abortion/reproduction

These dolls have been available for purchase for at least 6 years (when I first found out about the website) and I’m surprised they haven’t made it on Soc Images yet!

I want to clarify that while these dolls are created for the use by the anti-choice movement, I’m not trying to make a pro-choice argument here. Rather, I think it is interesting to think about how fetal development is depicted (especially to children), and how these micropreemie dolls compare to medical depictions of fetal development. Not to mention that these are among some of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen.

According to the website:

Micropreemie models are life size portrait models of real micropreemie human babies.

[…]

All models are portraits of real babies. Models 6 weeks and 7 weeks are original one of a kind sculpts. They can have a hat and tiny blanket. They are fragile and not poseable. Models eight weeks and over have jointed bodies and come dressed or undressed. All are medically accurate in size and human development.  They have been checked for accuracy by Physcians, [sic] Neonatal Intensive Care Nurses, Dulas and the actual parents of the babies represented here. We recommend dressed models for use with children. Children are naturally drawn to these models.

The comparison pictures are from this website.

6 weeks gestation:

7 weeks gestation:

8 weeks gestation:

10 weeks gestation:

12 weeks gestation:

And some other random micropreemie images from the website:

8-18 weeks gestation:

In apples and cups:

And there is one non-white micropreemie on the website:

Size comparison with gummy bear and quarter:

Featured accessories: (yes, that is a micropreemie in a baby bottle. Yikes!)

Were you aware there is a sub-genre of romance novels focusing specifically on pregnant women? I wasn’t.

I like the titles–Innocent Wife, Baby of Shame…so scandalous! Here’s a link to the image.

I am not, at this very moment, entirely certain of how you could use these in a sociology course–I guess in a discussion of how we think of pregnant women’s bodies (are they beautiful or not?), how we feel about pregnant women have sex or of men being attracted to pregnant women who aren’t their wives (I bet a good number of people would find it kind of creepy), or whether we still think there is such a thing as a “baby of shame.” It’s interesting that the women are pregnant but still very skinny everywhere but in their “baby bump,” as the tabloids call it these days. This might be a starting point for a discussion of changing ideas of pregnancy–that the amount of weight you’re “supposed” to gain has decreased, that pregnant women ideally say thin everywhere else, and that they’re supposed to lose the weight immediately. Or you could contrast pregnancy with just being “fat”–can you imagine a similar sub-genre of romance novels with large, non-pregnant (or even pregnant) women?

Whether or not they’re useful, I know that they’re funny. Secret Baby, Convenient Wife? Awesome!

Thanks to Jason for sending it along!

Apparently, if you use Viagra, your ejaculation will be so powerful that you will shoot sperm into space to aggressively penetrate Planet Egg:

Found here thanks to copyranter.

This post is dedicated to my pregnant friends. You should buy this t-shirt.

In class this week my students and I are talking about the triple threat of production, consumption, and reproduction that characterizes modern capitalism. I use the cultural imperative that women have and raise babies (reproduction) and be beautiful and sexy while doing it (consumption), all of which is paid for by someone who is busy earning money at a job (production). Below are some of the images I use.

Be beautiful while pregnant (images from A Pea in the Pod and covergirls Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera):

Running in high heels while in the third trimester? Why, of course!

Get your body back as soon as possible (as demonstrated by Gwen Stefani and Tori Spelling):

If you’re not sure how, buy some books (all the better)!

Resort to suspicious drugs if you need to:

Or get a Mommy Makeover. Extensive cosmetic surgery, that is:

Recommended by Parenting Magazine!

The image below is the cover of a comic book designed to teach adults about birth control (it seems to have been published in 1956 and again in 1962). Find it all online here.

Found here via copyranter.

Today Gwen and I went to the by now well-known Bodies exhibit that displays preserved human cadavers, purportedly so we can learn more about the human body (and give up smoking).

As we went in we joked about how there probably wouldn’t be any female bodies until the part on reproduction. We were royally pissed off to discover that we were right. This is a great illustration of the way in which men are neutral and women deviants from the standard (that is, men are people and women are women). The first 8 or so bodies were all male and all in action doing masculine things.

The first female body we encountered (there were only two out of more than a dozen) stood immediately outside the fetal development hall and alongside the dissections of the genitals and reproductive organs.* Not only was this the first female, she was arranged not in action, but in a pose for the male gaze. She was standing with her hands on her hips, with her breasts and hips thrust forward, and on her tip toes as if she were wearing high heels. We couldn’t find any pictures of her on the web (and we weren’t allowed to take any), but we did find an image of a female cadaver from another exhibit. She was both pregnant (fulfilling her biological destiny) and positioned like a pin up (fulfilling her role as sexual object for men). So, in addition to marginalizing the female body, they gendered both male and female bodies. Male bodies are on the move, but female bodies are good for only two things: babies and sexual provocation.

The last body (male) had a sign over it that said “Your Body” because, of course, the male body is just the neutral human body that represents us all.

* As we entered the fetal development hall there was a sign that warned people that they should take a second and think about whether they wanted to see the fetuses, while assuring us that all of them died of natural causes (that is, not abortion). I think it’s bizarre that we’re supposed to find these fetal bodies disturbing, but not the bodies of people who lived lives and loved others and were loved and all that good stuff. There is something weird about the priorities here, as if the fetuses were somehow more human than the adults. Also, while we were looking at the deformed fetuses, a woman standing next to us said that all teenagers should have to see the deformed fetuses because “that’s what gonna happen” if they start having sex.

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Click here for a “world clock” (by http://www.poodwaddle.com/) that constantly updates the total number of, well, lots of stuff: births, abortions, deaths of different types, prisoners, marriages, divorces, extinct species, gallons of oil pumped, and computers, cars, and bicycles built. You can choose to display it by how much has happened in the last year, month, day, or even from a moment, like right… now.

Thanks, Mom!

Power as cleaning products (note the appropriation of Rosie the Riveter):

Power as a flippy skirt and cute glasses (the text: “That flippy skirt backs up your girl power, do your glasses?”):

Power as beauty:

NEW! Nuvaring is a flexible ring that women place around their cervix once a month (image found here).  It slowly releases hormones that prevent ovulation.  “Let Freedom Ring!”

ALSO NEW! Need to compete with those men in their “power ties,” have some “power panties”:

NEW! (July ’10): Robb S. sent in another use of Rosie the Riveter by a “green” housecleaning service called Maid to Clean. No, seriously; Rose the Riveter, the icon of women’s contribution to the World War II war industry, was “maid to clean”: