From Lady Humps to Baby Bumps

P Ever wonder if all those celebrity baby bumps and cute children in PG-13 movies, preteen TV shows, and populating the pages of Us and People magazine matter? Consider this article about the Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High  in Time magazine.

We say . . .

My bump, my bump, my lovely baby bump.”  You’re right, these aren’t the words to the Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps”, but Fergie’s been on “baby bump watch” like dozens of other celebrities these days.  Any photo of a less than board-flat tummy is cause for rumors. Pick up USA Weekend, Us, or People and pregnancy and motherhood are all the rage.  Google “baby bump” and check out a few of the 1, 270,000 results.  Motherhood hasn’t had this much action in the media since Baby M.

 

So when a reporter asked me recently if I thought young girls would be affected by the pregnancy of sixteen-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears, star of the tween-loving TeenNick TV show Zoey 101, I had to laugh.  Well, sure, but not because Spears stands out in a crowd as someone very different girls than any other celebrity.  She’s just the next “baby bump” to come along.

 

One could make the case, of course, that Jamie Lynn is their star, closer to their age, and so younger girls are more likely to identify with her choices. I don’t buy that argument. Zoey, the character preteen girls love, didn’t get pregnant.  But even if we’re focusing on Jamie Lynn, we have to acknowledge her place in a media that has been eroding the boundary between childhood and adolescence for some time. Tween girls share a world with Victoria’s Secret Pink collection and Paris Hilton inspired diva dolls in hot tubs. It's disingenuous suddenly to be upset at Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy when the viewers of her show are bombarded with sexualized images.  Do they not make the connection?  If we are really concerned about the influence of TV behavior on little girls, wouldn’t we question the party dorm atmosphere, the pseudo drinking and “soda” addictions, and the clubbing scenes on shows like Zoey 101, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, The Naked Brothers Band.  Why are we more shocked by Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy than naked pictures of Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical fame?

 

A renewed focus on motherhood is an interesting twist after so many years of the sexualized stuff.  Is it simply because “dirty girls” like Christina Aguilera, have grown up?  Are people getting tired of the crass sexualization?  Victoria’s Secret sales are down, after all – turns out that moms have been protesting the stripper-like outfits accosting their daughters in the mall windows -- and so-called family friendly stores like Walmart are getting caught with their little girl “who needs credit cards” panties down.  In the age-old Madonna-whore dichotomy, have we run the course on “hoes”?  Just in time to make the pendulum swing in the other direction: from lady humps to baby bumps?

 

There’s always been an odd disconnect between sex and motherhood in U.S. culture, reflecting our Puritan roots perhaps, and bolstered by the Virgin Mary.  But given the sheer amount of sexualized imagery, the general pornification of the culture, and this post-modern moment one would think this binary, in particular, would be long gone.  Yet the sexual girl is still naughty and becoming a mother still has the power to redeem her.  It’s a powerful trope, mothering.  Whether we’re talking about Madonna (the living one), Juno, or Jamie Lynn, bad girls are made good when they become mothers.

 

Not all bad girls.  In her Emerson College Master’s thesis, the documentary Souls of Black Girls, Daphne Valerius underscores the double standard for black women.  While mothering offers white girls and women redemption from their sexy pasts, for Black women and girls, it’s too often “once a hoe always a hoe”.  Our views of mothering are steeped in racist and sexist histories.  A punkish gum-chewing receptionist offering up boysenberry condoms from her seat in a seedy abortion clinic can still be funny to the largely white audiences watching Juno, a movie in which the only person of color is an Asian classmate picketing the clinic. That’s because Juno can flee this option, embracing all that is right and good, offering up her child to a wealthy white woman desperate to mother and return a sweet, chaste girl singing a duet with a sweet chaste boy.  But it’s telling that in Urban Dictionary, “baby bump” is defined as “A shirt with the words "baby bump" in the style of excessive bling indicating the young woman wearing it is probably promiscuous in nature and wishes to inform the community of this social practice,” as in, "There goes Tammy wearing her Baby Bump shirt and I can't say I'm surprised as much as she gets around."

 

For Jamie and Juno, having a baby is presented as a no choice choice. No choice for the selfless, responsible girl, pure in heart; no choice when classmates not only don’t tease her, but don’t even really notice, and when parents understand, offer love, and support. No choice when no one tells her that only 1% of teen mothers give up their babies for adoption, and when no one shares the stories of the majority, the ones who struggle in poverty, doing their best in stressful circumstances.  No choice when every young celebrity is parading across the magazine pages in stiletto heels with those big red arrows and circles pointing out their cute little baby bumps, a play-by-play reminicient of Monday night football.

 

Girls deserve better than this.  They deserve an honest conversation about desire and sexuality, about sex and pregnancy, about pregnancy and choice, and about the good and bad of mothering.  In this crazy making world where they’re told anything goes, but where, in fact, the lines are still drawn and the consequences are very real, they deserve a conversation that explores and explains it all.   

Comments

[Shaping Youth]

Excellent piece and perspective...I'm going to forward this to Carmen at AntiRacistParent and Racialicious, as it is soooo true. Also to Felicia at Reign of the Girl Child, who I notice you've linked to as well (she's awesome)...Courtney at Respect Rx had some interesting perspective on the whole 'pregnancy pact' bit too; yowza. Poignant and personal: http://www.respectrx.com/archives/sex/teen_pregnancy_pact.html

[m sammy]

Thank you so much for this article; the furor and commercialization around "baby bumps" have bothered me for a while, and you've articulated exactly what I hate about it. I especially despise how cutesy the term is, like "pregnant" is just too dirty or grown-up a word or something. Ugh!