Queen B vs. Plan B

Beyoncé Knowles is one of the world’s most recognized and celebrated pop stars, and her well-documented power-couple relationship with Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter has, as some critics would say, solidified their dynasty as the King and Queen of America.

Well, 9 months and 8,000 “Destiny’s Child” jokes later, the heiress was born.

Perhaps the most genetically gifted human being that will ever come into our mortal realm, it has been speculated that Blue Ivy Carter is the preemptive reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and the second coming of Christ.

But more interesting, maybe, is the speculation and sheer amount of media coverage surrounding Beyoncé’s pregnancy itself.

Was she faking it? Did she get a surrogate? What is she going to wear?

Teenage girls, one of Queen B’s biggest demographics of little divas, are submerged in a culture that is both aggressively opposed to and morbidly fascinated with childbearing.

Especially in Indiana, where abstinence-only sex education reigns, young girls are assaulted with a culture that simultaneously shames and celebrates women’s bodies, so it makes sense that an experience which is so uniquely feminine as birth should be even more of a talking point.

My personal reproductive education was, as they often are, full of contradictions. Your body is a temple.

Oh, but when you open up your temple to others, you also open yourself up to a wide range of consequences from incurable diseases to perhaps the worstconsequence of all — pregnancy.

 But pregnancy is a gift in itself, it is a child, it is a life, which is not to be sacrificed or squandered.

Media targeted toward young adult audiences is saturated with teen-pregnancy-related programming.

In recent years we’ve seen shows and films such as “16 and Pregnant”, “Teen Mom”, “Secret Life of the American Teenager”, “Glee” and the quintessential teen pregnancy flick “Juno” tackle the controversial topic, but rarely are the girls on these shows portrayed in what many would consider a realistic setting.

Almost never are there complications with the pregnancy, or the ubiquitous subsequent adoption, into what we can assume is another wealthy family.

Even in the film “Knocked Up”, a romantic comedy in which a young, driven and successful woman becomes pregnant after having a one-night-stand, the possibility of having an abortion receives about a minute of total screen time and is quickly dismissed.

Why would the media choose to portray childbirth out of wedlock ­­— an occurrence which is more common among the lower-class, disadvantaged population — this way?

Generally, the women in these programs are middle-to-upper-class, white and have a strong, familial or societal support system.

At the same time, these girls’ choices are not glorified, but rather mocked, shamed and scandalized.

Pregnancies like Beyonce’s cause such a stir because her status of being wealthy, happily married and of a societally appropriate age is so coveted and idyllic.

In Kate Bolick’s piece for the Atlantic, “All The Single Ladies,” Bolick dissects the problem in the changing dynamic of the modern American family and describes the direct correlation between male financial success and the success of their romantic partnership as well as their family.

What is it about our collective unconscious that glorifies this family structure and scandalizes others?

A rumor that didn’t surface heavily in wake of the recent pregnancy was that Jay-Z had already fathered a child from a previous relationship.

But why would this information not be as relevant or as prevalent in media coverage as suspicions of a rumored surrogate or fake pregnancy?

Why are motherhood and fatherhood treated so differently, and what needs to shift in our psyche for those who are mothers and fathers to achieve any kind of honest reproductive equality?

The idea of a traditional, idyllic marriage, which is exemplified by our adored celebrity couples such as Bey and Jay, who courted, wed and had a child in that exact order, is a rarity more than it is a normality.

­— alliston@indiana.edu