Precious,Pure, Uncivilised,Vulnerable: Infant Embodiment in Australian Popular Media |
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Authors: | Deborah Lupton |
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Institution: | Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney, , Camperdown, NSW, Australia |
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Abstract: | This article describes how infants' bodies were portrayed in a range of Australian popular media texts. Four main discourses on infant embodiment were identified: the infant as ‘precious’, ‘pure’, ‘uncivilised’ and ‘vulnerable’. While, on the one hand, infants were positioned as the most valuable and affectively appealing of humans, they were alternatively represented as uncivilised. Infant bodies were portrayed as appropriately inhabiting the domestic sphere of the home and as barely tolerated or even as excluded in the public sphere. The discussion looks at how concepts of ‘nature’, civility and Self and Otherness underpinned the identified discourses. |
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Keywords: | discourse infants parenting popular culture sociology |
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