On February 1st, 2018, Kylie Jenner gave birth to her daughter, Stormi Webster and literally took the world by storm. During her pregnancy, there was an immense amount of media speculation and the release of countless tabloids rumoring her potential motherhood with Travis Scott, her boyfriend at the time. Kim Kardashian is criticized on a daily basis on her ability to parent her four children. Her line of work modeling “provocative” pictures and running her beauty business seem to be a running disapproval among both mothers and Hollywood reporters. Another popular social figure, Cardi B brought her daughter Kulture Kari Cephus into the world on July 10, 2018 after denying rumors of her pregnancy until her reveal during her performance on Saturday Night Live.
What all of these details have in common is the media coverage, fixation and obsession of women in Hollywood – specifically, their ripe potential for having brand new buns in their ovens. But why is the media so preoccupied with the idea of celebrity motherhood?
Rumors and coverage of celebrity pregnancies are dependent and rooted in old-fashioned ideologies of women, as well as their purpose and inherent desires for motherhood. Every successful woman in Hollywood has been subjected to rumors of pregnancy. Their bodies are heavily scrutinized by the media through this process, as well as their sex life by the reporters that speculate who they are dating.
What does it say about how female bodies are policed and how women who are portrayed as role models in the spotlight are expected to look? Stars like Cardi B, Camila Cabello, Miley Cyrus and more have to justify their bodies changing and straying away from “the ideal figure.” By publicly announcing that they, in fact, have gained weight, they then reject rumors of pregnancy.
The “celebrity baby fever” creates a real life example of exactly how much women are determined valuable by their marital and maternal statuses. In an essay published by The Huffington Post, after a slew of her own pregnancy rumors, Jennifer Aniston remarked on how the coverage of potential pregnancies in Hollywood “points to the perpetuation of the notion that women are somehow incomplete, unsuccessful or unhappy if they’re not married with children.” The stories about the overwhelming talent and achievements of award-winning female artists and actresses should pale in comparison to tabloid rumors of possible pregnancy. The notions behind this obsessive phenomenon can set correct expectations to both young men and women about what really measures a woman’s worth.