out of choosing to publish her breastfeeding photo.
Wilde revealed that many mothers tweeted her photos of them breastfeeding in public and thanked her for being courageous and a voice to other mothers.
"The coolest thing to come out of that [picture] was all these women who took pictures of themselves breastfeeding in public and tweeted them to me and to the world," she recalled. "I thought that was really great, and so I was happy to just encourage their awesome movement."
In a separate interview with People, Wilde named being a mother as the reason why she was able to portray her character, Sarah, in "Meadowland."
Wilde explained that since becoming a mother, her heart has expanded and she is more in touch with her emotions which has helped her connect and sympathize with her "Meadlowland" character.
"It's actually kind of a gift of motherhood," she told People. "You're in touch with different levels of emotions. I think it's all very connected."
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