• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.30-44
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• 2010

The definition of pregnancy has changed as society and its values have developed through different periods of history. In the ancient period, the definition of a woman's fertility was that female deities provided fecundity to barren women and barren land, and protected both the pregnant women during the period of gestation and also the land during the time of growth. These goddesses also administered the appropriate ceremonial rituals for conception and childbirth, and for planting and harvesting. After that, for the last 2,000 years, the most conspicuous icon has been "The Virgin Mary with the Infant Christ". Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ and model for Christian women. However, the centuries the image of woman and pregnancy has been changed, modern society through education, careers and job opportunities allows many women to be more than just a wife or a mother. Moreover, in the 21st century, many pregnant women want stylish maternity wear because they are proud and their minds are opened by these new icons of birth culture as like the pregnancy of many famous stars. From this the purposes of this study are as follows, Firstly, to study on the meaning of woman's fertility from ancient period to present time by social changes. Secondly, to investigate the historical concept of the maternity wear for current modern maternity fashion market. Finally, to expect to use this study would be helpful basic data for develop of the new researches of the maternity fashion in the future.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.639-666
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• 2010

Meditation on Christ's body is peculiar to late medieval female mysticism. The somatic meditation on Christ basically derives from the Incarnation, but the female mystics focused more on the Passion and the Eucharist, i.e., Christ's bleeding and feeding. Then, female body structure and the gender role of nurturing were combined to make facile her imitatio Christi, because the female body was aptly identified with Christ's body. The blood flowing in the side of Christ was often in medieval graphics and texts identified with a mother's milk for a baby to suck. Wound and food, suffering and nourishing, were inseparable in Christ's and the female mystics' body. Thus, in late medieval female mystical practice, it is important to note, first, female mystics' bodily pain was not to be cured but endured; second, that not only did a female mystic eat Christ's body, but her own body was to be "eaten" by poor neighbors, just as Christ gave his own body to be eaten by believers. As Christ's body is punctured, so does the female body have open holes, and as Christ is food, so is the female body. This female meditation on Christ's body developed the notion of "divine motherhood" to be accepted and enjoyed quite literally by the female mystics in late medieval times. Yet, in a sense, the female mystics' meditating on Christ's feminine function of nourishing can be considered as their accepting and interiorizing the socially constructed female gender role and thus lacking in subversive power. Nevertheless, this meditative practice at least functioned to redeem the female body which had typically been labelled inferior and even dirty. Through Christ's feminized body, the female mystics rehabilitated their bodily dimension, presenting it to be shared by male believers. Capitalizing on the gender stereotype of womanhood itself, they converted female weakness to power.