Thursday, October 6, 2011

MamaBlogger365 - Ruse, Regulation and Older Motherhood by *Dr Mama* Amber Kinser

This week, New York magazine’s cover features the captivating Maye Musk, fabulously "pregnant" and posed in a manner reminiscent of Demi Moore’s equally captivating photo on the cover of Vanity Fair in 1991. What makes this photo the subject of so much hot topic discussion? Ms. Musk is in her sixties. The question thrust at readers from this cover is “Is she just too old for this?” I find the question, and the one that opens the feature article, “Is there anything wrong with being 53 and pregnant?” troubling. Insulting even.

I'm going to push aside the fact that May Muske is actually NOT pregnant in this photo, and the questions that thus emerge about why it is New York couldn’t show an older woman who actually IS pregnant to make their point and pursue instead the questions on the cover and that lead the article. These questions echo a couple of centuries of "shoulds" and "shouldn’ts" that have been aimed at mothers in the U.S. and that have functioned to regulate women’s bodies and sexualities and movement in the world.

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