Rumer Willis's Breastfeeding Photo with Baby Lou Sparks Backlash & We Have Mixed Feelings
Rumer Willis stripped down for a beautiful breastfeeding photo with her 10-month-old daughter Louetta “Lou” Isley, who she shares with boyfriend Derek Richard Thomas. The picture is a powerful testament to the amazingness of women’s bodies, so it’s no surprise that people were upset about it. What is unusual, though, is the fact that the commenters may actually have a point with their criticisms this time.
“Love of my life…..happy international women’s day,” the Sorority Row actress captioned the picture on Instagram Friday. Willis is topless in the photo, wearing light-wash jeans and nothing else as she stands in her bedroom. Willis holds baby Lou in her arms, as the brunette baby breastfeeds. Lou is completely naked in the photo, and you can see her cute little bottom.
Besides being impractical (imagine if she just started peeing all over you?!), people were worried that posting a naked baby photo would draw attention from the wrong people.
Many people were positive in the comments of Willis’s photo. “Women can do it All❤️❤️Sending Love to you and your family ❤️❤️.”
“This is so beautiful in so many ways ❤️,” someone else wrote. Another said, “Sweet innocent photo. Rock it Rumer. ❤️”
Thomas also praised his girlfriend. “Grateful for you ❤️.”
The Backlash
“Happy international women’s day! But please consider this photo from a child safeguarding perspective …” one person commented. Someone else said, “Don’t post pictures of your baby’s nude body online. Perverts get off on less than this. Please protect your children.”
“There are far too many child predators on the internet to think this is ok any longer,” another person wrote. “It’s an unfortunate truth. We have to modify our behavior to protect our children.”
Other people were worried about Lou’s reaction to the photo. “Beautiful picture, but someday that kid is going to be furious with you for posting their booty on the internet,” one person commented.
Online Privacy
Unlike typical mom-shamers, these commenters may actually have a point. Leah Plunkett, author of Sharenthood and faculty of Harvard Law School, previously told SheKnows that posting pictures of your kids online could be risky for three main reasons: criminal or dangerous risk of harm to the child; risk of harm to the child’s current or future life, like data harvesting; and risk to the child’s sense of self and identity.
“Once content is shared digitally, you have no way of knowing, and no way of controlling how it’ll be used and where it goes,” she told us.
The Child Rescue Coalition shared that one study found approximately 50% of the child sexual abuse material found on predatory sites was taken from parents’ social media posts. That’s absolutely terrifying. At the same time, though, her daughter’s face is covered, and it’s an innocent photo of a mother and a baby.
‘Silly’ Childhood
It’s probably a natural look into her parenting life as well, as Willis has opened up about the childhood traditions she wants to pass on to her daughter. “I grew up in a house where we would lick each other’s faces, and my sisters and I would all — with my mom — we would all bathe together,” she told The New York Post last month about life with her parents, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. “And there was just a kind of crazy, silly, weirdo, goofy, naked house.”
“I think that silliness and goofiness is so deeply a part of me, and it’s really what I want to help cultivate in [my daughter’s] life,” she added.
Potty Training
The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actress is already potty training Lou as well. “It’s incredible. It’s so validating,” Willis said on The Village podcast in Jan. 2024 about elimination training, where you pick up cues from your baby that signals they need to use the toilet.
“We got a little potty. Derek even has a little potty song he plays for her,” the House Bunny star said. “It’s so silly, but it’s all about taking your baby’s cues. Mind you, I have the privilege right now that I’ve gotten to spend every day with her. I haven’t had to go back to work, so I totally understand that there are challenges that way.”
Willis explained that she learned her daughter’s cues for pooping and will take her diaper off and set her on the little potty seat when she has to go. “Now if I can catch it, it’s so delightful. Babies have bodily awareness, so they don’t want to poop themselves,” the model said. She added, “We train them out of it by putting them in diapers and look, there’s no way I can catch all of her pees. They don’t make a cue for it, or maybe they do if you’re super, super aware. But I try to get as many as I can and it’s awesome. I think it’s so great.”
Celebrate the beauty of different breastfeeding journeys through these photographs.