In her latest Instagram photo, model Maggie Morer looks like a deity from some distant civilization: her face is covered in gold-colored paint (thanks to the wonderful makeup of Pat McGrath), she is dressed in a bathrobe and holds a protective plastic drape in her hands, like a shawl. She is about to go after Schiaparelli, but in the meantime she hugs her daughter Nora to her chest: breastfeeding has never been so cool and a photo has been taken, shared and commented on everywhere.

It’s been a long time since the #NormalizeBreastfeeding social campaign, the picture of Rachel McAdams pumping milk during a photo shoot, and the fashion show, which featured Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Mara Martin. on the podium while breastfeeding. It was 2018 and today we can say that seeing a woman breastfeeding at work, in parliament, in public places or on social media is much more common than in the past. Until 2014, Facebook did not even allow the publication of photos of breastfeeding women: today, fortunately, such censorship in the Western world would seem unthinkable.

Nevertheless a photograph like Maurer’s continues to have political significance. This will happen because there are still too few women in the workplace who can actually breastfeed. Maybe because there are stereotypes and pressures around breastfeeding that do not fit well with women’s self-determination and feed on clichés about the spirit of sacrifice and selflessness at any cost. In just the last few days, after the dramatic news of a newborn who died in the hospital while his mother fell asleep while breastfeeding, a heated debate has flared up in Italy. Mothers are too often left alone, required to devote themselves body and soul to their children, without real support considering their personal health needs (mental and physical) and then at work. We need more help for families, more father involvement, and a cultural change in the myths of motherhood as self-annulment. If Maurer looks like a breastfeeding mother goddess in the photo, may she finally become a deity capable of celebrating female self-determination and the importance of struggle so that everyone can choose to breastfeed and experience motherhood if, where, how and when they prefer, without judgment.