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 Smith’s constituent, 32-year-old Julia Cooper, after she saw a man taking photographs of her with a long-lens camera while she was breastfeeding with other mums in Sale Water Park.
“It was a cold day, I had a big coat on, and I was being discreet about it. I had nestled my baby in coat because it was cold. And then I said to one of the other mums, is that man photographing us? He had attached a telephoto lens to an SLR camera, and was trying to get close up photos of my breast,” she said. “I was shaking, I felt so violated. My friend was talking to me, but I couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying.”
Cooper approached the man and asked him to delete the pictures, but he refused, saying it was his right as they were in a public space.
She later approached Greater Manchester police, who told her there was nothing they could do as a criminal act had not taken place.
“The person in the police control room had to come off the phone and check with his colleagues that it was actually legal, because he couldn’t quite believe it,” she said. “I felt so angry and so violated.”
Cooper contacted Smith and Creasy, who both swiftly took on her case.
“I thought, I’m going to try to change the law. I don’t want this to happen to me, other women, or my daughter if she chooses to have kids,” she said. “Then it took on a life of its own.”
Cooper said she was “hopeful” that the amendment would be passed, as she could not “imagine why any MP would agree with taking photos of breastfeeding women without consent”. In the long run, she hopes this will make women feel safer and more comfortable on the streets.
“I hope it can be a criminal offence, and hope those who are breastfeeding have the knowledge and feel empowered to say, ‘What you’re doing is illegal,’ and have power of law behind them,” she said. “Ultimately, it’s about feeling safe.”
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.
“This is not about whether you should breastfeed in public or not, it is absolutely about consent,” Creasy said. “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’re 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.”
