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Making 'postmodern' mothers: pregnant embodiment, baby bumps and body image

book
posted on 2023-05-22, 07:11 authored by Meredith NashMeredith Nash
This book, the first of its kind, provides a multi-disciplinary, empirical account of pregnant embodiment and how it fits into wider sociological and feminist discourses about gender, bodies, 'fitness', 'fat', feminism, celebrity and motherhood. This study draws on original qualitative data based on interviews with pregnant women, their partners, and maternity industry professionals including maternity designers. The voices of pregnant women are located at the centre of a range of competing social discourses to reveal what the author describes as 'postmodern' pregnancy, an experience that highlights the contradictions inherent in being a contemporary woman in the West: Eat junk food but do not get fat. Wear 'sexy' clothing but be a 'good' selfless mother. Be 'fit' but do not exercise too much. 'Postmodern' pregnancy features as an ambivalent and uncertain experience, with women constantly negotiating the boundaries of both femininity and motherhood in a neo-liberal socio-political and economic context that both promotes and constrains their 'choices'.

History

Pagination

264

ISBN

9780230355439

Department/School

School of Social Sciences

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan

Place of publication

Basingstoke

Rights statement

copyright Meredith Nash 2012.

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in human society

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    University Of Tasmania

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