Covering National Concerns about Teenage Pregnancy: A Visual Rhetorical Analysis of Images of Pregnant and Mothering Women

Responding to recent frenzy over "teen moms" in the media, the article illustrates how visual representations of pregnant and mothering teenagers construct the United States' problem with teenage pregnancy. It argues that there is an historical precedent of using white female bodies in cover stories to portray teenage pregnancy as a universal problem that stems from women's seemingly irresponsible timing of pregnancy. It maintains that this obscures the United States' problematic history of condemning the reproductive decisions of poor women and women of color. To support these claims, the article draws on feminist critique of racialized teenage-pregnancy discourses to conduct a visual rhetorical analysis of photographs of women in U.S. magazine cover stories and news articles from the 1970s and '80s—when the phrase "teenage pregnancy" began circulating as a cause for national concern. It identifies visual and verbal rhetoric used to idealize adolescence and (re)construct concerns about the reproductive decisions of minoritized women. In the end, the article provides a model of a visual rhetorical analysis that fosters a critical gaze on representations of pregnant and mothering teens today.