Nicole v. Britney: baring their lady lumps

Due to popular demand (okay, 1 reader), I am going to talk about Nicole Ritchie and her bump. I've been avoiding it for a very long time now (as you might have noticed) but I thought this would be a good opportunity to say a few things about baby bumps and bikinis. Up until recently, being pregnant and wearing a bikini was simply not on. Sure, you're probably thinking...ever since Demi Moore pregnancy is sexy! Women can be out and proud with their bumps...

In reality, however, the exposure of the bump is still a bit taboo outside of Hollywood even though maternity fashion is tighter, a bit more low-rise and definitely low-cut. Wearing a bikini during pregnancy especially challenges conventional boundaries between the feminine body and the external world where the male gaze dictates the norms for feminine beauty, body shape and comportment. This is what led me to my thought about Nicole Ritchie. I am really surprised not to find crazy rants about how 'obscene' it is that a pregnant woman is wearing a string bikini when only a few years ago people went nuts over pictures of Britney Spears sporting the same duds (or lack thereof...) in the picture above in 2005 and again in 2006. Her body was described as grotesque: words such as 'fat' and 'gross' were used with reckless abandon along with suggestions that at almost 9 months pregnant no one wanted to see Britney's big 'fat' stomach.

Fast forward to Nicole Ritchie and her beach attire this week. According to all the newspaper articles from the past few days, Ritchie looks 'amazing', 'sexy' and everyone seems to be pleased that she is happily 'flaunting' her baby belly. There has been no mention of 'fat' or 'gross'.

So how can we explain these seemingly contradictory positions regarding the exposure of the bump?

One one hand, I'd like to think that the world is getting a little less conservative when it comes to the representation of pregnancy. However, I think that is giving a bit too much credit to progressive thinking. My feeling is that the way that these bikini-clad pregnant bodies are depicted in the media all comes down to celebrity status. As everyone knows, Britney Spears is public enemy #1 when it comes to motherhood. No matter what she does, Britney will eternally be known as the world's worst mother in the media. Nicole Ritchie, on the other hand, has garnered an inordinate amount of sympathy because of her 1) alleged eating disorder 2) her run-in with the law 3) her jail time.

Ritchie's pregnancy has completely changed her celebrity status. Since falling pregnant she has vowed that her life has totally changed; she wants to be a good mother, she is planning to get married and she has changed all of her previously 'bad' lifestyle habits to protect her baby. Therefore, her position as a 'good' mother in pregnancy is reflected in the comments about her body. Pregnancy is seemingly more beautiful and glorious and celebrated when the pregnant woman is seen to be a 'good' mother. Britney's body, on the other hand, is represented as 'unfit' and 'fat' because she is a 'bad' mother. Moreover, Spears’ image as a ‘sexy mother’ (unlike Nicole) suggests the ‘anti-mother’, in her physical subversion of cultural mores that make women sexless ‘good mothers’ who are completely focused on the well-being of the fetus. Britney is never depicted as actually caring about her children: she is irresponsible when she is pregnant and when she is not pregnant. Nicole's body can be 'sexy' because her behaviour marks her as a 'good' mother and this is tied to her willingness to set aside her desire to be thin and instead she has embraced a maternal, more feminine body.