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Does Beyonce have a surrogate? The footage of Beyonce‘s not true to pregnancy belly folding over in her dress has done more than shock fans and the press. If the performer has decided on a surrogacy route to motherhood, her decision to falsely portray a pregnancy says just as much about how our culture treats women who choose surrogates as it does about her personal choices.
Women who decide on surrogacy are often depicted as either hopelessly barren who will stop at nothing to hold a baby of their biological making or narcissistic gym bunnies who won’t even entertain the thought of carrying a baby out of vanity. These polarizing stereotypes seek to define motherhood within very narrow margins, alienating the experiences of many and the choices that women are entitled to make about their own bodies and lives. Reserving the experience of an “authentic motherhood” only for those who have chosen a traditional approach to parenthood is an antagonism on women and the increasing opportunities they have to control how they want a family — if at all.
Not all women who want to be mothers desire to carry children — and for an entire host of reasons. Whether you’re terrified of childbirth, have medical reasons, don’t want to take a professional hit to your career, or are simply uninterested in pregnancy — surrogacy is an option for women to mother that should hold no prerequisite. But it seems as though those who do opt for that road are often subjected to the hierarchy of motherhood or depicted as less of a mother for deciding against pregnancy.
Immediately the questions swirl from speculation about fertility to perhaps an extreme fixation on weight or appearance. Some women obviously do choose surrogacy for those reasons, but instantaneously chalking up the decision to the aforementioned circumstances ignores that surrogacy is a choice for women to make regardless of necessity. Women don’t need to be policed regarding how they want to have children, but any mother will tell you that they most often are.
The public should not take issue with Beyonce’s decision to choose a surrogate, should that ultimately be the case. But we should take issue with her hypothetical compliance in stigmatizing women who do, specifically by masquerading with a faux belly.
(photo: WENN)
16 days ago
[...] Surrogacy stigmas may still linger for many women, but apparently not for Giuliana Rancic. The E! News host who has struggled openly with infertility, IVF, and of course breast cancer, announced that she and her husband Bill Rancic are finally expecting. But watching the couple delight and gush over their long awaited happy ending suggests that perhaps those elevated eyebrows at the term “surrogate” are a thing of 2008. [...]
35 days ago
[...] But why would Beyonce feel the need to tote around a fake baby? Normally we would understand if we saw a new mother out and about on her own, assuming that the little one is home with a nanny. (Which this power couple obviously has at least one of.) However, once the rumor came out that Beyonce was faking her pregnancy, it became an attack on her for not being a real mother and revealed the stigma of surrogacy on both sides. [...]
120 days ago
[...] that Beyonce was enhancing her baby bump for public appearances, certain tidbits suggest that a surrogate was involved — which is a perfectly viable route to motherhood as far as we’re [...]
156 days ago
[...] in which Beyonce’s dress folded in a not so true to pregnancy fashion, spectulation about hypothetical surrogates have surfaced. Beyonce’s list of recent music videos, one of which was shot just weeks before [...]
I wonder how many people who are saying it’s fake have ever been pregnant. As a mother of 7. Yes, that’s right I said 7. She’s pregnant. It’s not a fake belly. Material will fold like that. Material has give. Oh yeah. I’m also 58 and have been sewing since I was 8 and have even done factory sewing for people like Calvin Klein. Enough of the stupidity. Everyone needs to get a life.
There’s no way in hell your pregnant stomach will collapse in on itself. Yeah fabric has some give but a pregnant belly doesn’t. It’s quite obvious to anyone with half a brain that bey is faking her pregnancy. One day your pregnant and the next your are not come on now. How does that work?
I too have been pregnant, numerous times. PREGNANT BELLIES DON’T FOLD OVER!!!!! That is either fat, or a fake belly. PS, that bikini pic of hers just looks like someone sticking out their stomach, not a pregnant belly. She is definitely NOT preggers.
IF she is using a surrogate because of medical issues, more power to her, but I suspect it is because she doesn’t want to have to ‘sacrifice’ her body. What kind of Mom is she going to be if she won’t even carry her own baby?!
Shut the f@&$ up! You sound like such an idiot..oh material has give I’ve been sewing since I was 8..wtf??…really..material has give? Who would have knew?? I always thought that my shirts were made from steel..lmao..btw..fabric gives but a pregnant stomach doesn’t..and at 58 your eyesight probably sucks but put your glasses on grandma and take another look..pregnant woman are unable to bend like that and normally sit bending back not forwards..but thanks for the lesson on material
175 days ago
[...] is going to be a father come February whether you’re buying those Beyonce surrogacy rumors or not, and the rapper and business mogul took to the pages of GQ to talk about the type of parent [...]
195 days ago
[...] coupled with that TV interview where her stomach visibly collapsed, it all reads a bit odd. Whether Beyonce is choosing a surrogate or enhancing her bump for appearances, she continues to keep us [...]
With the amount of Hollywood celebs having babies via surrogate, I’m surprised that IF this collapsible belly is true, that she’s choosing to fake a pregnancy rather than using her celebrity to promote how awesome it is that women choose to have babies for women who can’t. (Or don’t want to….)
she didnt have to lie though
I personally feel there is nothing wrong with surrogacy when a woman is unable to carry a child for whatever reasons may be related to her. However, a woman who chooses surrogacy due to vanity reason i.e. not wanting to gain weight or due to getting in the way of a professional career, need to rethink the idea of motherhood altogether. In Beyonce’s case, she doesn’t appear to be pregnant. And the problem comes with Beyonce when she attempt to fake a pregnancy. If she found it necessary to appear pregnant and reveal it in such a public manner (the VMA’s) then she should really be pregnant. If she wants to be pregnant and opt to use a surrogate, then be real and let the public know this is the option she chose. People don’t lie about choices they make when feel they are the right choices. Just as a baby bump doesn’t fold and collapse, as did with Beyonce. Her fans say leave her alone about the whole thing but she is the one who put it in everyone’s face and it ended up looking suspicious. If she really is desperately needing of attention, then she most definitely got it. Beyonce is human just like all the rest of us and if she is faking such a sensative situation, then she needs to be called out on it and offer up an explaination.
210 days ago
[...] still considered controversial and has a stigma attached to it. Mommyish, our sister site, writer Koa Beck said: “Women who decide on surrogacy are often depicted as either hopelessly barren who will stop [...]
I really LOVE how this article just goes with the fake pregnancy route and doesn’t offer any other explanations. Did her belly fold in, or are you just seeing an optical illusion formed by the weird shaped dress she was wearing? She’s already denied the fact that it’s a fake, so quit writing these horrible articles. You could have just written a nice article about how it’s OK to use a surrogate (and it is) without using her as a poster child.
There are only 2 possible reasons for someone to go the surrogacy route. Either:
a) you cannot/should not get pregnant/carry a child due to legitimate medical reasons
b) you are a spoiled, overprivileged brat who doesnt want to “ruin” her “perfect body” or simply thinks shes better than biological gestation, and that all distasteful or painful activities should be farmed out to the “lower classes” who will easily debase themselves for your upper-class money
You know, if you want to be a mother, but are “simply uninterested in pregnancy” (as you so haughtily put it), theres this thing called ADOPTION.
Wow, you clearly did not read the article. Not everyone who chooses to use a surrogate because of body decisions is doing it because they are spoiled or think their body is perfect. In fact, most women in Beyonce’s position DON’T think they have perfect bodies and generally tend to have very bad body images. Not to mention there’s the women who make sports their career…if they choose to get pregnant that can completely wreck their body for the rest of their lives. Pregnancy CHANGES YOUR BODY, and for an athlete that can mean the end of a career they’ve been working for their whole lives. Why should they also be denied the opportunity to be mothers?
Agreed. Very well put.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with choosing surrogacy. But I do think there’s something wrong with her hiding it. Someone in her position has the responsibility of being a role model, and all she’s doing is perpetuating the stereotypes. Think if she was open about it; maybe other women who would choose this route to motherhood would feel less stigmatized. Maybe it would change someone’s mind.
Don’t text about it like it has already been confirmed that she’s faking it, we don’t know and she would be very stupid to lie about it when she could encourage others about surrogate motherhood. So before you call her a bad rolemodel, wait until facts are presented.
211 days ago
[...] has been lying about her age. Those rumors have been following her for a good chunk of her career. Maybe there’s a surrogate — we don’t know. But if Bey is opting to not carry a baby, there is certainly no reason [...]
211 days ago
[...] something so simple as sit down for an interview! (Also, in .gif form.) Whether Bey was faking it until her surrogate popped out a baby or what, she really should’ve gone the movie route and invested in a reliable fake belly. [...]