Beauty and the Beast

Vanity Fair's controversial cover of a very pregnant Demi Moore published in August 1991 came out the same month I got my period for the first time. Some people, especially those who were a part of my conservative church, were horrified. Female nudity was evil, according to church leaders, but to defile the sacredness of motherhood by publicly showing the pregnant body was an abomination.

Others found the image refreshing. Finally, there will be an acceptance of the human form in all its marvelous variations, they breathlessly exclaimed.

I remember staring at the magazine cover in grocery stores. For me, a cultural phenomenon intersected my life at the exact moment when I became aware of myself as a woman capable of having children. The image and the controversy are part of the way I think about femininity. I thought she was beautiful, but there were people lining up behind me ready to proclaim her body "the most disgusting thing they'd ever seen."

The image revealed an undercurrent of thought about women and their bodies that isn't often seen or discussed directly in mainstream culture. It's like someone reached down, pried up a rock, and showed our ugly, squirming thoughts. Not everything sensational provokes thoughtful discourse, but there are definitely times we need to be prodded.