Post from the Past: The three types of pregnancy coverage in the media

Originally posted October 13, 2004:

From The Black List, a reader-written feature of (the now defunct) The Black Table, that reviews "the latest media-related crud, new products from Capitalists and odd ideas, concepts or trends."

MAKING BABIES by Emily Gould:

The ickiest part of procreation is that it has become afad. All the weekly gossip magazines are focusing way too much of theircoverage on baby joy, which comes in three flavors. One, speculative("Is Britney/WhitneyHouston/some Reality star you’ve never heardof/Jennifer Aniston Pregnant?"); two, illustrative ("Liv Tyler’s BumpTakes Fashion Week By Storm!"); or three, recuperative ("Debra MessingFinally Loses The Baby Weight").

For more of the article, go to The Black Tableand scroll down until you get to Making Babies. I can’t say I agreewith the rest of her rant as she feels pregnancy is creepy and refersto the fetus as the alien in "Alien."

Comments

Pam on March 3rd, 2008

Well, that was an interesting read. She’s spot on about the 3 types. And if you think about it, it is kind of funny that there’s a successful blog and media people are writing about babies and pregnancies at the level they are, considering what a ‘fun’ topic it actually is, as compared to hard news.

m on March 3rd, 2008

I can understand her disdain of celebrity pregnancy/baby coverage; it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I am not in the least offended by her comments on pregnancy (being icky and alien-like). Not all women feel the same about pregnancy, I hated being pregnant and often felt as though it was a parasite taking over my body because in many ways it is. I have a gorgeous, full-loving little boy about whom I am crazy but will fully admit pregnancy is the pits! (ooh and I am hoping that I will be blessed with another horrible nine months of parasitic activity soon!!) Not every woman is an earth-mama embracing pregnancy.

i-dra on March 3rd, 2008

just another bitter ranting from the “childfree” elitists who were obviously never children themselves. probably hatched as adults in a laboratory.