# Professional pictures of pregnant women with minimal clothing - Is this mainstream now? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 11, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567 "2011-05-11T21:20:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/41 "2011-05-12T19:02:59Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > Per the comments above, some of you look at pregnant women like they’re ugly dolls. Not at all. I do find it a little strange that a woman would magically transform into someone who should be photographed nude when she wasn’t that person nine months ago. Nor will she most likely be taking nude photos of herself for the living room wall nine months after the childbirth. There’s only this narrow window when she’s suddenly interested is showing that she’s “beautiful, sexy, happy” and that’s only when she can add “…and pregnant” to it. I don’t care much one way or the other but it seems strange is all. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/42 "2011-05-12T19:09:21Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I do find it a little strange that a woman would magically transform into someone who should be photographed nude when she wasn’t that person nine months ago. Nor will she most likely be taking nude photos of herself for the living room wall nine months after the childbirth. There’s only this narrow window when she’s suddenly interested is showing that she’s “beautiful, sexy, happy” and that’s only when she can add “…and pregnant” to it. Yes. I do find this a little weird, and even a little bit depressing. As if women are only sexy when pregnant. Of course, I don’t find pregnant women sexy. Granted, I don’t find most women sex. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/43 "2011-05-12T19:22:09Z")
I think many women _really are_ more beautiful, sexier, and happier while pregnant. At least on the good days. You’ve heard of the “glow”? Hormones can do amazing things. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/44 "2011-05-12T21:41:31Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Being pregnant is pretty much _proof_ of sex. Well, exactly. 🙂 I agree with you, but I’ve also heard of people with this weird cognitive dissonance that women stop being sexy as soon as they get pregnant, because (I guess?) OMG! You can’t think of a MOM that way!! Apparently the idea that a woman can be simultaneously sexual AND a mom is relatively new. (I say “heard of” because of the few friends I have who _have_ kids, I wasn’t in geographical proximity when they were pregnant, so the whole business of pregnancy and its cultural impact is not something I have a lot of direct experience with.) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/45 "2011-05-13T00:49:36Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > Apparently the idea that a woman can be simultaneously sexual AND a mom is relatively new. Maybe in this particular time period, but through most of human history I believe pregnant was sexy. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/46 "2011-05-13T01:09:29Z")
It is very mainstream among the upper middle class. I find it disturbing not because of the "look at meeeee"ness of it but because I know a lot of people who have suffered miscarriages. I would feel like I was/like they are jinxing the whole pregnancy in having a big photo shoot. YMMV of course. ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/47 "2011-05-13T01:24:37Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Yes, but what if your mother was a famous actress who had done any number of nude scenes? Those friends would definitely have seen the films on DVD. I thought we were talking about the middle class and upper-middle class ladies who did this? I don’t know what the deal would be for, say, Demi Moore’s kids. > [@Kaio](#): > > Mom “shouldn’t” expose Junior to the idea that she might have a life and a personhood beyond just changing dirty diapers and driving the kids to soccer? I don’t think mom ‘shouldn’t’ do it, she can do whatever she wants. I just find it weird is all, and I can’t even imagine what I would have thought if I had gone over to a friends house in high school and seen photos like that up on the wall. And I don’t have anything against moms having a life or personhood. There is quite a lot of middle ground between ‘your mom is only good for popping out babies’ and ‘your mom was a sexy, sexy love goddess and we’re going to put up naked pictures of her’. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/48 "2011-05-13T01:36:29Z")
> [@Meyer6](#): > > I thought we were talking about the middle class and upper-middle class ladies who did this? I don’t know what the deal would be for, say, Demi Moore’s kids. Did you see where I mentioned that we had a cabin at a nudist camp? I’ve seen my mom and dad naked, they were solidly middle class and I’m a reasonably normal person. I have no idea where this idea that seeing a relative naked will warp you. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/49 "2011-05-13T01:36:53Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > I find it disturbing not because of the "look at meeeee"ness of it but because I know a lot of people who have suffered miscarriages. I would feel like I was/like they are jinxing the whole pregnancy in having a big photo shoot. YMMV of course. They’re usually done late late in pregnancy, when the chance of miscarriage has decreased (but not completely). Hey, I forgot two people who I’ve known did shoots! One was my own SIL and brother. In their case, she was covered in some sort of flowing skirt with a small shirt and open belly, at the beach. She has some pictures in their living room, next to their wedding pictures and their family pictures. Her being pregnant (and being able to take it to almost-term, at the time) was a milestone for her and her husband (my brother). She had already miscarried before. My guess is that, for people like my SIL, they treat it as another milestone (see the wedding pictures, the official family pictures, the professionally done newborn baby pictures) in their lives, deserving as much attention. The other person is my SO’s sister. Her shoots were not professional (mostly just taken by her friends while she posed in various clothes). She did miscarry during her second trimester. And you know what? She collected many of those pictures and put them in their own album, as a memory of what did not happen. They are bittersweet. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/50 "2011-05-13T01:41:30Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > They’re usually done late late in pregnancy, when the chance of miscarriage has decreased (but not completely). Ahh I see. I’d still be anxious about a stillborn/SIDS thing. The ones I’ve seen have been like at the 4-5 month mark. It would seem a lot more reasonable at the 8 month mark. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/51 "2011-05-13T01:44:23Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > Too late to edit, but I did want to add that I wouldn’t post the pics on Facebook. I would have them for Junior’s baby book/keepsakes. I, not too long ago, was handed off my baby book. I don’t think I’d have been delighted by such a picture. It’s got nothing to do with me, really. I wasn’t around yet. It’s meaningful, if it’s meaningful at all, to my parents. There was a picture of me nursing; I’m fine with that. That’s me, and that’s meaningful to me. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/52 "2011-05-13T02:02:48Z")
I didn’t have anyone around to take pictures of me when I was pregnant. I wish I had, because I will never look like that again. Even if I’d had subsequent kids, I’d never look quite the same. It’s nine really important months of my life where I looked significantly different to all the other months of my life and I have no record of it. Maybe you being pregnant isn’t as interesting to those around you as it is to you, but the same goes for your pictures of you doing almost anything. If all of our Facebook photos have to be of us doing truly momentous things then hardly any of us would have any photos on there at all. They’re never actually naked, anyway. Not the few I’ve seen. They’re all about the bump and the happiness. ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/53 "2011-05-13T06:59:12Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Did you see where I mentioned that we had a cabin at a nudist camp? I’ve seen my mom and dad naked, they were solidly middle class and I’m a reasonably normal person. I have no idea where this idea that seeing a relative naked will warp you. 😕 I’ve seen my mom and dad naked plenty, too. Nudity was nowhere near verboten in our house. I still think there’s a difference between seeing them naked and having photos of them naked up around the house. In any case, you said “what if your mother was a famous actress who had done any number of nude scenes?”, which really doesn’t apply to most middle class people. Did that apply to your mother? ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/54 "2011-05-13T07:09:45Z")
I have suggestive photos of me taken by photographer friends while I was small and not pregnant, but I’d _never_ do the baby bump thing. Why remind the world of what went in and what is coming out of my vagina?! ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/55 "2011-05-13T07:13:54Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I, not too long ago, was handed off my baby book. I don’t think I’d have been delighted by such a picture. It’s got nothing to do with me, really. I wasn’t around yet. It’s meaningful, if it’s meaningful at all, to my parents. > > There was a picture of me nursing; I’m fine with that. That’s me, and that’s meaningful to me. I can’t wait til my little niece is older and sees [this pic](http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/163952_620042513389_71801845_34708170_1476911_n.jpg) of her parents. I’m jealous I don’t have one. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/56 "2011-05-13T12:19:52Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > Ahh I see. I’d still be anxious about a stillborn/SIDS thing. The ones I’ve seen have been like at the 4-5 month mark. It would seem a lot more reasonable at the 8 month mark. One, there are no miscarriages after 20 weeks. Past that point is classified as a stillbirth. Two, by that logic you wouldn’t even take baby pictures until after the first year. You don’t lessen the potential grief of losing a baby by acting like it’s going to happen, and you don’t get through that grief by pretending the pregnancy/child never happened. I have 3 close friends that have had a stillborn child. All treasure the pictures they have of their children, and I suspect all would be glad to have pictures of themselves pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/57 "2011-05-13T13:56:37Z")
Here’s some horrible pregnancy photos: [http://gilygily.com/funny-pictures-of-pregnant-women-41-photos.html](http://gilygily.com/funny-pictures-of-pregnant-women-41-photos.html) (note: I suspect at least one of these to be a photoshop job - the trailer/trash one) ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/58 "2011-05-13T14:04:59Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > Oooh, just what Junior wants…half-nekkid pictures of Mom with Daddy’s face pressed up against her belly…NOT! Actually I was thinking he might think it was cool to see where he lived for 9.5 months. I don’t actually have a picture of my mom’s pregnant belly, but I don’t think I would be squicked out if I did. It’s just a tummy. 😕😕 ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/59 "2011-05-13T14:10:24Z")
This: > [@CitizenPained](#): > > I can’t wait til my little niece is older and sees [this pic](http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/163952_620042513389_71801845_34708170_1476911_n.jpg) of her parents. I’m jealous I don’t have one. ☹ Awesome!! This: > [@fubbleskag](#): > > Here’s some horrible pregnancy photos: > > [http://gilygily.com/funny-pictures-of-pregnant-women-41-photos.html](http://gilygily.com/funny-pictures-of-pregnant-women-41-photos.html) Not so much. Good grief. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567/60 "2011-05-13T19:15:27Z")
> [@Meyer6](#): > > In any case, you said “what if your mother was a famous actress who had done any number of nude scenes?”, which really doesn’t apply to most middle class people. Did that apply to your mother? It is not as if famous people are any different than anyone else - they have children, grandchildren and even grandchildren. With the Internet, their children and their friends have undoubtedly seen stills from any nude scenes. I don’t understand why you claim there is any difference between famous people and non-famous people regarding nudity. Please clarify why there should be a distinction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professional-pictures-of-pregnant-women-with-minimal-clothing-is-this-mainstream-now/581567.md?page=4)