{"id":10329,"date":"2009-07-02T11:34:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-02T16:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=10329"},"modified":"2012-10-19T01:51:59","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T06:51:59","slug":"motherhood-as-womens-most-sacred-birthright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/07\/02\/motherhood-as-womens-most-sacred-birthright\/","title":{"rendered":"Motherhood As Women’s “Most Sacred Birthright”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan G. alerted us to a commercial for First Response pregnancy<\/del> fertility tests. He noticed that the commercial cuts off the pregnant mother’s head, turning her into a faceless baby incubator (like in these editorial cartoons<\/a> and not unrelated to this photography<\/a>).\u00a0 Ryan writes: “It’s clear what’s most important in this picture.”<\/p>\n

\"firstresponse\"<\/p>\n

While Ryan couldn’t find the commercial to embed, he did take down the narration and sent in some screen shots.\u00a0 Here is the text of the voiceover:<\/p>\n

The moment we pass from womanhood to motherhood, we cross a threshold. For many of us, that step is filled with wish and worry, hope and how, wonder and when. Fertility is a woman’s most sacred birthright. For over twenty years, First Response has been there, helping women answer the most important questions of their lives. Now we bring you new help: the First Response fertility test for women.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ryan offered commentary, so I’ll rely on him.\u00a0 He writes:<\/p>\n

…”womanhood” and “motherhood” are presented as two separate things, with motherhood trumping womanhood. I’m assuming this is partly because a woman is not allowed to have a sex drive after she becomes a mother, and we all know that a woman without a sex drive is the higher form of woman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"womanhoodmotherhood\"<\/p>\n

He continues:<\/p>\n

“Fertility is a woman’s most sacred birthright.” God knows the most important thing any woman can contribute to society is being a baby farm. Strangely, I never see Viagra commercials arguing that knocking people up is a man’s most sacred birthright.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"sacredbirthright\"<\/p>\n

“[H]elping women answer the most important questions of their lives.” The most important question in a woman’s life doesn’t involve her own personal needs, but the needs of her children and soon-to-be children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"wishworryhopehowwonder\"
\nFinally, Ryan writes:<\/p>\n

And of course, there’s no father pictured here, or even a passing mention of one. Why would there be?\u00a0 Conceiving, planning for, and raising a child is exclusively the job–ahem, the “sacred birthright”–of the mother.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks for the excellent and provocative analysis, Ryan!<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Lisa Wade is a\u00a0professor of sociology at Occidental College<\/a>. You can follow her on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan G. alerted us to a commercial for First Response pregnancy fertility tests. He noticed that the commercial cuts off the pregnant mother’s head, turning her into a faceless baby incubator (like in these editorial cartoons and not unrelated to this photography).\u00a0 Ryan writes: “It’s clear what’s most important in this picture.” While Ryan couldn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2083,55,2091,2088,252,272],"class_list":["post-10329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abortionreproduction","tag-gender","tag-gender-healthmedicine","tag-gender-marriagefamily","tag-healthmedicine","tag-marriagefamily"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10329"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52041,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10329\/revisions\/52041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}