Knock Me Up

I chose the book, “Knock Me Up, Knock Me Down,” by Kelly Oliver. She points out her view that pregnancy was once looked upon as shameful in the middle nineteenth century, but because of Hollywood films, we are now able to change the way of how society use to think about it. Because of Hollywood films, pregnancy is now looked as beautiful and cute, but it also shows our fear of pregnancy.
This book could be written to a casual film viewer, but it is more directly written towards women or even feminists. I know that the book is being aimed towards women by how Oliver analyzes many different films related to babies and childbirth and comes to a conclusion about what society thinks of pregnancy. The overall thesis is that Hollywood films have evolved to become the bridge to showing its many viewers of how pregnancy is something pure and precious compared to when it use to be viewed as disgraceful.
Development:
The first piece of evidence that the book uses to further its thesis is when Oliver discusses about the film, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
In the movie, Bella who is the main character, is shown with a big belly due to that she is pregnant. While giving birth, viewers get to actually see Bella’s naked belly and her screaming and crying. The baby comes out covered in blood. And at one point, the camera zooms out for the viewers to see the full body of Bella that is covered from the thighs and up, but her legs are laid out with blood between them. This helps to support the thesis because one of the key scenes was when the baby finally comes out and the husband, Edward, is carefully holding the baby while smiling happily at it. This gives the audience a reassuring thought that everything Bella went through was worth it. The audience is once reminded again of how cherishable it is for a new life to come into this