You don’t make something socially acceptable overnight. You do it step-by-step, showing people that something isn’t a big deal until they just get used to it. In the process, you encourage others to do the same.
Pink is doing that, because she’s marvelous and wants to make the world a better place.
This time, Pink snapped a mirror selfie — as she used a breast pump to prepare meals for her baby.
Pink is a mother of two.
Her oldest, 6-year-old Willow, obviously doesn’t need any breast milk.
(Just ignore the “nurse them ‘til they’re 8” weirdos, please)
Her youngest, Jameson, was born only 8 months ago.
He’s an adorable baby.
Pink herself is currently on tour in Europe during the buildup before her next album, Beautiful Trauma, comes out.
But that doesn’t mean that she’s neglecting her duties as a mom.
In case anyone had any doubts, she shared this mirror selfie of herself pumping breastmilk.
She captioned the photo:
“And now this #pumpupthejams #mombreak.”
You might think of this as just another photo of somebody going about their day.
Like, some folks tweet about doing the dishes, and that’s fine (anything to take a short breather from the endless stream of hellish news that defines 2017, right?).
But Pink sharing this pic is positively revolutionary.
First of all, we struggle to think of any other images we’ve seen of women pumping breastmilk.
Like … I saw my mother do it when I was super little, and then there was the horrifying procurement of “mother’s milk” in Mad Max: Fury Road.
And this photo of Pink.
That’s it.
Pumping milk is literally just preparing meals for her baby, a crucial activity for a working mom.
But it’s hidden away, as if it’s shameful.
By showing herself doing it, Pink is helping to normalize a very normal and appropriate activity.
Kind of like what so many moms are doing these days with breastfeeding.
We’ve all read those stories about women who are asked to leave places or to go to the bathroom to nurse their babies.
The most ridiculous tend to be the stories where these women are in art museums, surrounded by fully bare breasts on sculptures and in paintings.
But they’re asked to leave, because somehow feeding their child would be inappropriate.
The grossest thing is the idea of women having to sit in a bathroom stall and nurse their baby.
That’s a disgusting to place to eat for an adult, and it’s not less disgusting for a baby.
Part of what the Free The Nipple campaign is all about is just normalizing the existence of nipples on human women.
It’s not just about Instagram not letting models showcase their nip nops in all of their glory.
It’s about not treating women as prized objects that need to be hidden away from prying eyes. It’s about letting women go about their lives unobstructed by how distracted or whatever men might get.
(And yes, there’s a direct connection to high school dress codes, and we’d hope that no one would breastfeed in high school for reasons that have nothing to do with some fear of nipples)
By the way, Pink has also shared breastfeeding photos, because not all heroes wear capes.
Obviously, Pink received her due amount of praise in the comments for the photo.
By the way, her post-baby body is extraordinary. It hasn’t even been a year since she gave birth and she looks like she was never even pregnant.
Not that showing off her flat abs was the point of the selfie, because it wasn’t.
But … we have eyes, don’t we? We noticed.
Pink might not be good at feuding, but she seems to be great at making progress for women everywhere with something as simple as photos.
