Empowered pregancy or just good marketing?

As my last post spruiked the merits of retail therapy, particularly when it comes to fancy breastfeeding bras, and more importantly the joy in purchasing a maternity bra that isn't a heinous shade of beige, I attempted to make the point that it is bizarre that proudly pregnant women in bras are somehow offensive given that we see scantily clad or naked women on a daily basis in the media. After all, plenty of celebrities parade around naked and pregnant and plenty of everyday women get photographs taken of themselves as a keepsake of a beautiful time so what's the big freaking deal with women having a bit of fun? If cherry print French knickers from 'Hot Milk' make you feel a little bit better in your 40th week, you go girl!

So then I found this commentary on pregnancy and in particular, the 'Hot Milk'/soft porn debate. Rosemary McLeod writes:

"Since I was pregnant last there've been big changes in lingerie, too. Once you could only get white or flesh-coloured maternity bras, magnifying the size of your watermelons. Now you can actually get black – and even colour. The only drawback to buying the latest lingerie for pregnancy, designed to make women feel sexy at an un-sexy time, is the brand. In the case of a new local company producing a catalogue for breastfeeding and pregnant mothers, it's "Hot Milk". You'd have to rip the label off your bra rather than admit you'd succumbed. What if you were run over by a bus, and the nurses in casualty saw it?

Women who've received the catalogue, which features real pregnant women as models, have complained that the images are "soft porn". This sounds like wishful thinking on their part, poor darlings. What they ought to be objecting to is a jokey label that defines lactating women as some kind of cappuccino machine for infants. Rather than cheering you up and making you feel good about the experience, it'd have you wondering why your breasts weren't chrome like the rest of your yuppie kitchen, and whether they came with a lifetime guarantee".

This bit really annoys me because the writer is doing exactly what she sets out not to do. Her article is based entirely on the premise that pregnancy isn't always fun and games; not all women feel hot and happening and no one should feel pressure to meet cultural expectations. I agree with this. However, she instead suggests that just because she didn't feel 'sexy' in pregnancy, somehow it's not on for other pregnant women to enjoy breastfeeding or pregnancy with a great bra. She says pregnancy is categorically 'un-sexy'. Is she living in a bubble? Pregnant bodies are sexed, sexual bodies (which is not really surprising given that being pregnant is basically an announcement that you have had sex!) And what exactly are women 'succumbing to' as she suggests, by buying a bra?

Since when is it a bad thing to proud of being a mother?

Source:
The Horrors of Maternity http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4133172a1861.html