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Elle Australia editor defends self-censoring controversial breastfeeding cover

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By John Glenday | Reporter

May 26, 2015 | 1 min read

Elle Australia editor Justine Cullen has sought to justify a decision to remove a controversial breastfeeding cover from its retail release by stating that we don’t live in an ‘ideal world’.

Instead the ground-breaking cover was printed on subscription copies only, amidst fears of a sales boycott or seeing the magazine pulled from shelves, sparking outrage amongst breast feeding campaigners.

In an open letter published on the magazine’s website Cullen wrote: “In an ideal world no one would have an issue with seeing breastfeeding on the cover of a magazine. But it’s not an ideal world.

“While there’s nothing provocative about breastfeeding, it is a provocative image to see on the cover of a fashion magazine, and it’s enabled us to contribute to a necessary conversation around normalizing breastfeeding and why that’s so important.”

An early edition of the title pictured model Nicole Trunfio breastfeeding her son, generating a great deal of goodwill and buzz on social media, although this was swiftly undone by the decision to fully clothe Trunfio in later editions.

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