Philippine E-Journals

BEYOND THE BUMP: RECONCEIVING THE PHILOSOPHY OF PREGNANCY

Hazel T. Biana | Leni Dlr. Garcia | Ninotchka Mumtaj Albano

 

Abstract:

French philosopher Helene Cixous (1976) stressed the importance of feminine writing. She believes that women should take part in sharing their experiences from their own novel points-of-view. We discuss that while pregnancy is an experience unique to women, it has been misappropriated by patriarchal structures throughout the years. The pregnancy bump, which is more than just evidence of the uterus stretching to accommodate the fetus, is a symbol of woman’s triumphs and struggles all throughout conception, pregnancy, and childbirth. We show that women have already gone beyond the bump and challenged existing patriarchal system through different means, as Cixous has enjoined women to do. With this, it is asserted that the philosophy of pregnancy be reconceived as well, in order to escape existing boundaries that constrict the discourse to ethical issues of rape, abortion, and medical interventions, making it face issues that surround women’s experience of pregnancy, as well as deeper meanings the pregnant body itself represents.