Adele to People (Jamie Oliver) Who Pressure Mothers to Breastfeed: "Go Fuck Yourselves"
Adele gives 0 fucks for your thoughts on women and breastfeeding, Jamie Oliver. The celebrity chef recently said that "probably the most upsetting thing" for him is currently the failure of British women to breastfeed their children, according to the Independent. At a performance in London on March 22, the "Hello" singer and smasher of album sales records skewered the mansplanation with some personal experience.
"It's fucking ridiculous, and all those people who put pressure on us, you can go fuck yourselves, alright?" she said. "Because it's hard. Some of us can't do it. I managed about nine weeks with my boobs."
Read more: This Mom Doesn't Have Any Time for Your Stupid Breastfeeding Shaming
Oliver, who — to our knowledge — does not have milk-producing breasts and has no idea whether or not breastfeeding is "easy," "more convenient" or "better" than formula for most women, nonetheless urged them not to resort to bottle feeding, the Independent reported. The people of Twitter dutifully reported for their clap-back duty.
According to the CDC, children should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their lives, but the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that mothers keep it up for a minimum of two years. The American Academy of Pediatrics is more conservative, putting the target timeline at 12 months or more. While breastfeeding a two year old may seem excessive to some, even the six-month goal is a difficult one for many women to meet.
In 2014, the New York Times reported that many low-income women could not afford to breastfeed because their jobs didn't allow them maternity leave — that six-month window closed while they were earning the necessary money to support their families. Breastfeeding was, for them, neither easy nor convenient.
The same goes for women who just don't produce enough milk to feed their children without formula. Adele had no qualms about telling the audience in which camp she stood.
"All I wanted to do was breastfeed my kid and then I felt like, if I was in the jungle right now, back in the day my kid would be dead because my milk's gone," Adele said. "Imagine how that made me feel."
Because the benefits of breastfeeding aren't exactly a secret, the inability to provide those to her baby probably didn't make her feel great. Adele rightly assured her audience that formula is a more than adequate alternative.
She also called Mariah Carey "so biblical" for a recent interview, conducted in a rental mansion, in which the Fantasy singer noted that the overhead lighting was "abusive." Adele added that she "love[s] that woman" and "think[s] she should be the bible."