Abstract:
This article explores the kinds of labor involved in visually producing a post-feminist pregnancy by analyzing a series of “baby bump” photographs on Pinterest. I demonstrate how baby bump “pins” signal women’s varied investments in a post-feminist aesthetic; reflect post-feminism’s glorification of self-surveillance of the pregnant body; and function as hyper-feminized milestone markers of post-feminist temporality. Another side effect of these images is the creation of a culture of comparison wherein female users “pin” these baby bump photographs as a present or future plan and thereby emotionally invest in the “pin” as an object of happiness wherein pregnancy is linked to maternal bliss and a stylized feminine appearance. Overall, my research demonstrates that Pinterest is not only a space where post-feminist pregnancy is “calendarized” but also a pedagogical space that teaches women how to stylize their pregnancies in ways that reproduce normative maternal femininity.

Keywords:
New Domesticity; Pinterest; Post-feminism; femininity; pregnancy; temporality.

(Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, USA)

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Rossie, Amanda
“Pinning” down time: post-feminist pregnancies on Pinterest.
In: Feminist Media Studies 19,8 (Nov 2019), pp. 1079-1095.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1500928
ISSN 1468-0777 (Print); ISSN 1471-5902 (Online)