Prenatal Paranoia: An Analysis of the Bumpy Landscape for the Pregnant Athlete

ABSTRACT

I analyze the case of pregnant athletes, and argue that sexism surrounds pregnant athlete’s participation in sport. I claim that we stigmatize the pregnant body in action. Participating in sport while pregnant is often considered socially irresponsible behaviour because of unfounded fear of harming the fetus. Many believe that elite sport is in conflict with reproductive ability. However, this belief is not rooted in scientific findings, and rather is reinforced by traditional sexist views of the woman’s athletic body and its capabilities. Analyzing the various degrees of sexism like sexual objectification and unjust discrimination that surround the pregnant athlete is a relevant and necessary exercise in order to challenge traditional sexist views and increase agency for the pregnant athlete.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexism
• sexual objectification
• pregnancy
• women athletes

Acknowledgements

A version of this paper was presented as the Presidential Keynote Address at the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport (IAPS) annual conference in 2017. Many thanks to the reviewers for their helpful feedback and to Pam Sailors for her academic coaching.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. A google search provides 292,000,000 results of blogs, forums, magazine articles, newspaper articles, etc. discussing how many women do not show at 25 weeks. https://www.google.ca/search?biw=1120&bih=578&ei=aOj2W_HkMuWf_QbLor0w&q=25+weeks+and+not+showing&oq=25+weeks+and+not+showing&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0i7i30.122657.123288.124413..0.0.0.124.432.1j3…0..1.gws-wiz….0i71.mHWbjuufAO0 Similarity, there are 160,000,000 results to the search ‘I didn’t know I was pregnant at 25 weeks’ https://www.google.ca/search?biw=1120&bih=578&ei=aOj2W_HkMuWf_QbLor0w&q=25+weeks+and+not+showing&oq=25+weeks+and+not+showing&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0i7i30.122657.123288.124413..0.0.0.124.432.1j3…0..1.gws-wiz….0i71.mHWbjuufAO0. Finally, the channel TLC produced a reality television show in 2015, ‘I didn’t know I was pregnant’ https://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/i-didnt-know-i-was-pregnant/.

2. The acronym MILF implies: ‘a mother I would like to fuck’.

3. Tweet from Ramona Shelburne @ramonashelburne. 1/25/19, 2:52 PM. Twitter.