MPREG - a few thoughts
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | MPREG - a few thoughts |
| Creator: | Sue the Android |
| Date(s): | 2002 or 2003 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | multimedia |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | MPREG - a few thoughts |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
MPREG - a few thoughts is an essay by Sue the Android.
It was posted at The Android's Dungeon.
Some Topics Discussed
- mpreg
- what it means to be male and what it means to be female
- many statements about gender
- narrow views of masculinity and femininity
From the Essay
Following links the other day, looking for something new to read, I came across the MPREG website. If you're not familiar with the abbreviation, it stands for 'Male Pregnancy' fiction. I knew that this sub-genre existed, of course, but the few specimens I had read frankly varied between twee and incredibly nauseating. (I don't count Siubhan's wonderful 'Left Hand of Madness' sequence, recommended elsewhere on this site, as MPREG, by the way; the specific effect of the transporter accident that afflicts Tom Paris in this story is to resequence his genetic code as female and he gradually develops female physical characteristics. When Tom becomes pregnant it is in the way normal genetic females do.)
This actually brings me to the problem I have with MPREG. The defining characteristic of a female is the ability to become pregnant and give birth, and a male who does these things may look, sound, smell and taste male but the process of giving birth makes him female. Things that make males seem female, or feminine, are not in themselves anathema to me - drag, transvestism, role playing and so forth are fine. Alien societies and races in which the characters have two sets of sexual organs or have the capacity to change gender ('Enemy Mine' springs to mind) are also fine. When you have a character who has started out as a genetic male, however, and he either accidentally or deliberately becomes involved in a process that will make him female enough to bear a child he isn't a man at the end of it and therefore there are emotional consequences to be considered - which is something most fan writers cheerfully ignore.
Let's take Chakotay, since he's one of the ones who seems to end up pregnant on a regular basis. Big, butch Maquis becomes big, butch Starfleet officer. Okay, he's got a sensitive side, but he doesn't spend his spare time doing crochet or flower arranging. If an author manipulates the facts and the science to make him pregnant she should at least give some thought to the poor guy's psychological welfare; he is not going to take to morning sickness and wiping bottoms like some sweet domesticated hausfrau; in short, Chakotay's place is not pregnant, barefoot and in the kitchen but commanding (or helping to) a starship.
And then there's Dick Grayson, seduced and abandoned by heartless Bruce Wayne, bringing up his daughter as a single mom and fighting crime in the evenings. Just try to imagine a day that includes both stomping bad guys and watching Tellytubbies and imagine the enormous mental effort involved in codeswitching between the two. However well-balanced a person may be, the two roles are completely incompatible. John le Carré has a scene somewhere in which a secret agent, surprised by his young daughter, has smashed a teacup and ground it into the child's face before he realises what he is doing. One simply does not come home from beating bad guys to a pulp and tell bedtime stories to a five year old; ask any law enforcement officer how easy that is to do.
I know that for a lot of people realism and fan fiction are not natural bedfellows, and it would seem a counsel of perfection to ask for realistic emotions in MPREG stories which are after all an exercise in the fantastic. It would be nice, though, to see some evidence that an author had thought beyond what a pretty picture Mr X would make with a baby at his tit.
I can see the attraction of pregnant and nursing men. I just feel that in ignoring the full emotional consequences of pregnancy (which are tough enough to cope with if you happen to be female) and in taking an unrealistic attitude to the potential complications writers are missing out on some wonderful storylines.
I also think there is something rather odd going on in relation to perceptions of femininity/femaleness. Is it really the case that women as a gender have become so strong, so independent and so self-assured that the only people allowed to be clingy, feminine and domesticated in our fandom culture are men? I suspect that in any given sample of 'Voyager' fiction you would probably find Janeway appearing rather more masculine than Tom Paris, for example. This is a fascinating contradiction. Maybe it's just that we are all free to express ourselves in whatever way seems good to us and that these characters are reflecting that. Maybe, however, there is a terror that somehow writing a female character as a stereotyped wife and mother would meet with a chorus of fannish disapproval and so the role is allocated instead to a (previously devoutly heterosexual) gay man.
Like most aspects of fandom MPREG is nothing like as simple as it may first appear. The tweeness and literary incompetence manifest in a lot of the stories should not, however, be allowed to obscure the intriguing psychological paradoxes inherent in the genre. This is an area of fandom that would certainly repay closer study in academic circles; I just wish it yielded up a better standard of fiction.