[Mark]

Came across this interesting article while doing a bit of on-line reading on Mpreg:

Mpreg in fanfic

[mprego2]

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!! This is hilarious! Mostly because I actually agree with her argument! This is why I always say, "do your research...learn more about biology and reproduction and LOGICAL male pregnancy", it's funny cause looking at mpreg from a non-fetishistic lense, you will see exactly how jacked up everything is in those stories. Reading this made me feel glad the concept of male pregnancy is not a fetish of mine, because at that point it would control me and make me irrational. And the part when she talks about the baby coming out of the anus just cracks me up!!!!! I don't know how many times I have stressed to people, in a realistic world where men become naturally pregnant the babies will NOT be delivered through the anus, for MANY reasons, the most serious being that it is COMPLETELY unsanitary for a newborn baby! But I just started to hold my tongue cause I would just be wasting my breath.

This is why no one takes the mpreg community seriously, cause it's like no one wants to be taken seriously in the community!

Also, this makes me feel good about my male pregnancy screenplay, because I wrote it in a way that EVERYONE will enjoy (straight, gay, lesbian, bi, male, female, etc.) and in a way that will open up the eyes of people about the idea of male pregnancy in a positive light!

I'm not trying to down the community, I just want us to go beyond this and grow.

[MpregLover15]

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!! This is hilarious! Mostly because I actually agree with her argument! This is why I always say, "do your research...learn more about biology and reproduction and LOGICAL male pregnancy", it's funny cause looking at mpreg from a non-fetishistic lense, you will see exactly how jacked up everything is in those stories. Reading this made me feel glad the concept of male pregnancy is not a fetish of mine, because at that point it would control me and make me irrational. And the part when she talks about the baby coming out of the anus just cracks me up!!!!! I don't know how many times I have stressed to people, in a realistic world where men become naturally pregnant the babies will NOT be delivered through the anus, for MANY reasons, the most serious being that it is COMPLETELY unsanitary for a newborn baby! But I just started to hold my tongue cause I would just be wasting my breath.

This is why no one takes the mpreg community seriously, cause it's like no one wants to be taken seriously in the community!

Also, this makes me feel good about my male pregnancy screenplay, because I wrote it in a way that EVERYONE will enjoy (straight, gay, lesbian, bi, male, female, etc.) and in a way that will open up the eyes of people about the idea of male pregnancy in a positive light!

I'm not trying to down the community, I just want us to go beyond this and grow.

Yeah, but it's fiction though. People don't always write fiction to be realistic, they write it because they like imaging things which can't actually happen. I hate when people complain about fiction being unrealistic. It isn't meant to be realistic.

[mprego2]

Even though it is fiction, when nothing makes any LOGICAL sense within the fictional world itself even if it is something fictional, it shows laziness on the author's part and frankly bad writing. Case in point, there are MANY fictional series out there, in film, TV, books, comics, etc., and the good ones make sense, no matter how much it is fantasy, once a series starts not making sense, it gets bad and loses fans, kinda like how the manga Bleach is doing now.

That brings up another good point, most likely the authors are fetishizing their stories, and as she pointed out that makes it nothing more than illogical smut, and thus the hatred of mpreg starts in people who are NOT mpreg fetishists. There's nothing wrong with writing a fanfic the way you like, just don't get butthurt once it is viewed negatively upon.

I don't know about you, and can't speak for anyone else in this community, but I only read stories that have meaning to them, because I see male pregnancy as a beautiful, deep, personal, non-sexual desire, and I do want it to become a reality, but it will not if this community continues to hurt the possibilities of it coming to fruition, instead of helping it.

Just like with every other group/community, every individual in this community is basically representing EVERYONE within the community! Just keep in mind that our progress is based on how we want ourselves to be represented in the world.

[MpregLover15]

Even though it is fiction, when nothing makes any LOGICAL sense within the fictional world itself even if it is something fictional, it shows laziness on the author's part and frankly bad writing. Case in point, there are MANY fictional series out there, in film, TV, books, comics, etc., and the good ones make sense, no matter how much it is fantasy, once a series starts not making sense, it gets bad and loses fans, kinda like how the manga Bleach is doing now.

That brings up another good point, most likely the authors are fetishizing their stories, and as she pointed out that makes it nothing more than illogical smut, and thus the hatred of mpreg starts in people who are NOT mpreg fetishists. There's nothing wrong with writing a fanfic the way you like, just don't get butthurt once it is viewed negatively upon.

I don't know about you, and can't speak for anyone else in this community, but I only read stories that have meaning to them, because I see male pregnancy as a beautiful, deep, personal, non-sexual desire, and I do want it to become a reality, but it will not if this community continues to hurt the possibilities of it coming to fruition, instead of helping it.

Just like with every other group/community, every individual in this community is basically representing EVERYONE within the community! Just keep in mind that our progress is based on how we want ourselves to be represented in the world.

How does it make it bad? Is the magic ever explained in Harry Potter? No, its just there. Is the Doctor's TARDIS ever explained in Doctor Who? No, its just there. None of that makes sense, but that doesn't mean Harry Potter or Doctor Who are bad. Why can't someone's mpreg story be set in a universe where it just happens?

[mprego2]

OK...Harry Potter does explain, in VERY great detail the magical spells, J.K. Rowling has made backstories for ALL the characters, spells, etc., she had explained EVERY aspect of that series, the same goes for Doctor Who, if you REALLY pay attention you will see that the creators put a lot of time, thought, and effort into writing for their respective series.

My screenplay is set in a universe where how you put it "...it just happens...", but I do have an explanation for it and I have written the aspects of the universe to be a specific way, I even plan to make other films and even a webseries to be set in the same universe.

[MpregLover15]

I don't recall the Harry Potter books ever explaning magic or how it came to be once. It just exists and they don't question it. Yeah, Doctor Who does explain a hell of a lot, but it also leaves tons of stuff unexplained.

[mprego2]

...you know what, let's just agree to disagree, cause I'm tired and apparently I'm not getting anywhere with you, we can go back and forth with this, plus now you're just arguing about unrelated things to the topic at hand and the fact remains, you haven't given me a solid argument for exactly why an author should not try to put some effort into their work.

[Goddess]

I really lost it when she said that it's demeaning to fetishize female pregnancy.

I'm a feminist and I'm pretty hard core about things like that but COME ON. People fetishize everying. People fetishize FEET for christ's sake.

Does that DEMEAN feet??? Of course not. *rolls eyes*

[kressa]

Mprego2, having a fetish doesn't make you unaware of what people think or unaffected by it. A smutty fic could still avoid most if not all of the issues mentioned (ok maybe not the focus on pregnancy). I would think or at least hope that even the people just looking for something to masturbate would take a different tone if mpreg came up in a real life conversation. Talking about equality rather than being being like " OMG! Mpreg is hotness! Nosebleed nosebleed!"

Goddess, that's what I was thinking throughout the article. It's a general pet peeve of mine how negatively fetishes are usually viewed, always as shallow and demeaning.

[Plutexian Mpregger]

I only ever write fanfic featuring mpreg. As for the whole fetish thing, for me, it's crying, but not women crying, despite the fact that I am a woman myself, as when I write mpregs I always include the "man crying" element because that (seeing a man cry) is a huge turn-on and if people view it negatively then that's their opinion as their opinion doesn't bother me in the slightest. As for fetishes being viewed as demeaning, hell they are... not, as everyone has fetishes and those who say that they are demeaning are scared to admit their own. As for the argument relating to Harry Potter/Doctor Who, for all we know, they could be happening in real life, but we wouldn't know about it. Same with Star Wars, Star Trek, etc, with Star Wars giving another idea as to how humans came to be.

[rnthdud32]

MpregLover15, what I think mprego2 is trying to say is that the story needs to be internally consistent. I am exactly same as you. I am pretty forgivable with people just making stuff up because well, it's a fiction and I'm reading it to kill time. But those stories are definitely not the best ones. They need to make sense somewhat. The stories that always state how male pregnancy came about or how is works are always the ones that are best for me. Rather than, oh it just happened. While those stories have their place in my heart, and fun as well, I think all good lies must have basis on some truth. Even most outrageous science fiction deal with the concrete. The have human emotions and human relationships. If something is completely unrelatable, we won't ever read it.

Goddess, I agree with you. I really hate how much people look down on fetish. I am a woman, and I think if men are writing mpreg, it comes from an appreciation of womanly function. We can have children - what's more beautiful than that?

[Mark]

As I mentioned once in another thread, I think the difficulty with "providing an explanation" for MPreg & Mpreg birth is that most of us don't really have the medical background to be able to provide a plausible explanation for a lot of what we write about, even when something might actually be possible in Real Life (see the article linked in the thread "Mpreg, Science, and you," just recently posted in this section by Star478, on the topic of anal birth).

Even when we realize that something probably isn't very likely, if at all, we sometimes like it enough that we run with it anyway. I certainly know it's that way for me for the idea of penile birth. When I first got into the idea of MPreg as a kid (way back when the Internet was the domain of universities and the military and before such things as the movie "Junior"), penile births seemed like the totally logical method of natural birth in a male pregnancy situation (and I mean here a standard 9 month prenancy with a normal-sized baby - one that weighed 6+ pounds at birth).

It wasn't really until I got into adulthood and started really exploring the idea of MPreg on-line that I looked at that setup and thought, "Gee, that doesn't really sound very plausible, does it?" That's when I developed the setup I use in my stories (6 month pregnancy, smaller babies, and a more elastic penis), which, granted, probably still isn't very scientifically plausible, but at least I think it allows me to write a method of penile birth in MPreg stories that is probably a lot more logical than the way described in the previous paragraph.

[TheKicking]

Here's the problem that I have with this article; she's biased and has a limited concept of the idea of mpreg.

Here's my argument.

The biggest problem I have with fanfiction including mpreg is that it's not usually about mpreg itself but allowing characters to procreate with each other. She says something about most fics focusing on the male pregnancy part of the plot, but in my experience, that's not actually true.

I think most people are stuck on the idea that a happy ending includes a spouse and kids. Without them, life doesn't seem to be fulfilled, and so it's hard to imagine a story ending with the main character alone and happy about it.

So the character needs a spouse, which is a easy vacancy to fill in fanfiction because for most people that's usually the point of the story in the first place. Shipping characters that you would rather see together than in canon. And since people, especially young people, are growing more and more open minded, the concept of a spouse can be anyone romatically involved with the main character.

The problem then becomes kids. Shipping a girl and a guy presents no problem, but the trend right now is shipping male characters, who obviously can't have kids together.

Another thing a lot of people can't get over is the idea of kids not being biological. There are people out there who are fine with adoption but there are plenty who aren't. There are some people who are hung up on the fact that they can't pass on their own genes. You see this with people who refuse to adopt and instead spend thousands and thousands of dollars in fertility clinic fees, and then still refuse to adopt after the doctors tell them it's impossible.

I'm not indicting these people. I understand feeling like you can't accept what is not your own.

But this bleeds over into fanfiction. The feeling that I get from authors who write mpreg fanfiction is that they can't get over the concept of their characters not having biological children together. Not creating something tangible together. And why would they have to, when there is this magical idea of male pregnancy to exploit? Especially when it's Harry Potter fanfiction, where all they have to say was that it was some spell that went awry (or went well depending on the fic) and that it worked out because now they have proof of the love they have for each other.

That's my biggest problem with mpreg fanfiction. It's mpreg to solve a fundamental problem and not for the sake of the pregnancy itself. Most of these writers don't care about mpreg. They don't find it interesting. If they could fix the fic with some other plot device, they would, but they can't. If mpreg wasn't in the story, they wouldn't give two shits as long as their couple can still make out with each other, and somehow raise a baby that is both genetically theirs.

You can tell by the way they just casually throw it into a story. "Harry gets pregnant by Draco, but they still hate each other!" or "And a year later, Lupid gave birth to their first child." Sometimes the story mentions the pregnancy part, but then almost completely ignores it except for a line or two about the pregnant guy growing or the birth.

It's not about the pregnancy. Not really. It's about justifying the pairing (and keeping them together) or giving them that fabled happy ending. It's about forcing Draco and Harry to not only get along but fall in love, or about Legolas and Gimili having it all.

And it bugs the shit out of me that our community gets lumped in with them. We are not like them. Most of them are not like us. That's why our board isn't flooded with fanfiction.

I think the author of the article must have read some stuff done by our members, because I have NEVER read a fanfic that included "Oh yea, breed me!" or an incredibly detailed birth unless it was done by, a) someone on our site, and b) someone I know has a preg/birth interest/fetish. Most fanfiction authors who include mpreg do not, and I can tell by the way they handle the pregnancy part of their stories.

I was so glad when I found this community, which loves male pregnancy for it's own sake and not the impact it has on a pair of people who were never meant to be together. I was so frustrated with slogging through websites that claimed to feature mpreg, but was all fanfiction. Hours and hours of trying to find stories that focused on what I was searching for and finding next to nothing because most of these people didn't care about it except as a means to an end.

[mprego2]

http://fanficrants.livejournal.com/9406264.html

http://djinanna.livejournal.com/205086.html

[TheKicking]

Okay, the first one made me laugh. It's so true!