An MP has described her “horror” after she was photographed while breastfeeding on public transport, as she and a fellow MP launch a campaign to criminalise the taking of such pictures.
Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, said she was breastfeeding her then four-month-old on a overground train near Highbury and Islington in north London when she noticed a teenage boy laughing and taking pictures.
“This was before lockdown when I had a very small baby. I realised she needed feeding, she was crying,” she told the Guardian. Creasy said she noticed the teenager staring.
“He had his phone out and I thought he was playing with his phone, and then I realised with horror that he was taking photos,” she said. “You feel exposed. I don’t think he can have got very much of a picture, but the sheer horror at the point when you’re focused on trying to support your newborn baby … and somebody is doing that, it was vile.
“Because I felt quite vulnerable, I just got off my train as soon as I could. I wondered whether he had been a resident and had recognised me, because he was laughing.”
Now Creasy is working with Jeff Smith, Labour MP for Manchester Withington, to make the behaviour illegal, with a campaign under the slogan Stop the Breast Pest. The campaign came about after the MPs were both contacted by a constituent of Smith’s, 32-year-old Julia Cooper, after she saw a man taking photographs of her with a long-lens camera while she was breastfeeding.
“Julia had much more courage,” Creasy said. “Julia confronted the man who was doing it and then went to police and was told it’s legal.”
The campaign is aimed at passing an amendment to the Voyeurism Act, which would make taking non-consensual photographs of people breastfeeding a criminal act.
The Voyeurism Act, passed in 2019, bans the taking of non-consensual photographs of genitals or buttocks, also known as upskirting. However, it does not criminalise photographs of the upper body.
“I was on the voyeurism bill and we argued with the minister at the time that the focus on below the waist was a mistake. To realise first-hand the reality of that … that’s what needs to change,” Creasy said.
“This is not about whether you should breastfeed in public or not, it is absolutely about consent. Women should be able to do this wherever they need to whenever they need to, without hassle, and hassle doesn’t just include people criticising them, it includes behaviour like this. You should be able to feed in peace.”
Creasy said she hoped the government would support the measure, adding that she had already received an outpouring of messages from the public.
“I suspect a lot of people don’t realise it’s not illegal. But already from messages I’ve had, this happens more than people realise,” she said. “Unfortunately there’s some very creepy people out there who think they have a right to photograph women when breastfeeding for their own enjoyment, and that’s not acceptable.
“I hope that by myself and Jeff working together and speaking up, we can get that change in the law. That’s what we’re there to do.”
Source: TheGuardian
