Comic becomes inadvertent breastfeeding advocate after video pulled from Funny or Die

Ahna Tessler plays the character of a hipster in her video originally rejected by Funny or Die. (YouTube)

A comedian whose video was pulled down from Funny or Die for images depicting her breastfeeding said she didn’t set out to be an advocate for the practice.

“I’m happy to kind of fight for this. Not to say that my intention was to be a breastfeeding activist, but I’ve kind of fallen into that now,” said comedian and mother of twins Ahna Tessler, in an appearance on 97.3 KIRO FM’s Ross and Burbank Show.

Her inadvertent advocacy began when she tried to post a video to the website Funny or Die that featured scenes of her breastfeeding her young twins.

“The hilarity behind this sketch is I’m this hipster, vulgar character who gets a job and she hates kids and then you pan down while I’m saying I hate kids to me who’s breastfeeding twins.”

Watch Ahna Tessler’s video [WARNING graphic language, woman breastfeeding]

When she tried to post the video, the website not only blocked the upload, it also shut down her account.

“They took down my entire account, so I wrote them an email and I said, ‘What’s going on. I can’t find my videos?’ And they said, ‘We flagged your video because it was obscene, and also took down your entire account.’ And I was thinking because of the swearing, because that could be obscene to some people. Then they told me it wasn’t the swearing, it was the breastfeeding.”

Listen Ahna Tessler talk about video rejected for breastfeeding

While Tessler admits that breasts could be considered sexual content, she says she’s seen other videos of men fully nude on the site.

“Of course, there is an [sexual] element to it. They’re breasts. It’s not so black and white,” said Tessler. “They are breasts, and breasts are used to feed your kid, and they’re also used to play with in a sexual manner.”

She says considering other content material readily available on the web, she’s surprised people are still in the business of removing images of women breastfeeding.

“The whole fact that it’s 2012 and places like Funny or Die and Facebook are taking images of women breastfeeding kids off their website because they say it’s offensive, that’s a little pathetic and a little embarrassing.”

Funny or Die reportedly reconsidered its decision when they were contacted by a reporter with The New York Times.

“With one call from the New York Times they put it back up, and then they sent me an email saying that the reason that it was pulled down was because of a spam software that detected breastfeeding and that it wasn’t a human being doing it.”

“So there is breast detection software that can detect this stuff?” asked host Dave Ross.

Tessler says it’s interesting because the “spam software” detected her breastfeeding, but she’s seen videos of a man fully nude on the site that apparently wasn’t detected.

By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor