The Mystery of Pregnancy in Mainstream Media
NOTE: I refer to those who have periods and pregnancy as women (and the related health as women’s reproductive health) in this piece. But I know and acknowledge that not all women have periods/can get pregnant and not everyone who has periods/can get pregnant are identified as women. This is mostly since when it comes to the media, it is still only women who are shown to have periods and pregnancy.
Women's reproductive system in the media…is quite simply not talked about. Women mysteriously don't have periods, cramps, other symptoms of periods, get pregnant (unless it's related to the plot or the actress is) or have any issues when it comes to their reproductive system (like Endometriosis or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)). Why aren't these things represented in the media? They are very real things that everyday women can or do go through.
Let's talk about periods first. It's just about never talked about. There are only about two that I can think of off the top of my head. One is in the tv show, Grey's Anatomy, where two of the main female characters ask a main male character (all three of these characters live together), to buy tampons. But that's about the extent of it (besides the male character ranting that he's not the female characters' brother to do things like that). The other example is book one or two of the Song of the Lioness series (by Tamora Pierce). In the book, the main character Alanna is about 12ish and she's grown up without female influences. As well as the fact, she's currently pretending to be a boy so she can be a knight. She wakes up one day and sees blood around her lower half of her body. She freaks out and gets the only person who knows is a female, a servant she's known since childhood, to get someone to help her. The servant tells a mutual friend, a thief by the name George, about Alanna's issue. George, in turn, takes Alanna to his mother. George's mother explains to Alanna about her period and gives her a charm to ward off pregnancy, in case she decides she wants to have sex. This is all a brief part of the book but it is still there in the book. A series that is aimed towards young teenagers, who are starting their periods.
While we are on the topic of periods, let's talk about pregnancy. Why is it that people have sex and the women never get pregnant?? There's no mention of birth control or condoms or Plan B or anything like that. For example, in the show The 100, the main character has sex, as do other characters in the show. All of them teenagers and none of them ever end up pregnant?! Or for that matter get an STD. The show is post-apocalyptic, a very post-apocalyptic one, word of sorts. It makes sense that they might not have condoms but there should probably be some control of birth control.
Or if the character is pregnant, they seem to have a pleasant one, which isn’t necessarily the truth. Some women do have a nice pleasant one but there are womenwho don’t. Maybe they have to be careful because of their age, or previous health conditions. Or the pregnancy itself is a bit harmful for the woman because of the baby or the hormones. Some women have morning sickness all the time, and maybe it’s bad for them. Or maybe they don’t. Also in media, after the pregnancy the new mother doesn’t have any issues like postpartum depression. And somehow magically they go back to their original body shape, or at the very least something close to it. Without having to put any effort into doing so.
Another thing is that just about all the time, the baby is born perfect. No issues or problems. This might be the truth for most people but there are some people for whom it’s not true. Maybe the mother does things that are harmful to the fetus, like drinking or smoking. Or maybe genetics come into play that harm the baby, whether it’s something small or something big.
Abortion is such a taboo topic, both in media in real life. It’s considered bad and not something women should do. But there are circumstances where abortion is needed. For example, the woman isn’t ready to be a mother or doesn't want to be one. Why should children be brought into this world in that sort of circumstance? Especially when there are so many children in this world that need parents, because they are orphans or because they’re parents gave them up.
One show that I can think of that deals with pregnancy in a more diverse way is Jane the Virgin. In the show, the main character, Jane – who is a virgin as the title implies, goes in for a routine pap smear where she ends up being artificially inseminated. The first season of the show deals a lot with Jane and this unexpected baby. She fights with herself, as well as other family members and her fiancée, on whether to have this baby. Ultimately she does. In the second season, another main character, Petra, artificially inseminates herself. The season deals with her pregnancy, which isn’t that perfect one and the aftermath of the birth of her twin girls. Petra ends up having postpartum depression. The show shows how Petra deals with it. In the current season, season 3, Jane’s mother, Xo, ends up pregnant. In the previous season, Xo explicitly states she doesn’t want any more children, which does cause her to break up with her then lover. Because of this fact she has an abortion, a decision she makes guilty free. She had a child and raised her.
Seeing this diversity in the show is great. But it’s one show and only three different scenarios. It’s a step in the right direction but there is a long way to go. And what about reproductive health issues like Endometriosis or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). There’s just about no mention of it, or other health issues, in media, fictional or not.
Let’s leave the fictional world for a bit and talk about the media in life, things like the news. When it comes to internal reproductive systems in the news, according to a studydone by Women’s Media Center more than half the stories told about this sort of news are reported by men. There is something wrong with this. It’s someone with internal reproductive organs who has to go through the decisions made on those bodies, not men. There are people who need birth control because it helps with their periods, there are people who need abortions because they aren’t quite ready to be parents. Or maybe having that baby is harmful to them. Or the embryo is a reminder of something horrible that happened to them . There are people who have to pay tax on things that help them function in society and use it every month. There are people who don’t have access to this same thing that other people are taxed to buy and use. Who are men to make a decision on something that doesn’t affect them? Someone who may not even know how a person works. And those who might be set in their way of things, which may potentially be an old way of thinking. There are basic rights that people are deprived of because a man has made the decision to do so. The decision to tax things like pads and tampons. The decision that people can’t have abortions.
There are a huge number of things that people go through or can potentially go through. It would be great if the media could show these because it shows people they aren’t alone.