From private to public bodies: Normalising pregnant bodies in Western culture
(2006) From private to public bodies: Normalising pregnant bodies in Western culture. In Nexus: Newsletter of The Australian Sociological Association, 18(3) pages pp. 18-19, The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).
Full text available as: |
Abstract
I recently had the painful pleasure of bringing into the world a baby boy. As I already had a five year old boy, I didn’t expect that the experience would be very different from the last and, to a large extent, I was correct. There was the usual battery of assessments, scans, tests, and other surveillance techniques that I had expected in producing my unborn child as a ‘case’ of proper antenatal care (Rose, 1990). However, there was one element of being pregnant that, although I no doubt encountered with my first pregnancy, left me continually analysing the bodily practices associated with pregnant embodiment in my second pregnancy: my body be(com)ing a public space. I want to briefly consider my experiences with inhabiting the new, more public bodily space of pregnancy and the different ways in which my usually private body came to constitute a public space. I conclude by examining the possibilities and tensions that may then arise for young pregnant girls in this regard.
| Item Type: | Newspaper/Magazine Article |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Keywords: | pregnancy, pregnant, bodies, female body, normalisation, normalising, private, public, surveillance, embodiment, public space, young girl, visual |
| Subjects: | 420000 Language and Culture > 420300 Cultural Studies > 420303 Culture, Gender, Sexuality 420000 Language and Culture > 420300 Cultural Studies 370000 Studies in Human Society > 379900 Other Studies in Human Society > 379901 Gender Specific Studies 370000 Studies in Human Society > 370100 Sociology |
| ID Code: | 11251 |
| Deposited By: | Dwyer, Angela E |
| Deposited On: | 19 December 2007 |
| Alternative Locations: | http://www.tasa.org.au/home/index.php |
| Copyright Owner: | Copyright 2006 (please consult author) |
| Additional Information: | For more information, please refer to the publisher's website (see hypertext link) or contact the author. |