ABSTRACT
Pregnant women, as the material sign of the reproductive woman, cannot easily avoid the scrutiny of a fascinated gaze. A recent article in Self magazine unselfconsciously gushes that “in the office, on the street, it’s everybody’s baby”:
A woman who is pregnant immediately knows that her body is no longer her own. She has a tenant with a nine-month lease; and should he spend every night kicking or hiccuping … there is nothing she can do. Sharing one’s body with a small being is so thoroughly wondrous, though, that one can generally overlook the disadvantages. The real problem is sharing one’s pregnant body with the rest of the world (Kaplan 1989:156).
