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What is prenatal maternity (Chapter 1 (The external image of pregnancy -…
What is prenatal maternity
Chapter 1
Life and death
health, and the protection of the child, even before it is born. the desire to keep the child healthy, that blames the mother for the illnesses of the child, and the fact that this is present in Handmaid even prior to conception. relate to medical feminist.
motif of the wall and murder and upcoming death of Bella, with the fact she can't die
biological bond in the carrying of the child
legal cases in the sense of surrogates who are and are not related to the children, and the rulings on these cases, and the legal definition of that bond. this is a very good point as it quantifies the bond in court terms
in this there is also the point that the baby is alive when she is with Janine, and Janine is kept around for the child to feed, but once she is handed over is when she becomes a shredder
this also fits to the breastfeeding of beloved, the interconnection of mother and child that are meant to be kept together
The external image of pregnancy - the private becoming public and the lack of fertility. the women become representations rather than anything else
Smugness of Janine
the use of images to perpetuate an ideal
this can then link into the celebration of maternity present with Beyonce - both alienated and lauded, but both directions damage the image of the mother. this can then tie to the debates in feminist thought, and differences between I and B.
the idea of pregnancy as the ideal time of joy and luck in conceiving damages the role of women in pregnancy and leads to situations in which women cannot get help
The commodification of children, linking to the rise in IVF and fertility treatments - this ties to the external show of pregnancy. also the crucial part that fertility treatments are not allowed in Gilead. (I think)
The sense that if you dont have a child, you aren't trying hard enough
Birth - all three of the girls, and the difference between J and her wife in the sense of the whore/mother interplay. definitely bring in the critical pieces here.
the physical marking of the body with carrying the children - and the relationships with the women's own mothers - the scarring and marked women
the idea of needing to be physically near your child, relating to the Berlant imaging and how Sethe begins to forget her children once they aren't with her
the fact that none of the people are able to see their child until they are born