Book tip: Rethinking the Public Fetus

The concept of the “public fetus” was coined by feminist scholars in the 1980s and 1990s. It referred to today’s visual culture of pregnancy and fetal images, which are often traced back to the 1960s when Lennart Nilsson’s photographs of human development were published in Life magazine. The images of a growing fetus changed people’s ways of looking at life, revolutionized sex education, and played a major role in the sexual revolution of the 1970s, while also being used by the conservative anti-abortion movement.

The new book Rethinking the Public Fetus, Historical Perspectives on the Visual Culture of Pregnancy, gives a new and deepened view of the “public fetus”. Scholars from a range of disciplines explore this multifaceted history by highlighting visualizations of pregnant and fetal bodies in a variety of geographical and cultural contexts, spanning a period of more than 300 years.

Featuring much of Lennart Nilsson’s work, this book is well worth reading for those who want to dive deeper into the effects of his photography on today’s society, as well as giving the reader an extensive perspective of the subject of the public fetus.