‘Going Nuts’: Re‐presenting Pregnant Women

Abstract

Abstract This paper is based mainly on the stories of 31 women who were living in Hamilton, Aotearoa/New Zealand between 1992 and 1994 and were pregnant for the first time. The majority of these women claimed that they tended to withdraw from public places (for example, night clubs, bars, pubs, restaurants, cafes) and from public activities (for example, sport, leisure, and paid employment) as their pregnancy progressed. 1 argue that this withdrawal can, at least in part, be linked to a discourse that suggests pregnant women are ‘poverly’ emotional, irrational and frequently forget things. Their bodily and mental ‘difference’ is naturalised through discourse and used to disqualify them from stepping ‘objectively’ and ‘dispassionately’ into the public sphere and engaging in ‘public affairs’.

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