2018 participants
Jess Weisser
Over the last decade, the figure of the pregnant male has significantly emerged in popular culture. However, fictional depictions of male pregnancy (‘MPreg’) often reinforce the idea that pregnancy is an essentially female experience. Consequently the experiences of pregnant transgender men are overlooked.
Online fan-fiction (writing which uses a published text’s characters/settings) frequently contains MPreg narratives and has the potential to depict MPreg in more inclusive ways. My research asks whether MPreg fan-fiction can challenge the female coding of pregnancy and give voice to transgender experiences of pregnancy.
I focused on the fan community for the television adaptation Hannibal, surveying fans and closely analysing Hannibal MPreg fan-fiction. I found that MPreg works commonly coded the pregnant man as female. Nevertheless, some fans read and wrote MPreg fan-fiction in ways that prioritised transgender and/or intersex experiences of pregnancy. These perspectives have previously been overlooked within fan studies and deserve further exploration.
Funding source: Newcastle University
Project Supervisor: Dr Stacy Gillis