Australian Olympian Torah Bright has delivered a powerful response to online trolls following the intense and “sad” backlash she received after posting a photo breastfeeding her young son, Flow, in honour of Mother’s Day.
The 34-year-old celebrated the special day with a gallery of sweet photos of her family, which included one snap of herself in a handstand position while her son breastfed. “Becoming a mother has unleashed something inside of me,” the caption read. “It’s deeply spiritual. It’s primal. It’s raw. It’s fierce. It is pure. I am mother.”
The Olympic snowboarder added a shout-out to other mums out there hoping to be: “heard, honoured, respected and encouraged.”
While the post has since garnered more than 14,000 likes and was praised by many, her headstand photo was quickly criticised by others—particularly by fellow women and mothers.
In the weeks following, Bright has taken to Instagram to share her thoughts on the negative response.
“Reading some of these comments made me sad,” she said, per news.com.au. “In my world, mothers should be each other’s cheerleaders (it’s hard enough). Embrace our quirkiness and finding the joy in every shitty thing that is motherhood.”
She continued, “We all do it differently. It is not wrong or right. Motherhood is pure. I only now consider myself a Wonder Woman because I have joined the sacred MOTHERS club with you. Nothing but respect to all mothers.”
Before finishing her post, Bright added a message of encouragement to other parents, stating, “Love to all mothers who need it right now. I got your back… You are not alone.”
Bright famously won a gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics in the halfpipe event before home a silver at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, and in that same year became the first athlete—male or female—to qualify for all three snowboarding disciplines at the Olympics.
She welcomed her son in July 2020, who she shares with her husband, fellow snowboarder Angus Thomson, and since then has regularly shared her parenting journey with fans, including several previous breastfeeding snaps and clips.
In November 2020, Bright shared a funny selfie of herself and her newborn, captioned: “Cheeky little guy 😂 💕”.
Bright also isn’t the only celebrity to clap back at trolls who have criticised the natural act of breastfeeding.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Mila Kunis shared how she felt enduring judgemental stares when feeding her child in public.
“There were many times where I didn’t bring a cover with me, and so I just did it in a restaurant, in the subway, in the park, at airports, and in planes. Why did I do it in public? Because I had to feed my child. She’s hungry,” Kunis said. “It took us a little back because people actually looked at us in a shameful [way], and we were like, ‘Oh my God,’ because it’s so not a sexual act.”
Olivia Wilde has also gotten candid about receiving criticism following a portrait of herself breastfeeding was released in the 2014 issue of Glamour.
“I certainly didn’t expect people to be upset at the obscenity of public breastfeeding,” the actress told HuffPost. “I was shocked that there were still people who find it inappropriate because they think it’s a sexual thing. I think that says a lot about them.”
