Pregnant with the Stars

Renée Ann Cramer is Associate Professor and Chair of Law, Politics and Society at Drake University.

"What do celebrity baby bumps, boobs, and booties have to do with the law? In this compelling and creative new book, Renée Cramer suggests that contemporary culture's fascination with these subjects reveals much about the complex web of social and legal regulations that shape our understanding of pregnancy, the body and femininity."—Susan Burgess, Ohio University "When people hear I study celebrity, they often ask, 'What's going on with the obsession with celebrity pregnancy and baby bumps?' Finally, I have somewhere to direct them. Pregnant with the Stars takes a nuanced and engaging look at celebrity pregnancy, connecting the baby bump craze to larger issues governing women's bodies and what we expect and demand from them."—Anne Helen Petersen, Features Writer at BuzzFeed and author of Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema "Pregnant with the Stars is as entertaining as it is illuminating. Cramer has a rare gift for drawing our attention to everyday forms of power that occur at the intersection of popular culture, politics and the law and converge in our gaze on women's bodies."—Claire Rasmussen, University of Delaware "Americans have voraciously consumed images of gorgeous, famous pregnant bodies—from Demi to Kiera—while ordinary women have officially lost rights, dignity, and safety as fertile persons. Renée Cramer cracks open interpretations of this development, inviting us to consider the consequences of celebrating those beyond our reach, while millions of real women are threatened with ignobility and ignominy."—Rickie Solinger, author of Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know "Cramer's examination of celebrity pregnancy reminds us that robust analysis can also be wildly fun. Pregnant with the Stars reveals how the pop culture portrayal of pregnant women's bodies undermines equality and deeply-held social values. Readers of all kinds will enjoy the book and want to talk about it—online, at work, in the classroom, and beyond."—Chrysanthi Leon, University of Delaware "Cramer sees our obsession with pregnant celebrities as a distraction from birth-control politics....She urges women not to let what is an individual experience be influenced by celebrity-pregnancy hype."—Crystal Erickson, Bitch Magazine

• Contents and AbstractsIntroduction: Obsession with the Celebrity Bump chapter abstractThis chapter explains why it is important to understand contemporary interest in the celebrity baby bump, and situates that interest within the law and society literature. The chapter argues that by compelling us to "watch" and to "want," media coverage of the pregnant celebrity body becomes an interpretive lens through which to view the twin pillars of the state in late neoliberalism: an expansion of technologies of governance through proxies that enable state- and self-regulation, and totalizing commodification via global capitalism. The chapter explains the feminist, sociolegal, and interpretive approach taken in the research and provides a narrative of the author's interaction with the topic.1Law, Popular Culture, and Pregnancy in America chapter abstractUsing the famous Demi Moore cover for Vanity Fair as a frame of reference, this chapter traces the changing ways that law and popular culture have treated pregnancy, from the 1970s to the contemporary period. It examines jurisprudence relating to pregnancy and pregnancy discrimination, as well as abortion and birth control, to argue that women have achieved a measure of equality under the law – while being constructed as more responsible for the outcomes of their pregnancy than ever before. The chapter simultaneously examines televised and filmic representations of pregnancy in the popular culture – from I Love Lucy to Murphy Brown to Friends to demonstrate an increasing comfort with pregnant women in the public eye.2Celebrity Bumps, Boobs, and Booties chapter abstractThis chapter examines media coverage of celebrity pregnancies to analyze the normative and idealized views of femininity in evidence in them. It argues that the media offers a limited range of possibilities for pregnant women: they can be "good girls," "bad girls (and those redeemed by motherhood," "hot, sexy mamas," and "yummy mummies." In all of these possibilities it is clear that dominant norms of race, class, and femininity are driving the media representations of these stars.3Wanting the Bump chapter abstractThis chapter examines the commodification of pregnancy, and all things pregnancy related, through media coverage of celebrity pregnancies. It argues that when women are told to want the pregnant celebrity body, they are confronted by the objectification of that body and multiple modes of commodification: of pregnancy, of the child itself – or at least its image, and of the "rockin' beach-worthy post-baby body." And, even as women are confounded by our inability to attain what they are told is perfection, they are provided strategies and products that promise rescue, for a cost.4Surveilling the Stars chapter abstractThis chapter argues that when women watch the pregnant celebrity, they are encouraged, to surveil, to gossip, and to judge. Ultimately, they are enlisted in the regulation of the bodies of all pregnant women, even as women are called on to accept and internalize their own regulation. The medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth necessitates high levels of surveillance during gestation and birth, and facilitates an intimate, but mediated, relationship between the woman and the fetus. The chapter argues that as women judge and regulate the bodies of pregnant celebrities, they are simultaneously accepting and internalizing the very same regulations of themselves.5Governing the Body through the Bump chapter abstractThis chapter investigates the various moments and places where governance occurs of pregnant women. It shows that the state, through legislation and jurisprudence, plays an active role in constraining women's choices about and during pregnancy, and looks at very recent bills and laws that limit women's power. It also argues that the state engages proxies: corporations, media, and average people on the street – to govern pregnant women in the most mundane and daily ways imaginable.6Rebel Renderings and a Micro-politics of Inscrutability chapter abstractThis chapter examines spaces of hope – coverage of celebrity pregnancies that deviate from the norm. It argues that coverage of the pregnancies and pregnant performances of M.I.A., Pink, and Christina Aguilera highlight "bold bumps" that envision motherhood in rebellious ways. The chapter also includes a discussion of surrogacy, lesbian-headed households, and single mothers, and argues that they disrupt patriarchal assumptions of mothering and pregnancy. The chapter closes with a look at the pregnancy of Mila Kunis, about whom the press was unable to write a coherent narrative, and whose performances of pregnancy remained inscrutable. Drawing on work by James Scott and Boaventura de souse Santos, the chapter argues that emancipation and liberation are achieved through small, inscrutable daily practices of living under the radar of the watching state and its proxies.