"The items I'm looking forward to seeing bid on are the wild ones that could only turn up at a feminist free-for-all. How about a 'belly cast' of your eight-month pregnant abdomen, crafted by an artist?"
—Michele Lansberg, "Auction is a delightful feminist event." The Toronto Star, November 16, 1993
Today's phrase — which I first spied in a flyer tacked to our local coffee shop's community bulletin board (do you see the extra pains I take to bring fresh words to you people?) — originated as an example of
birth art, which I'll talk more about tomorrow. Nowadays it just seems to be a bit of a fad, with some women actually getting the casts made at their baby showers! Another term for this is
bellymask (coined in 1986).
