Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

The image of a woman holding a newborn is ubiquitous across many cultures, ranging from the Eastern Orthodox icons depicting Mary holding an infant Jesus to Inuit soapstone carvings of mothers holding swaddled newborns. Such an image has also become a fully secularized icon, such as Dorothea Lange’s famous Depression era photo “Migrant Mother.” What is given lesser iconographic depiction, however, are men holding babies. In an era when more men are undertaking deeper roles in raising children, images celebrating such activity have yet to catch up. Though not as widely depicted as the image of the mother holding a child, there is strong historical iconic precedent of men holding infants, such as the religious figures Simeon and St. Anthony holding the Christ Child. The image of a man holding a baby has also recently gotten a secular, popular-culture depiction in the 2005 film, Tstosi (where the man holding the infant happens to be a young criminal who has inadvertently kidnapped this newborn). Whether saints or sinners, men have been holding babies for a long time, and how they are depicted can also reveal the lesser known gender relationship men have with infants, a role that is becoming culturally acceptable today.