Lisa Marie: a baby bump built for two

Lisa Marie Presley is baring all for the September issue of Marie Claire on newsstands 12 August. Pregnant with twins, you might remember that Lisa Marie was pretty miffed a few months back when she was attacked for being 'fat' well before she had announced that she was pregnant. According to the this new article, 'baring all' is her way of getting back at fat taunts:

"The tabloids were going so far as to alter photos. I could never figure out why they went to all that trouble to make me look fat. "There are at least six other famous women pregnant right now who aren't getting picked on," she says in the interview. "But they're all over me. It's like there is a campaign to demean me."

"You know what I think when I see those fat photos? I am not going to let them control me. I just let it all hang out. You want to look at me? Go ahead and look." "I am trying to grow another human being," she adds. "Besides, I'm 40! I'm lucky to even be able to do this."

But apparently the controversy doesn't stop here. According to one of her recent blog posts, LMP is pissed off at Marie Claire for taking her quotes out of context:

"I gave a 3 hour heart felt interview and what became of it was. Quotes that were usually about something else entirely in the conversation, grossly simplified and taken way out of context and sprinkled randomly and erroneously throughout the 2 pages [sic]."If you want it [the magazine] for the photos then great but I am not behind the article at all."

Sources: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20217939,00.html

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/presley%20upset%20over%20simplified%20article_1076873

Women are sexist too?

I recently bought the new issue of Marie Claire featuring that cover photo of Christina Aguilera naked and pregnant. Given that every news agency picked up on the story weeks before the actual issue was released, I can't say that article was surprising or in any way different from the countless pregnant cover stories that have been churned out in the past decade. However, this did occur to me.

In November, I wrote about Maxim's Hottest Pregnant Women, Ever feature as just another avenue for men's magazines to objectify women's bodies. Yet, as I reflect on the avalanche of women's magazines doing exactly the same thing, although perhaps less overt, I'm finding it harder to believe that the public sexualisation of pregnant bodies is forward-thinking or progressive. When it comes down to it, a pregnant naked body on a women's mag is a money-maker. Marie Claire isn't interested in promoting safe motherhood; they are jumping on the bandwagon that men's magazines have already cashed in on starting with the forefather, Playboy. Women want to look at other women's bodies and pregnancy is no different. We call men sexist pigs for expounding the value of a Brazilian wax or size FFF breasts. Yet, when a women's magazine puts a naked Britney or Christina on the cover, we (as women) fail to recognise that it is the women's body on the cover that is the focus, not her mind. Back in November, Us magazine launched a poll asking readers who looked 'hotter' in their pregnant photo shoot. This is no different from Maxim's poll of the hottest pregnant women. As women (and feminists, at that) we are not infallible. In fact, we are also complicit in the objectification of women's bodies.


Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/Us_Poll_Who_Has_the_Hotter_Pregnancy_Cover_Christina_or_Britney

Pregnancy goes porn?

Apparently Marie Claire isn't the only magazine making waves with a naked pregnant woman on its cover; 'hot' pregnant women are featured this month in men's mag Maxim under the title of 'Hottest Pregnant Women, Ever'

Featuring the likes of Christina Aguilera, Halle Berry and Heidi Klum, the editors at Maxim unsurprisingly find ways to objectify the pregnant bodies of famous women. Of Halle Berry they write:

"Descriptions like "over 40" and "with child" aren´t usually things we associate with looking hot, but Halle pulls off both better than anyone we´ve seen. Plus, we admire the guts it must have taken to walk into the maternity store and say, "Give me a big stack of the lowest-cut dresses you have."

It's no surprise that pregnant women are increasingly positioned as 'hot' or 'sexy'. A pregnant body is a clearly sexed body, despite historical associations of motherhood with the 'Virgin' Mary. In fact, pregnancy porn is a big business and its own genre of sexual fetish. A simple Google search will deliver various iterations of big bellies represented as equally as sexy as the big breasts that epitomise mainstream porn. In fact, Lisa Rinna was the first celebrity to do a naked pregnant photo shoot for Playboy magazine in September 1998. Rinna, formerly of the hit television show Melrose Place, chose a pornographic magazine rather than a lifestyle magazine to make her pregnant debut. However, as Rebecca Huntley (2000:350) argues, ‘Despite assertions of sexiness, Rinna’s pictures are not constructed as masturbation material, rather maternal material.’

Feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey has famously argued that women have historically been ‘looked at’ as passive objects whilst men are the voyeuristic, active subjects (1989). What I find fascinating is that the pregnant women in these 'hottest' spreads either in Maxim or Marie Claire do not appear to be passive objects as they looks directly into the camera and appear to enjoy the position of being looked at. However, their glamorous appearances perhaps suggest remnants of an internalised male gaze that dictates how women should ‘appear’. It is also possible that the 'hottest' pregnant women features reflect an internalised female gaze as women also scrutinise their bodies equally or even more so than men (for example, the appearance of Christina and Britney both naked and pregnant on mainstream women's magazine covers and not in men's magazines).

Sources: http://www.maximonline.com/SexyTime/The9HottestPregnantWomenEver/slideshow/567.aspx

Christina bares her drrrrty (not so secret) secret

Geez. Just when I thought the world of pregnancy was becoming stagnant, my eyes fell upon these photos of Christina Aguilera as the latest celebrity to 'do a Demi' and pose semi-nude and pregnant on the cover of a mainstream women's magazine. Appearing on the January 2008 cover of Marie Claire, Christina reveals all about her surprise pregnancy and how she attempted to do a world tour whilst keeping her body from betraying her secret. She says:

"And so, I had gone off the Pill to prepare my body, because I didn't know how much time it would take. You've heard it takes some time. Except with Power Egg and Super Sperm here ... I'm like, Oh, my God, can you believe it just happened?"

I find the sheer number of celebrities 'doing a Demi' endlessly fascinating. I should probably devote a whole post about what it all means..but not today. I will say that that the public (and sexy) pregnancy has been well and truly cemented in popular culture and I definitely think the exposure of pregnant bodies is here to stay. I think we know why Christina decided to stay mum (pun intended!) on the topic given her explosive, um..to say the least, baby bump debut for the magazine (which no doubt is paying her a hefty sum for the exclusive scoop).

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=497031&in_page_id=1773

Paid maternity leave: It's long overdue!

Marie Claire is launching a campaign for mandatory paid maternity leave in Australia.

If you want to support Marie Claire's campaign calling for government-funded paid maternity leave, join their protest rally on Thursday, June 14 at 12.30pm in Martin Place, between Castlereagh and Pitt Streets, Sydney. That's tomorrow, ladies!

If you're not located in Sydney, visit their website to register your support or leave a comment:

http://au.blogs.yahoo.com/marie-claire/1453/push-itpaid-maternity-leave/

If any of you do end up going to the rally, please give us a shout and I'll publish your wrap up of the event!

australian homebirth

There was an interesting debate sparked about Australian homebirth on Sunrise (Channel 7) last week and, as a result, Marie Claire (the women's mag) has developed a forum for readers to leave comments about homebirth and their experiences thereof. I imagine all of these comments will develop into some sort of article for a forthcoming issue.

This is the description from Marie Claire's website:
"The UK government has recently announced plans to encourage more women to have home births, saying that expectant mothers should have greater choices over where they give birth. The proposal has been welcomed by midwives, but met with concern by some groups who say there are safety issues involved. In Australia, about one per cent of all babies are delivered in home births. The issue was debated by Channel Seven's Sunrise panel, which included marie claire editor Jackie Frank".

Post your thoughts on the Marie Claire website:
http://au.blogs.yahoo.com/marie-claire/964/home-birth-debate/