Well, this is one of the creepiest things I've seen lately

[layla]

It took me a while to figure out if this website was a joke or not. (I'm pretty sure it's real. But still not 100% convinced.)

http://www.homestead.com/godslittleones/micropreemies.html

They're pro-life "micropreemie" (a.k.a. fetus) dolls. Now, regardless of where you stand on the whole issue of whether life begins at birth, conception, quickening or wherever, I don't think anyone can deny that the human fetus, baby or not, is really freaking creepy looking. It trips our whole sense of "human, but not quite human, AAIIEEE!" And thumb-sized plastic fetuses dressed in baby clothes are, frankly, about ten times as creepy-looking as they would be in their natural environment.

Here's the main page, FYI.

Comments

[ndgmtlcd.livejournal.com]

It could be more interesting still if they made the earlier ones real big. When I read your post I was hoping, before I clicked on the link, for something looking like Dave Bowman at the end of 2001, a space Odyssey. I'd love to have a "doll" like that. I'd put him/her/it on my desk at the office, without baby clothes, of course. I deal with people involved in biotechnology, epidemiology and related matters.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

for something looking like Dave Bowman at the end of 2001, a space Odyssey

A huge fetus doll would be an AWESOME desk ornament! It might have the added benefit of making anybody who didn't really, really NEED to talk to you think twice about it, too. ;)

[j-luc-pitard.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the tiny ones are creepy, but a few years ago I thought about getting a micro-preemie doll (from a woman who made them for parents who've been through prematurity, not a political site) to remember how small my son was at birth. He was a 24 wkr, 1 pound 7 ounces. Now he's 6 and going strong... Thankfully!
What's missing from those preemie dolls are the horror of the tubes, ventilators and wires that are needed to give them even a tiny chance at life. Options could include life sized medical teams that work 24/7 to save their little lives and parents who are sick with worry and guilt. Those rosy pink cheeks on that peaceful 23 wkr face made me laugh. My daughter, born at that gestation (1 pound 1 ounce) looked nothing like that. She was a fighter, but the fight was just too hard. I considered a doll at the same time I was thinking about the one for her twin brother, but it would've become a focus for my grief. It was really just a bit too creepy to think of having it around the house. His would've been to look back on and say 'Wow, look how far you've come!' hers would've been... some sort of totem?
I'm pro choice and come from a family strong in the belief that a woman, not the courts or the legislature, should decide what happens inside her body. That website was creepy and insulting with it's "warning" to women who've had abortions or miscarriages. Really great to be treated like a moron. I'd like both sides of the abortion issue to be able to work with each other to teach birth control and promote adoption (responsibly) so that abortions aren't needed except for rape or health of the mother or child. Apparently it's too much to ask since a lot of people derive their power from such an emotional issue and much of the debate is carried on by men who will never have to face the pregnancy test themselves.
Sorry for the rant... obviously a personal issue for me.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

See, I like babies as much as the next person, and I find the stages of development of the human fetus completely fascinating ... INSIDE the body. This, though ... the little hats on them ... it's like a creepy fetus stalker page or something.

That's awesome about your son, and I'm sorry to hear about your daughter. And this is what I don't get about parents getting the micropreemie dolls, particularly for a child who didn't survive, but even for one who did ... wouldn't it be, I don't know, more of a reminder of something you don't want to think about than anything else? Not that I'm saying people don't have a right to do that if they want to, but wouldn't it be sort of like getting hit by a car and keeping the bumper from the car that hit you? I've got some hardware that was used to hold my leg together when I had surgery when I was 11 -- they thought I might want the pins and such when they took them out, and it *is* kind of cool to see, but what the heck do I do with such a thing? It's not as if I can take it out at parties and show it off to people...

Anyway, I agree with you totally about the abortion thing, as far as an issue that people simply aren't willing to work together on or discuss rationally. Like the drug debate, it's so politically charged that it's virtually impossible even to get sane, rational information that's not slanted towards one side or the other.

[missionbear.livejournal.com]

That just drives home the fetus as parasite image for me. Creepy. I wish people would stop pathologically fetishizing pregnancy and fetuses.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Orion and I think that the freakier-looking of these dolls have to be the worst pro-life propaganda EVER. Pro-lifer outside clinic: [hands pregnant woman 6-week-old fetus doll with tiny crocheted hat] Pregnant woman: "AAAIEEE! Get this thing out of me!"

[missionbear.livejournal.com]

"wtf? there's a crocheted HAT in me? That can't be hygienic. squeegee me out, doc!"
Seriously, leaving aside the wingnut rhetoric, these people are creepy. Their obsessiveness is NOT normal.

[its-a-nono.livejournal.com]

Wow, that site is...I dunno, I think seeing a fetus at various gestations is interesting. Having just had a baby myself (very, very luckily, she was late, not early) I tracked the progress of my little one all the way and loved imagining her at six weeks and on, so tiny but already human looking. I only was bothered by the idea of dressing any of the pre-21 wk babies. It's amazing and wonderful how modern medical science has been able to sustain premature babies and help them not only survive but thrive, but slapping a hat on an eight-week-old fetus is...it's disturbing to me. No eight week old baby is going to survive outside the womb long enough to wear a hat. It adds a repressive religious overtone (God doesn't want to see even a fetus naked!) that takes the idea from being sweet to creepy. Well....it was interesting to see, but I share j_luc_pitard's feelings on the matter.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

See, that's the thing ... I find human development fascinating, and there was a photo feature in, where was it, Scientific American or National Geographic or something a few years ago that had pages and pages of big glossy pictures of living fetuses taken at various stages of development with a little microcamera inside a woman's body -- that was COOL.

This is more like the fetus equivalent of dogs playing poker ... with the addition of freaky religious overtones and the idea that the person who runs the site apparently thinks that they're saving babies by doing it. (Also, the mention that the dolls are based on actual fetuses, not fetuses in general but SPECIFIC ones ... this is particularly bizarre and disturbing in the case of the littlest ones, because -- okay, I've never seen a human miscarriage, but growing up on a farm, I've seen very premature animal fetuses, and EWW. Cute inside the body; not nearly so cute outside the body.)

[its-a-nono.livejournal.com]

Well put. I was chatting with my friend about it yesterday, and I pinned down what was bothering me so much about the hats/blankets. I think that it was the knowledge that any baby wearing a hat is not in a womb, and any baby that tiny not in the womb is a dead baby. So it was like looking at dolls of dead babies. *shudder.* I'm sure that lady meant well, but I think she missed the mark...

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

But...but...they were checked by "Physcians[sic] and "Dulas[sic]!"

I can't see any non-rabidly political reason for that site.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

It's the creepy little hats that get to me, I think.

Human development is actually cool. Taking fetuses and turning them into Precious Moments figurines ... not so cool.