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That Pregnant Man Loves Being Pregnant, I Guess

February 14, 2010
Molls
Pregnant Man
59 Comments

So, I just read on People.com that the pregnant man is pregnant for the third time. Thomas Beatie, for those of you who don’t remember because you’re totally crazy, was in the news a couple years ago when he carried he and his wife’s first child. Thomas was born a woman and underwent sex change surgery, but kept his reproductive organs. Nancy, his wife, is unable to carry children because of a hysterectomy, so the job of Baby Oven went to dad, who apparently loves it so much that they’re doing it again.

I am no longer amazed by this, but I definitely think it’s cool and a total miracle. Part of me wishes they’d just adopt because there are lots of kids out there who need adopting, but I also think unconventional stories like this give hope to any couple who is having trouble having a child of their own.

59 CommentsLeave a comment

  • Sorry, but is he/she pregnant for a second or third time? Your entry leaves me confused because you say both.

    I was under the impression this would be the second time….

    • He’s currently pregnant with his third child. Molls mentions the first pregnancy, which is what brought him notoriety, for the whole first publicized male pregnancy thing; he also gave birth to a second child a year after the first one was born. Now he’s well on his way to his third.
      The whole pregnant man thing is now old-hat. There’s another man in the news who is currently pregnant. I think it’s Russell Brand or Rosie O’Donnell, but I could be wrong.

      • Thanks for clearing it up. I didn’t even know there was a 2nd babe born. It is old news…

        Lmao .. I think its Russell…

  • It is sooo old news, and please quit refering to it as a man, as you mentioned “he” was born as a woman…nothing establishes one as a man or a woman but the junk they were born with, not how they feel inside nor their sexual orientation. Therefore, it is not even right to call it a “miracle”, that dude is a woman who chose to be a man, there is no man who was born a man that ended up pregnant…we have yet to find one.

    • Ooh Tina, good thing you’re here to clear everything up for those of us who progressed past the modernist period and found nothing but CONFUSION!

      “Hey, guys, everything was complicated for no reason! Sex is definitive after all!”

      Phew, well now that that’s over with we can board up the feminist and queer studies departments in Universities everywhere.

      …honestly, do you actually know anything about gender? Have you even heard the word? And what happens to your neat little ‘science’ when you’re confronted with an intersexed person? Did your brain just explode?

      • Smarty, you are not the only one who knows about gender, and yes i do know about intersexed people. My point is not to be offensive towards whomever doesn’t feel right in his/her skin, but let’s take this “man”: if he felt he was not a woman but a man, then he should have gotten rid of the ovaries too. How in the world can you call a “MAN” (as it’s defined in literature and gender) pregnant? Can you prove by any means that a Man can get pregnant? that’s what i’m talking about, and no “he” is no miracle.
        PS: i didn’t write my opinion “to clear everything up for those of us who progessed past the modernist period and found nothing but confusion”, i wrote it because of Molls’ comment on the “miracle” thing.

      • There are “men” who are born with both sets of reproductive organs, so yes “he” can become pregnant. Or since you’re focusing solely on physical parts and not giving a pea’s worth of thought to other aspects of gender, a woman born with undescended testicles can have a child and be classified as a “man” by your purely “junk” definition. But the fact that you called a real human being an “it” is so completely disgusting and despicable that you’re no better than a horrible monster. So to reverse your own treatment onto you, get away from here you vile monster. You/ “It” are not welcome here.

        Let’s step away from the monster folks. IT doesn’t deserve the time of day.

      • OMG Merc, i totally did not know that there are people born with two sets of reproductive systems, WOW that’s amazing. Seriously you think you are the only one who knows that, and man you are the only one here who happens to have gay and transgendered friends, wake the fuck up…i guess you read everything but the part where i said that i’m not trying to offend anyone.
        Called the so called “him” “it” because i was trying to make my point not b/c i don’t believe “he” is a human being. Finally, this couple and the british one are not doing any one a favor (not their community not their KIDS) any favor. If someone believes he is a Man then don’t get pregnant, you can’t be everything, pick one and save those kids the confusion.
        And you know me to call me a Monster, but then again you are behind a screen, so feel free to call me every name under the sun just b/c you don’t agree with my point of view, that will make you a saint.

      • You’re not trying to offend anybody? YOU CALLED SOMEONE AN IT. Yes, I’m sure you’re an amazing person, just like Hitler was on the inside. You wake up! Your actions tell other people what type of person you are, and the fact that you called a real human being an “it” regardless of what argument you were trying to make shows that you are indeed a monster. We judge people on actions and you doing that was unacceptable.

        Who are you to say what is normal and not normal in society? You’re comment about having the cake and eating it too can be used for just about anything- how dare a woman have a husband and have a child too? How dare a woman have children and a career? How dare a man be a football player and be allowed to bake cookies on the weekend because that’s what he likes to do? You can’t dictate what is ok or “allowed” for other people to do. Just because we’ve been doing something the same way for a long time doesn’t make it right. Having a TV in a household was very unusual decades ago, too, and not “normal.” Having a single parent was once “weird.” He is a man who wanted children and had the organ inside him to do it, so why are you choosing to criticize him simply because it’s a new idea and not the norm now? Because it makes you uncomfortable? Because you’re not willing to accept a new idea? There are SOOO many couples out there who should not be having children, don’t want the children, cannot provide a good home for their children but no one gives them a seconds worth of time thought or energy criticizing them. People are just choosing to attack transgender people because the brave ones are willing to be in the spotlight and be in the frontlines.

      • Can you prove by any means that the gender binary is the one we’re supposed to be sticking with? There are plenty of cultures in this world where intersexed people are respected, revered, even, because they know the worlds of every gender imaginable, and therefore have more insight than the rest of us could dream of having. Should we just dismiss the mentalities of these cultures outright because the ridiculously simple-minded one of ours has somehow pervaded?

        And (in your original post) “it”? Really? “It” is a person, who has a name, who is male.

    • Excuse me but you don’t get to define what makes someone a man or a woman. Man and woman are just words, and the definitions were created long ago before there was need to clarify whether they were born with an inny or an outie. It’s the presence of male or female reproductive organs. And it’s not whether they work or not- otherwise all sterile women would be men and all sterile men would be women.
      I do have to say that if you have a sex change, you really can’t pick and choose which parts you want and then say “I’m a pregnant man”. A man can’t be pregnant because a man doesn’t have a womb. This guy appears to just be a bearded lady. The point is, if you’ve got a baby growing inside your womb but you have a beard and got rid of your boobs, well you’re But Tina, saying that you are what you’re born with is like saying that I’m a blonde because I had blonde hair as a child/naturally. If I’ve been dying my hair brown for 10 years, I can’t go around saying “I’m blonde.” Blonde, brunette, man, woman… they are all physical descriptors. So what you physically are is what you are.

    • ok, its not right that i called he/she and it. but im CONFUSED on what to call him/her. It’s pregnant yet it has a mustache… I know plenty of women with facial hair and flat chested (naturally) so ill call it a SHE

  • I find this so weird. Weird, but not a miracle. Although I don’t agree with Tina that he shouldn’t be called a man, I do agree that it’s not a miracle. He has female sexual organs, of course he can reproduce.

    It makes me question his gender reassignment, though. Why would you reassign as a man but want to keep your female organs? Isn’t the entire point to stop being a woman? Why would you want to be a man but pregnant? It all seems weird to me.

    • I agree. I have no idea if it’s standard procedure, but it seems to me that someone who goes through gender reassignment surgery — surely an ordeal — would want to do it all. It seems a little suspect to me that he kept his female reproductive organs. Unless there’s some huge risk in removing them that I don’t know about, in which case everyone can ignore me.

    • I’m not saying I understand it either, but maybe paying a surrogate or having that procedure done would have cost so much they couldn’t afford it. Even if that’s not the cast with this couple, it may be for others I’m thinking.

    • Hey, just as a means of clarifying, I have many FTM trans friends, and I used to wonder why they didn’t go through bottom surgery like many MTF transwomen do. The issue is that it’s honestly really difficult to construct a satisfactory, stimulate-able penis. The results are incredibly shaky, even in today’s medical world, so many opt for the other ways around it, like using a strap-on or packing, and taking hormone treatments (because testosterone will often lengthen the clitoris to give it a more male presentation).

      And my understanding of this whole pregnancy issue is that our society has an incredibly limiting view of gender. Many current gender theorists discuss the ideas that “sex” and “gender” are separate entities. “Sex” prescribes to your genitalia and “gender”, simply put, regards the emotional components to what society dictates to be “male” or “female” or even genderqueer. So, Thomas Beatie may regard himself as “male” completely in terms of gender (meaning that he thinks/understands the world as a male, the way society defines “male”), but that doesn’t mean that his genitalia or whatever typically “female” processes he goes through have any connection to his gender.

  • Skeelo is absolutely correct that this is the third child in three years. That is a lot of damn babies in a short amount of time.

    He/she was also correct about the other male couple having a baby. They are British and have a very unusual story. I read about them about a month ago in The Daily Mail. They were both originally lesbian women who felt that they were men. They became men but kept their vaginas and reproductive organs. After becoming men they both felt that they were actually gay men and then they met and hooked up. They both were still attracted to men but they already changed sex. One of the men had 2 or 3 children from when he was a woman and was married to a man (she was married for 10 or 15 years). Whew, hard to keep up with all of that, right? Both men are currently pregnant together and will add 2 babies to the 2 or 3 other kids they already have. Just, FYI, the children they already have are constantly harassed and bullied at school. The existing kids were interviewed and basically said their lives were a living hell. Their dads’ response was along the lines of “we are doing this to prove to the world that we can and the kids just have to get over it.” That wasn’t a direct quote, but pretty close to what they actually said. And I thought I had some fucked up parents.

    I think that any decent, responsible person should be able to have children either naturally or through adoption regardless of sexual orientation, et al. But, I would seriously question people with something to prove by having children. That is the worst reason to have a child.

    • I don’t think anyone chooses to have kids out of spite or to simply prove a point. They wouldn’t have a child if they didn’t want one- it wasn’t just some accidental unwanted pregnancy and required money and intention. But if they were going to have a kid, they just decided to carry it themselves to prove a point. So the WAY they did was to prove a point, not the reason to have a kid, big difference. And as if there aren’t plenty of people who have kids for wrong reasons that don’t want a child as badly as this couple does. Also, the kids may have a hard time at school, yes. But so do kids who are fat, kids who have pimples, kids who have weird last names, kids whose parents are deaf/disables/obese, kids whose parents are immigrants and don’t speak English, kids who don’t look like other kids, kids whose ears stick out from their heads, shall I continue?I see how you were trying to make a point, but you can use for just about anyone if you twist the facts around in the right way.

      • I absolutely agree that many parents are bad parents for a variety of reasons (non of which you listed– being disabled, obese, etc. does not make you a bad parent). I didn’t say they were bad parents; I’m only questioning the need to prove ANYTHING to the world at large by a pregnancy. Also, as I stated, any decent, responsible human should be able to have children or adopt.

        I simply posted to provide food for thought, that’s all.

      • Maybe they’re trying to prove to the world that you don’t have to be boxed into a little binary gender system where men can only do this and this and woman can only do this and this. If cis-gendered males had uteruses, I think some would choose to have children through their own bodies, especially if they’re significant other female was not able to. I think this couple just wanted to do whatever would make them happy and their lives fulfilled, just like any other straight couple who wants a family to complete them for example. It’s just that the way for them to do that was unfortunately through an unconventional way which we all know are big no-nos in society. Peer-pressure and the importance of being like everyone else is drilled into us from kindergarten. So they continually got ridiculed and attacked for wanting the same things most other people want, and that made them develop really thick skin and the prove a point mentality.
        So reading your comment it sounded to me like you though proving a point came first then wanting a child and all of that came second but I think it was wanting to have a child first, and because of the attacks, turned into proving a point. I know this comment is long, but like with MLK- MLK didn’t want to march the streets because he wanted to mess with the nation and gets things riled up. He was born wanting to have the right to live a happy life just like any other white kid, but as he grew up noticed that black people weren’t allowed to do that and kept being told they couldn’t do certain things because it wasn’t the way things ran around here and it wasn’t “normal”. So he fought to prove a point that “normal” was just an illusion and wasn’t the guidelines that we should use to determine how to live and let others live their lives.

      • I see where you are coming from. And, you make some really good points.

        Coming from a father that had everything to prove to the world, quite often at the expense of his children, I just can’t condone using your children to make your point. It is a crappy line to tow for the kid who may or may not actually believe in and support your cause. Kids are not props to use to make a point. Those kids have lives and dreams of their own. If a person has a dream and a cause, they should find a way to express that without forcing their children into their cause.

        I’m not trying to argue, but I really believe using your unborn child to make a point is wrong. The British couple not only used their unborn children, but their existing children as well. It is WRONG for a parent to push their personal views and beliefs unto a child to further their personal cause. I personally believe organized religion is a crock of shit. My daughter is a devout Catholic. I would never force my views on her, nor would I stop her from pursuing her beliefs. I attend church services with her, I support her youth group fundraiser drives, etc. She has asked about my beliefs and I have expressed them fully– with the caveat that she needs to decide what is right for her and her life. I make it clear it is her choice and I will support it regardless of my beliefs. My parents (really just my dad, my mom was crippled under his dominance) NEVER gave me that choice. I refuse to do that with my daughter.

      • It sucks that your Dad was like that but I think that Thomas and his wife just simply want a family. Adoption wouldn’t have the same biological component and a surrogate would have cost thousands of dollars if they could have found one at all.
        The TV appearances pay the bills, but I’m guessing they just want to live normal quiet lives.

  • Born a woman, doesn’t want to be a woman, believes he/she is meant to be a man, has a sex change, but keeps repro. organs, is baby oven. What the fuck? Have your cake and eat it too? There is something warped about this.

  • I believe this is his third pregnancy. But to me, he’s NOT a man because a man cannot carry a child. You can’t do everything. Geez.

  • I think that many people outside of the transgendered community don’t understand a lot of the factors involved in transitioning. There are various degrees and reasons for keeping or not keeping sexual reproductive organs.

    Everyone may agree or disagree, but there are three loved and well cared for children that would not be here had two individuals not fallen in love and accepted each other.

    There have been many more transgendered men that have given birth to healthy children without the scrutiny of the media or public well before he did. They just chose to do it out of the spotlight.

  • Does anyone but me wonder how this she-man is getting pregnant? Who is impregnating this person?? Any answers out there??

  • This is so fucking selfish. Wants to be a man? Wants to give birth? It just seems like this guy is more concerned about making himself happy than he is taking into account the possible mental fuck-over his kids are getting. Why can’t the “woman” in this relationship have the children? I’m so grossed out by this guy and his self-centeredness.

    I’m all for gay marriage and gay adoptions, but this shit is just sick.

  • There is nothing miraculous about this at all. I don’t know why there is so much media hype over it. Guess they have to stay in the spotlight to pay for the bills.

    • I agree. Transgendered individual is pregnant. No need for a headline, unless they are trying to make more out of it for monetary purposes.

  • that douche isn’t a man…she still has female parts therefore isn’t a man…if she wanted to be a man, get rid of the female parts…pretty rediculous. now go away she/male

  • If you want to be a man, then BE A MAN. Which means you can’t carry a fetus and give birth. Just adopt and live your life as a man.

  • Molls, can you please stop writing for this website, you’re really crap.

    Also, why did my last comment get removed? Because i said
    HOW does this give hope to other couples having trouble having a child of their own exactly?!

    Valid question, you’re just a rubbish writer

  • An interesting look at gender roles, but not a miracle. Raising those children not to talk during a movie – there’s your miracle.

  • I dont’ care which it is but fucking decide what you are going to be. A man or woman. This crazy pregnant “man” shit has to stop

  • I AM A WOMEN THAT HAS HAD A BABY!! THIS NOT A MAN HAVING BABIES, ITS A EFFING CHICK THAT LOOKS LIKE A DUDE HAVING BABIES. I AM NOT A MIRACLE AND NEITHER IS SHE! fACE IT ITS A WOMAN, MEN CANT HAVE BABIES.THIS IS NOT NEWS, GIVE WOMEN CREDIT FOR THE ONLY THING WE CAN DO THAT A MAN CANT.

  • I agree with Tina. ITS NOT A MIRACLE. Any woman can have a sex change and get pregnant. Its not a big deal. And if IT wanted to turn fully woman, than IT should have done so by taking out ALL of the womanly parts.