Fictional male peregnancy and mysogynism
Maria Hansmann
I'm a student of literature and I'm hoping to get an intelligent
answer here to an hopefully intelligent question.
I'm doing a paper on fanfiction, fiction that is written by
amateurs based upon popular media and published on the internet.
A particular subgenre of this however, leaves me completely
stunted. Male Pregnancy, short "mpreg". What is especially
baffling is that there seem to be more males writing mpreg than
it is common in fanfiction. Most fanfiction writers are women,
with the ratio being somewhere along 80% to 20%. Yet the ratio of
men writing mpreg seems to be higher, somewhere like 35% to 75%.
(The figure is hard to gauge just over internet surveys.)
I would like to know from you now what underlying issues could
cause a man or a woman to write about men getting pregnant. (Like
in the movie "Junior" with Arnold Schwarzenegger.)
This is especially interesting as there seem to be common themes
in mpreg fanfiction:
*Women are Evil
*Women who are not mothers are very evil
*Mothers regularly abuse and psychologically scar their children
*Fathers often beat and rape their male children
*Women who are married to the characters in canon are evil
bitches (canon= the show/material the fanfiction is based upon,
for example the TV show "Buffy" or the "Harry Potter" books by JK
Rowling.)
*The heroes of the show are the real villains
*The villains of the show are victims
*There's a very strong current of extreme victimization running
through the protagonists' stories.
*The strong male characters become passive, weak victims.
*The strong male characters are excessively feminized and
infantilized
If anybody needs a sample of the writing (which is horrible),
here is the url to the mpreg achive:
http://www.blooddance.com/mpreg/fiction.html
Any explanations? Why do people write this? What is going on in
their heads?
M.Hansmann
(Dear mods of s.p.p.m, please let this through, this is not a
hoax. I'm desperate for some intelligent answers. If this is off
topic for this ng, plese point me in the right direction.)
'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`''`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
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Tim McNamara
"Maria Hansmann" <zxm...@student.uni-tuebingen.de> wrote:
> Why do people write this?
At the very least, they appear to overestimate their literary
abilities.
Rolf Marvin Bře Lindgren
| Any explanations? Why do people write this?
the problem with us psychologists is that we're very often not better
than other people at guessing people's motives or predicting their
future behavior. we're good at finding out, though, but that takes
time and money (= research).
| What is going on in their heads?
as with all other people: chemical processes, mostly.
--
Rolf Lindgren, | http://www.roffe.com/
cand.psychol. |
[ Big 5 | Radical Behaviorism | Knowledge Management | Teambuilding | Cats ]
English1413
angle, which as you state presents a bizarre puzzle. The Journal of Popular
Culture would be a good spot to place your paper.
>A particular subgenre of this however, leaves me completely
>stunted. Male Pregnancy, short "mpreg". What is especially
>baffling is that there seem to be more males writing mpreg than
>it is common in fanfiction. Most fanfiction writers are women,
>with the ratio being somewhere along 80% to 20%. Yet the ratio of
>men writing mpreg seems to be higher, somewhere like 35% to 75%.
>(The figure is hard to gauge just over internet surveys.)
>
>I would like to know from you now what underlying issues could
>cause a man or a woman to write about men getting pregnant. (Like
>in the movie "Junior" with Arnold Schwarzenegger.)
This actually is no great enigma. These stories are masturbatory fantasies for
male homosexuals, latent or not. Most women would not care to fantasize about
men becoming pregnant, but a male homosexual--who cannot have children--might
well enjoy the idea. More on this below.
>This is especially interesting as there seem to be common themes
>in mpreg fanfiction:
>
>*Women are Evil
>*Women who are not mothers are very evil
>*Mothers regularly abuse and psychologically scar their children
>*Fathers often beat and rape their male children
>*Women who are married to the characters in canon are evil
>bitches (canon= the show/material the fanfiction is based upon,
>for example the TV show "Buffy" or the "Harry Potter" books by JK
>Rowling.)
>*The heroes of the show are the real villains
>*The villains of the show are victims
>*There's a very strong current of extreme victimization running
>through the protagonists' stories.
>*The strong male characters become passive, weak victims.
>*The strong male characters are excessively feminized and
>infantilized
I went to the site you suggested and read "Spells, Men, Sex, and Babies," under
the Angel/Buffy category. It turned out to be a very long and dreary story,
with truly awful writing such as this: "Spike moved closer to Xander. Trapping
him against the wall. There was no way to get away. He had his arms up on
either side of Xander's head moving into his personal space. Wait a minute.
Pause, rewind." I'm amazed you had the patience to wade through so many of
those stories, and I'm impressed that all of the common themes you pointed out
are present in that story.
In that story, an allegedly straight man named Xander wakes up in bed next to
Spike, a male vampire. Xander is horrified that he has slept with a man, and
he wonders why he does not remember it. Spike is comfortable with his
homosexuality, but Xander spends most of the story denying that he is gay
although he continually lusts after Spike. Xander is extremely effeminate and
passive, while Spike plays the active role. Xander discovers he is pregnant
with Spike's baby, and the climax of the story comes when the doctor tells them
they are having twins.
There is quite a bit of misogyny in the story. Despite the fact that the TV
show is centered around women, this story focuses almost completely on men.
The women of the story are bad guys--Willow possibly casts a spell on the men
and Buffy urges the men to get an abortion. Spike consistently mocks Xander
for being effeminate. Traditionally male behavior, on the other hand, is
applauded.
Xander's parents are described as unloving and cold, and one of the story's
themes is Xander's effort to create a new family composed of his male friends.
>Any explanations? Why do people write this? What is going on in
>their heads?
Okay, here's where you'll probably disagree with me, but at least consider
this: These stories can be easily analyzed from a Freudian angle. Freud
argued that young boys whose mothers are smothering or whose fathers are either
brutal or absent often grow up to be homosexuals. At the Oedipal period, these
boys fear their powerful mothers and as a result they fear switching
allegiances from the mother to the father. Rather than identifying themselves
with the father, they identify themselves with the mother. As a result, they
are uncomfortable with the traditional male role in later life.
If you read "Spells, Men, Sex, and Babies" you'll notice that there's quite a
bit of discussion of Xander's gender identity and of whether or not he has
female sexual organs. Xander denies it, but he clearly enjoys the idea that
he's actually a woman. Castration anxiety. The misogyny of the story can be
explained as displaced anger at the smothering mother, and in fact it is my
impression that many gay men are extremely misogynistic. My gay friends tell
some of the most vile anti-woman jokes you can imagine. The vampire is
commonly read as a male homosexual fantasy, and his bite equals impregnation;
quite a few articles on this.
Gray
English1413
to return to the womb and also to mother oneself--to love oneself (in the form
of the baby) as one wished to have been loved by the distant parents.
This partly explains another theme of the story, twins, doubles, etc.
John M Price PhD
: Hello,
: I'm a student of literature and I'm hoping to get an intelligent
: answer here to an hopefully intelligent question.
: I'm doing a paper on fanfiction, fiction that is written by
: amateurs based upon popular media and published on the internet.
: A particular subgenre of this however, leaves me completely
: stunted. Male Pregnancy, short "mpreg". What is especially
: baffling is that there seem to be more males writing mpreg than
: it is common in fanfiction. Most fanfiction writers are women,
To put this into perspective, perhaps a study of couvade is in order. Try
an anthropologist.
--
John M. Price, PhD jmp...@calweb.com
Life: Chemistry, but with feeling! | PGP Key on request or FTP!
Email responses to my Usenet articles will be posted at my discretion.
Comoderator: sci.psychology.psychotherapy.moderated Atheist# 683
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Tim McNamara
John M Price PhD <jmp...@calweb.com> wrote:
> In sci.psychology.psychotherapy.moderated article
> <SPPM1030720...@psychcentral.com> Maria Hansmann
> <zxm...@student.uni-tuebingen.de> wrote:
> : A particular subgenre of this however, leaves me completely
> : stunted. Male Pregnancy, short "mpreg". What is especially
> : baffling is that there seem to be more males writing mpreg than
> : it is common in fanfiction. Most fanfiction writers are women,
>
> To put this into perspective, perhaps a study of couvade is in
> order. Try an anthropologist.
I hadn't thought about couvade- not having had an anthropology class
in over 20 years- but that's an interesting possible parallel to draw.
In that case, it is a culturally normal way for men to participate in
the birth process. It's found in cultures across the world.
Here's a reference that might be useful:
http://www.childbirth.org/articles/couvade.html