It's Ridiculously Stupid That Pregnant Women Aren't in Mainstream Ads

Maybe it's because Kristen Bell and I are meant to be BFFs, but this ad is clearly the best at showing a woman who is pregnant where her condition isn't the main focal point. Yes, it plays a role, but it doesn't dominate the screen time.

At first glance, there's nothing entirely offensive about this ad. I remember my mom even calling it cute. Adorableness aside, it's still an ad that uses pregnancy as a sight gag — the joke, of course, being that pregnant women aren't supposed to dance sexily, which is fairly ironic because pregnancy and sex kind of go hand in hand.

In most of the advertisements that I found, women and their pregnancies are foils for the man to do or say something stupid. I can't help but feel like this is a continuation of bad jokes that I'm just not understanding.

Pregnant women are being objectified and are not seen as real people with wants and needs; instead, they're merely props and punchlines. Tokenism is not the same thing as representation.

Then there are the crop of videos that are simply sentimental when a pregnant woman is there to tug at the heartstrings. Ads like this one are fine — I even enjoy them, because who doesn't love seeing an adorable family? However, to the advertiser, the pregnancy is still just a prop.

Yes, pregnant women can be nurturing and hormone-crazed, but they can also be athletes or CEOs and drive cars. It's time advertisers recognize that pregnant women are more than just a vehicle for gags, offensive behavior, and sentimentality.