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Abstract

Pregnant bodies are often perceived to be sites of reproductive beauty in American popular culture; however, the intersection of pregnancy and sexuality elicits reactions ranging from cultural disgust to fetishization. Using Foucauldian discourse theory, I look at how cultural ambivalence about pregnant women who have sex manifests in varied popular culture texts. Ambivalence, I argue, appears through the medicalization of pregnant sexuality (asexualizing), compulsory heterosexuality and pregnancy pornography (hypersexualizing). I also include feminist responses that disrupt the asexual/hypersexual binary.

Keywords

Body studies discourse analysis popular culture pregnancy representation

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From ‘Madonna’ to ‘Whore’: Sexuality,pregnancy,and popular culture

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