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The hypothesis began throughout Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl halftime present, when Rihanna confirmed up in a flaming-red Loewe jumpsuit zipped right down to reveal a gently rounded stomach. Searches for “Rihanna pregnant” spiked as viewers tried to determine what the pop star might probably be doing displaying off a abdomen that wasn’t flat.
As soon as the singer’s consultant confirmed that she is, in reality, anticipating her second youngster, hypothesis turned from her physique to her time — particularly, how a lot she’d be taking off and when, after a seven-year hiatus, she’d be delivering her subsequent album.
Anticipation had been excessive as a result of the 12-song set was Rihanna’s first dwell efficiency since 2018, and lots of people assumed she’d be saying a brand new album or a tour.
The rapid clamoring to understand how a lot Rihanna’s work would undergo, and the way lengthy her purchasers (followers) have been going to have to attend for the deliverables (new music and a brand new tour), echoes what numerous peculiar pregnant individuals cope with each day. American work tradition and our lack of a social security internet pressure pregnant individuals and fogeys to run themselves ragged proving their youngsters received’t have an effect on their work lives — solely to get fired or demoted anyway. Rihanna’s refusal, at the very least up to now, to entertain any questions is refreshing: She’s upending social expectations round being pregnant, motherhood, and work. By having fun with each household and work on her personal phrases, and her personal timetable, Rihanna has simply proven us a special approach is feasible — even when it’s not attainable for peculiar individuals simply but.
The US stays one of many solely rich international locations on the planet with no paid parental depart. If a job does provide depart, pregnant individuals are typically discouraged from truly taking it. Or, particularly in the event that they work in low-wage jobs, their bosses may simply fireplace them as quickly as they announce they’re anticipating a toddler.
In the meantime, moms face discrimination in promotions and hiring, a phenomenon so widespread and entrenched it has a reputation: the “motherhood penalty.” Within the Lean In period of the aughts and 2010s, girls have been inspired to get round this discrimination by displaying that they didn’t want time to care for his or her households. Sheryl Sandberg’s maxims, like “don’t depart until you permit,” despatched the message that ladies might energy via the motherhood stigma with their very own drive and ambition. Marissa Meyer made headlines in 2012 when she introduced that she can be taking solely two weeks off from her new job as Yahoo’s CEO to have her first youngster (she additionally took lower than a month when she had twins in 2015). In 2018, a commodity dealer instructed the Instances she had “organized her life in order that having kids wouldn’t intrude together with her profession,” together with getting youngster care beginning at 7 am “so she would by no means be late.”
Even for white-collar girls with high-paying jobs, this didn’t work significantly properly. The identical commodity dealer mentioned she nonetheless received handed over for promotions and was instructed it was because of the timing of her maternity depart. Additionally, it was exhausting.
The pandemic has known as into query the American obsession with work and productiveness, and led to renewed requires reasonably priced youngster care and parental depart. Writers like Angela Garbes and Jessica Grose have documented the methods American dad and mom battle to care for his or her youngsters whereas holding down a job, and tried to chart a extra communal, much less woman bossy, approach ahead. There’s better acknowledgment than ever that dad and mom, particularly mothers, are not okay. Whereas there may be nonetheless no paid parental depart in America and there may be nonetheless being pregnant discrimination, there’s additionally been extra of a push by feminists and different activists in recent times for employers to deal with the truth that caring for youngsters takes time and power, and that anticipating dad and mom to work as if they don’t have households — anticipating anybody, actually, to work as in the event that they don’t have any life — is unsustainable.
Nevertheless, we’ve not but seen the key coverage modifications that will assist dad and mom take break day with their youngsters with out worry of reprisal or destitution. The period of “quiet quitting” has segued seamlessly into one more period of layoffs, reminding common Individuals that even when hustle tradition is not cool, hustling remains to be typically crucial.
Enter Rihanna. The singer and multihyphenate businesswoman has been resetting the cultural tone round being pregnant since January 2022, when she and her associate, rapper A$AP Rocky, introduced her first being pregnant with a collection of pictures by photographer Miles Diggs of the pair strolling down a Harlem road. Rihanna wore a shiny pink coat unbuttoned over her stomach, which was adorned with jewels. The look outlined her being pregnant fashion, which centered on eye-catching outfits that aimed to disclose, reasonably than conceal, her physique.
“She has not worn tent clothes,” wrote Instances style critic Vanessa Friedman. “She has not worn maternity denims. Actually, she has barely worn a lot clothes in any respect.”
Different celebrities from Eva Mendes to Adele have hidden their pregnancies, whether or not from a need for privateness, a worry they received’t be marketable in the event that they’re seen as mothers, vestigial attitudes that being pregnant is gross or shameful, or all the above. Rihanna selected not simply to have a good time her upcoming motherhood; she additionally eschewed the casual dictate that being pregnant style must be dowdy, floral, and de-sexed, and as an alternative opted for garments that have been thrilling, boundary-breaking, and funky. She regarded like she was having enjoyable, one thing mothers and soon-to-be mothers in America aren’t actually alleged to do.
The singer stored that power occurring Sunday night time with a efficiency directly eye-popping (she was, in spite of everything, suspended on a platform as much as 60 ft above the stadium) and laid again, with minimalist dance strikes and a break to powder her nostril. As Vox’s Alex Abad-Santos put it, “She makes stardom look really easy and left us, as all the time, wanting a little bit bit extra.” Her obvious calm was particularly spectacular on condition that balancing the competing calls for of motherhood and international superstar — full with a fan base demanding a brand new album — can’t be straightforward in any respect.
It’s unclear when, or if, followers will get what they need. Rihanna didn’t announce a brand new album on Sunday — to be truthful, she didn’t even announce her being pregnant, leaving that to her mouthpiece. Nor has she obliged followers by making her first youngster into content material; we’ve solely seen one video of him, and she or he hasn’t launched his identify.
Certainly, what Rihanna made clear on Sunday is that she will likely be doing the work of superstar, and motherhood, on her personal phrases.
In fact, it’s straightforward to work by yourself phrases if you’re a billionaire. Extraordinary American employees shouldn’t have the luxurious of telling employers they’ll come again from parental depart once they really feel prefer it (and even of occurring parental depart in any respect).
Nonetheless, pop stars assist form our cultural expectations, together with these round parenthood, and Rihanna is providing a welcome antidote to the girl-boss college of hustling via our reproductive lives to show to our employers we may be simply as productive as non-parents — when these expectations of productiveness have been all the time unrealistic for everybody.
Rihanna’s apparent delight in her personal path might assist normalize taking time to be with your loved ones, and having enjoyable and being attractive and chilling out, even in the event you even have a child. The dominant picture of motherhood in America is of a joyless grind throughout which you sacrifice your self to your boss and your kids, and if a Tremendous Bowl halftime present can fight that, even just a bit bit, that’s good for everybody.
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