Pop Culture's Fraught Obsession With Celebrity Baby Bumps
Beyoncé’s announcement both feeds and disrupts the tabloid-pregnancy ecosystem, says the author of <em>Pregnant With the Stars</em>.
At a time of national political controversy, no one would argue that Beyoncé’s pregnancy with twins is particularly consequential news. But no one can deny the public’s fascination with it, either. Her colorful and evocative Instagram post about the matter quickly became the most-liked in history, and celebrity pregnancies have been objects of widespread obsession for years.
In her 2015 book Pregnant With the Stars: Watching and, Renee Cramer argued that the way that famous mothers-to-be are discussed and obsessed over reflects deep-seated attitudes about gender, race, and reproductive rights. A professor and chair of law, politics, and society at Drake University, she analyzed Beyoncé’s 2011 pregnancy with Blue Ivy while writing the book.
