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

[telesilla.livejournal.com]

I did some meta
on it a while back. While it's mostly about what I'm looking for when I start reading an MPREG fic, I also mention why I like some of them and don't like most of them.

[sev1970.livejournal.com]

I am not a huge fan of reading MPREG, but since I am writing one now, (well, it is on hiatus for now, but...) I will explain why it appealed to me. It is all about the magical aspect. If magic was not involved, I would not touch MPREG because it just isn't realistic. In my fic, there is little that will resemble a true pregnancy other than the emotional aspect. It will be a much shorter duration, for one. And I am only using it because it is integral to complete the spectrum of events. I haven't written very much about the actual pregnancy yet, so I am unsure how it is going to go, but I hope it will not be too difficult.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

I don't get its appeal myself.

Some random guesses:

That stuff you said a while back about feminizing villains? This is feminizing as heck.

What few MPREGs I've run across have usually involved: pregnancy as the Reason an Emotional Bonding is necessary (or sex, too), in which case it's just an Excuse for that plot (which used to happen all the time in het romances too).

Also, they're always particularly weakening and feminizing pregnancies. MPREG never involves a guy getting pregnant and being fucking macho about it, no nausea, no problems, make any girly comments about it and I'll fucking kill you. No, it's always a weakening thing. Weakness = vulnerability. Which, you know, is hot or something, or equals emotional accessibility.

Althugh I now find the idea of a really butch and hearty MPREG vaguely amusing.

Conan glares: "Yes. I'm due in three months and it's a girl, and I still work out every goddamned day, so if you've got a fucking problem with it, I'll rip you into bits and barbecue them. I'm eating for two, and this baby likes her meat fresh and bloody."

Alternatively, there may be some element of revenge involved: "Ha. Conan thinks he's so tough; let's see him cope with morning sickness and mommy hormones! Bwahaha! I have made this male character face a problem he has no idea how to cope with! Oh, and I've made a Secret Magical Prophecy so he can't just give himself a Heimlich maneuvar and get rid of it."

Persoally, I don't want pregnancy in my smut, and pregnancy as plotline is pretty lame. Mpreg is waaaaaaaay up there with Overly Contrived Plot Designed to Force Characters Together.

It's weird that people who'd shriek in horror about a plot in which a girl gets forced into sexual relations and then forced to carry a baby resulting from said sex AND to keep having a relationship with the rapist, whom the shen falls for - wtf? - think this plot is Just Dandy when it's two guys. I mean, sure, we all had one or two rape fantasies, but yuck.

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

I owe telesilla a Ron/Lucius MPREG. I'm writing it partly because I love fucking with common tropes and in this one, Lucius is going to be the pregnant one. I also think that HP is one of the few fandoms where MPREG is plausible, so I can buy it where I might have a harder time with it in, say, Lotrips.

I often use Lois McMaster Bujold's explanation of how Miles Vorkosigan came to be: figure out what the worst possible thing to happen to a character would be, and then do it to him. I like throwing curve balls at my characters, and then seeing how they hit them.

[punzel.livejournal.com]

This is common enough for there to be an acronym for it?

In case I had any doubt that there would still be things in the world I would not concieve of (heh) as trends.

[amberite.livejournal.com]

I can't say, because no one in my fandom (Doctor Who) has written an mpreg story yet.

And I'm like, DEAR GOD. HE'S AN ALIEN. FOR ALL WE KNOW, HE COULD BE LAYING EGGS IN THE BACK OF THE TARDIS.

But I can't write it, because my brainexplody when I try. Someone more shameless is going to have to do it. I simultaneously beg and facepalm.

[alabastard.livejournal.com]

Cannot get it at all, it's pure Ick to Me and I simply do not go there.

[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.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

My response to this might be better said in an email because I'm none too sure if it's as smart or informed as I'd like it to be. But to sum it up: I don't really understand mpreg either. However, when I'm writing a male to female transgender character, I sometimes play around with this, especially as this is a world where magic is involved. I wonder if anyone else has ever written about pregnancy in a m2f character in the HP universe, an original or canon character?