The Pregnant Body as a Battlefield: A Corporeal Exploration of Power and Agency in Swallow

<ns3:p> Background <ns3:italic>Swallow</ns3:italic> (2019) offers a deeply unsettling yet compelling exploration of the female body as a contested space where power, control, and agency intersect. Through its focus on pregnancy, the film exposes how a woman’s body becomes subject to both internal struggles and external regulation. It situates the pregnant body within a broader network of societal expectations, revealing how autonomy is often compromised by cultural norms, medical authority, and patriarchal structures. Methods This paper undertakes a close textual and thematic analysis of the film, paying particular attention to its visual language, narrative structure, and psychological framing of the protagonist. It draws on interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives related to bodily autonomy, medicalisation, and power dynamics to interpret the protagonist’s experiences. By examining key scenes and character interactions, the study investigates how authority is exercised over the female body and how resistance is articulated through embodied actions. Results The analysis reveals that the film sharply critiques the medicalisation of pregnancy, portraying it as a process through which the female body is monitored, regulated, and controlled by external forces such as doctors, family members, and societal expectations. The protagonist’s psychological distress underscores the invasive nature of this control, illustrating how her autonomy is gradually eroded. At the same time, her bodily actions emerge as forms of resistance, transforming her physicality into a site where oppression and defiance coexist. This duality highlights the complexity of agency, showing that even within constraint, acts of self-assertion remain possible. Conclusions <ns3:italic>Swallow</ns3:italic> challenges conventional narratives of motherhood and femininity by presenting the pregnant body not as passive or purely nurturing, but as a deeply contested and politicised space. The film redefines this body as one capable of both vulnerability and resistance, thereby offering a nuanced commentary on female agency. This study concludes that <ns3:italic>Swallow</ns3:italic> not only critiques entrenched societal norms but also reframes the pregnant body as a powerful, if conflicted, site of autonomy and defiance. </ns3:p>