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White pregnant bodies on the Australian beach: a visual discourse analysis of family photographs

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 23:52 authored by Meredith NashMeredith Nash
In this paper, I discuss a group of photographs that feature a place intrinsically related with Australian women’s photographic memories of pregnancy – the beach. Building on feminist interdisciplinary studies of family photography, I argue that family photographs of pregnancy contribute to alternative ways of knowing and interpreting the Australian beach landscape and the entangled social relations and interactions within these spaces. Data are drawn from a set of 34 pregnancy photographs that were taken at the beach in [Tasmania] between 1945 and 2013 and collected as part of a larger, ongoing mixed methods research project involving the analysis of 236 Australian family photographs of pregnancy. In this paper, I conduct a visual discourse analysis of three categories of beach pregnancy images including (1) the family holiday photograph, (2) the bikini photograph and (3) the ‘natural’ pregnant body/landscape photograph to enable a more precise account of how personal and cultural memories of the Australian beach intersect. In the concluding discussion, I suggest that the beach is a critical site for deepening sociological and feminist understandings of the production and expression of pregnant identities and Australian national identity.

History

Publication title

Journal of Gender Studies

Volume

27

Issue

5

Pagination

589-606

ISSN

0958-9236

Department/School

School of Social Sciences

Publisher

Carfax Publishing

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

© 2016 Informa UK

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in human society

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