fandom question I'll probably regret

[rm]

Would someone please explain the appeal of MPREG to me? Seriously, I'm not trying to be snarky. I don't get it, I probably never will get it, I don't really want to get it, but intellectually I'd like to know what's up with that.

Do you think it's sexy? If so, why? I mean, there is a sort of posession/dominant/territory thing that can be hot about normal pregnancy, so... okay.

Or is it... "wow I _hate_ this character and want to make them as miserable as popssible -- with puking!"

Seriously, help me out here.

I'm going to bed and am on set tomorrow, but really hope to wake up to oodles are horrifying responses.

Comments

[rufus.livejournal.com]

Disclaimer: I do actually read MPREG, though at first it squicked me out a *lot*, but now I can use the phrase "well done MPREG" without laughing.

So, my thoughts, in no particular order, on MPREG:

1. Babies = Major part of the Happy Ever After archetype, at least for some people, and so if Character X and Character Y are *really* going to live happily ever after, babies *have* to be included somehow. And since throwing in babymamas can be complicated, plot wise (i.e., how do you bring them in and then get rid of them and not ruin your schmoop?) voila! MPREG!

1a. Also, MPREG provides useful plot device/excuse of "it's the hormones" for a variety of OOC behavior, such as excessive crying, or the sudden development of "softer feeling" in people not previously known to have any.

2. I don't read outside of the HP-verse, but I've seen many variations on the MPREG theme, as noted below -- Baby needed to save the world, Baby needed because Family MUST Go On!, baby the result of "magical accident" and/or Tru Wuv, author wants to make character miserable, etc. Some people get into the possisive/dominant/territory thing, others don't.

3. I'm not sure sexy is the term I would use. It *can* be interesting, from a skilled author, busaikko or ellid, for example, who have both done realistic, believable and well-crafted Snupin MPREG that was mercifully low on the schmoop, had strong characterization of both men and absolutely pulled no punches whatsoever. There was sex involved in both of them, but it was ... not unromantic, but . . . pragmatic sex? I don't know.

4. Ultimately I think it may owe something to fact that fanfiction is a female dominated arena, in terms of both writers and readers, and that a significant chunk of the participants in the reading/writing exercise want (or have) babies themselves, and either want to be pregnant or have been pregnant and are determined to Use the Experience Somehow. It's all about our fantasies, after all, and some people fantasize (and romanticize) pregnancy.

4a. And hence, from what I can tell, the best MPREG is written by authors who *don't* mythologize pregnancy.

[sethg]

Babies = Major part of the Happy Ever After archetype, at least for some people

Those would be people who haven't been woken up every three hours by a crying infant? And who haven't spent an hour or longer trying to convince the little darling to go back to sleep?

Happy, yes. Ever, not so much. :-/