Cowles Library Blogs

Pregnant with the Stars: Watching and Wanting the Celebrity Baby Bump by Renee Ann Cramer

Join us to learn what four things happened in 1991 to shape women’s reproductive lives in the year 2016.

Renee Ann Cramer, associate professor and chair of Law, Politics, and Society at Drake, will discuss her book Pregnant with the Stars on Wednesday, April 20 at 7 p.m. in the Cowles Library Reading Room. The conversation and a reception following are free and open to the public.

“Check out that baby bump!” Online and print magazines, television shows, and personal blogs are awash with gossip and speculation about pregnant celebrities. What drives our cultural obsession with celebrity baby bumps? Pregnant with the Stars examines the American fascination with, and judgment of, celebrity pregnancy, and exposes how our seemingly innocent interest in “baby bumps” actually reinforces troubling standards about femininity, race, and class, while increasing the surveillance and regulation of all women in our society.

This book charts how the American understanding of pregnancy has evolved by examining pop culture coverage of the pregnant celebrity body. Investigating and comparing the media coverage of pregnant celebrities, including Jennifer Garner, Angelina Jolie, Beyoncé Knowles, Kristen Bell, M.I.A., Jodie Foster, and Mila Kunis, Renée Cramer shows us how women are categorized and defined by their pregnancies. Their stories provide a paparazzi-sized lens through which we can interpret a complex set of social and legal regulations of pregnant women.

Cramer exposes how cultural ideas like the “rockin’ post-baby body” are not only unattainable; they are a means of social control. Combining cultural and legal analysis, Pregnant with the Stars uncovers a world where pregnant celebrities are governed and controlled alongside the recent, and troubling, proliferation of restrictive laws aimed at women in the realm of reproductive justice and freedom. Cramer asks each reader and cultural consumer to recognize that the seeing, judging, and discussion of the “baby bump” isn’t merely frivolous celebrity gossip — it is an act of surveillance, commodification, and control.

Renee Ann Cramer is associate professor and chair of Law, Politics, and Society at Drake University. Her second book, Pregnant with the Stars: Watching and Wanting the Celebrity Baby Bump, on our obsession with celebrity pregnancy, was published by Stanford University Press.

The University Archives honors the installation of Earl F. Martin as Drake’s 13^th President with a special exhibit: Drake Presidential History, Inaugurations 1881-2016.   Created by Archives Assistant and Drake senior, Cecilia Panella, the exhibit is in Cowles Library’s Collier Room (2nd floor).   Along with reproductions, the exhibit also includes original documents and historical photographs.  The President’s mace and medallion will also be on display just outside the Archives.  The exhibit, viewable through the summer, is free and open to the public during regular Library hours.

Henry Harmon is installed as Drake’s 7th President in 1941

• Visible Body
• World History in Video
• Writing Workshop
• Speaking Center
• Student Center (IT?)
• Drop fines, 24/7 space

• ITS website
• New student information
• Computer recommendations
• Support Center information
• LMS, Blackboard

Everyone at Drake is invited to attend one or more thirty-minute sessions designed to give you a brief overview of some of the many new resources and initiatives at Cowles Library! Refreshments will be served! No RSVP necessary; there are three sessions, which are each given two times, so come to whichever suits your interests and schedules:

Drake University’s staff, in collaboration with Cowles Library, announce a “pilot run” of an All-University Book Club! The purposes of this book club are simple: Encourage reading for the sake of reading, and increase conversation among faculty, staff, and students across campus through the medium of books!

Cowles Library has eleven copies (hint: Ask for the book on reserve for Library 301) available for “The Kind Worth Killing,” a well-reviewed 2015 mystery that will be our first book. Details are in the flyer that follows (click here for a print-friendly version); the book is available in audio format from Audible.com, at various DM-area Public Libraries, and Amazon, in addition to the Cowles Library copies.

So, read the book and let Sara Heijerman know about your interest in discussing; the face-to-face discussion sessions will be in January (with the possibility of more than one, if there is enough interest), so happy reading!