Mpreg

[wildestranger]

So. Mpreg. Do you love it? Hate it? Can't be bothered to think about it?

I find myself curious about the phenomenon of mpreg in fandom. Some people seem to hate it with an unholy passion. Some perceive it as OMG the cutest thing eva. A plot device, a source of crackfic, an embodiment of patriarchal control system, an embodiment of feminist subversion, mostly an embodiment of bad writing?

I want to know what you think about mpreg, and most importantly, why. If you dislike it, what do you dislike about it? If you enjoy it, what do you think is good/interesting/sexy about it?

Is it the association with bad writing, silly teenagers who cannot imagine romance without babies and marriage? I used to be wary of such things until I read eutychides's Things That Change (which is not only a devastatingly well written mpreg, but a fic so moving and memorable that after finishing reading it at three in the morning, I had to go back the next day and reread the whole thing).

Also, if I were to write an mpreg fic, would you read it? That said, I am writing one so you shall be put to the test in a few weeks. ;)

Comments

[alyxbradford.livejournal.com]

I Just Don't Freaking Get It.

That's really all. I think it's bizarre, an abuse of the "it's magic so it's okay!" excuse, and usually poorly done besides. I won't infringe on anyone else's right to like it, and lord knows I've got kinks of my own that others disapprove of, but I just find it too wtf inducing to even look at.

It also just bugs me that it's taking the one thing women have and giving it to men. You want to have a pregnant character? Use a freaking female character.

The whole thing tends to remind me of Life of Brian. "It's every man's right to have babies if he wants them." "But you can't have babies." "Don't you oppress me." "Where's the fetus going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box?" And I'm with Reg on that one.

[thickets.livejournal.com]

That's the "one thing women have"? I don't think so. We have a lot more than that ... and if it were the one thing women have, then that would mean women who have no interest in having children were somehow not women. Hm?

[alyxbradford.livejournal.com]

True. We also get multiple orgasms. I should show my gratitude more clearly.

Seriously, though, what I was getting at is that childbirth has always been the traditional source of female power. Primal societies were matriarchal because women could produce children and men couldn't. Even when things turned patriarchal, childbirth was still something feared by men, because the mother could always be sure she was the mother, but the father could never be sure he was the father. To this day, it's a power women have over their children than men don't -- the eternal ability to guilt, based on nine months of pregnancy and X hours of labour. It's the source of feminine fortitude, and I really hate to see it being daftly given to men.

And of course it doesn't mean they're not women. Choosing not to have children is just as much a power as having them -- it's something that's in her hands.

[thickets.livejournal.com]

Mmmm. I just don't think so much awe should be assigned to what is basically a simple biological function, that any woman who has halfway decent ovaries can perform. It's not such an achievment to shoot out a kid, and I think it's a little unhealthy to put so much emphasis on it. Actually raising a kid is far more impressive, and that's not something that only women can do. Basically, we do not need a matriarchy or a patriarchy ... we need a society which simply respects people, regardless of whether they call themselves men, women, or neither.

Or I suppose we could just have this (http://www.womanthouartgod.com/).