Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 Placenta : A Soft Sculpture for Health Education Opens up an Awkward Dialogue
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'[...]within the art world a number of works portray the pregnant woman as heroic and strong, but this is suggested to be an ongoing expression of the worth of women being inherent in their fertility, rather than the works imparting a sense of personal confidence, or an embodied focus for women who birth. [...]social disgust for women's reproductive processes has permeated into birthing women's sense of self, creating notions of disgust and fear, with consequences for labour and post-childbirth. In this paper I will touch upon how public health and societal institutions have progressively eliminated our sense of comfort with, and reverence for the blood and bloodied matter that comes from the reproductive processes of the female body, and also explore how human cultural "sacred" birthing rituals have been replaced with medicalised rituals that are lacking in spiritual nurture, and how these may be contributing to the fast-escalating statistics of post-natal mental health diagnoses. [...]I will demonstrate the power of a created, artistic artefact to elicit dialogue that, while awkward at first, opens a treasure trove of human connection through story-telling and shared reverence for the female contribution of blood to the human species.' (Publication abstract)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Hecate vol. 45 no. 1/2 Carole Ferrier (editor), Jena Woodhouse (editor), 2019 21220789 2019 periodical issue

    'The house husbands or SNAGS, a new phenomenon, did not see this as a permanent role and most, sooner or later, tired of a lack of life in the public sphere; despite a brief fashion for the male population's public job being private Home Duties, many men longed to re-enter the usual world; one in which important or sometimes stimulating things went on. The Australian Institute of Family Studies (in the government Department of Social Services) has regularly researched attitudes to gender roles within households in relation to things such as divided domestic work and has found, in its surveys, considerable support for shared housework. Other factors are in play in many countries, especially the incidence of child marriage (650 million girls) and of Female Genital Mutilation (imposed upon 200 million girls), the latter increasingly administered by actual health services rather than the stereotypical old, female relative with a razor blade and a sewing basket. The witches and midwives of centuries ago were one thing (documented, for example, in Barbara Ehrenreich's 1973 Witches, Midwives and Nurses) but more recently, in COVID-19 times, women are much in demand in their jobs/professions as health workers, and have been given enthusiastic encouragement to lead their working life in close contact with often viralent infections, as "essential workers"-a category that seems to have benefits for the bourgeoisie who belong to it, but not many for nurses working long and demanding shifts, wearing often-uncomfortable Personal Protective Equipment, in hospitals and infection-testing clinics.' (Carole Ferrier, Editorial introduction) 

    2019
    pg. 134-153, 311
Last amended 5 Mar 2021 07:39:53
134-153, 311 Placenta : A Soft Sculpture for Health Education Opens up an Awkward Dialoguesmall AustLit logo Hecate
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