It’s a really great thing he’s doing for his partner! Very courageous. It just really makes me weepy when you know how much that child is going to be loved by them!

And Jill, thank you for a kind of moderation I see all too rarely, here and lately in general. If I’m any indicator, it means a lot to plenty of members of the Feministe community that you’re doing this kind of ally work.

God, I just want to send this couple a fruit basket, or something. A fruit basket and a Taser.

As for the coverage and the willfully clueless “biology IS destiny, dammit” (note: that’s among the things I think it should be patently absurd to assert on a feminist blog) comments on this thread… my first thought is that there are so many people and institutions in this world that are willing to “tolerate” trans people, but only as long as we don’t break any rules associated with our gender.

It’s a perfect example of the extra layer of gender policing and double standards that affect trans folks — anything “girlish” a trans man does, no matter how unremarkable it would be on a non-trans guy, will be interpreted by some people as evidence of his “real” gender. And pregnancy is just a very extreme example of what people think the rules are: only women get pregnant.

Of course, as mk points out, if a non-trans guy were to somehow carry a child, ectopically or through some other means, we would not immediately insist that this makes him a woman. We all understand, whether we admit it or not, that there is a lot more to gender than that. Beatie and other trans guys CAN simultaneously be pregnant AND receive a lot of male (and heterosexual, he’s married)) social privilege, pee in the men’s bathroom without comment, carry male identification, and basically move through the world as a man, being socially interpreted as a man. No matter what you do, there is going to be a contradiction in any kind of limited, biology-based, rigid-binary worldview here, whether you regard him as a man who can be pregnant, or a woman who just happens to be treated by all kinds of social and institutional systems as a man. Which of those gives you more cognitive dissonance? Which of those is more antisocial and removes you from the reality-based community? Trans people exist, we’re not going away, your brain will just have to deal with it.

Also: little light, your response made me crack up!! Thanks!

The good news was that this gave me an opportunity to try to humanize the man to them, and explain a thing or two about the transition process (this was particularly urgent since one of our mutual friends is FtM.) I told them not to make assumptions about his body. Some transmen opt for phalloplasty, some are content with the clitoromegaly resultant from the testosterone therapy, etc.

This could be such an interesting story to talk about if people didn’t make it into a freak show.

If there were, indeed, a way to allow a cisgendered (or biological, or whatever term folks prefer) man to carry a pregnancy to term, would those of you determined to call Thomas Beatie a woman be reacting the same way? In other words, would pregnancy still be a female biological function?

If you have a functioning ovaries and uterus, and use them to conceive and grow a child…..

you are functioning as a FEMALE biologically. Intentionally.

So using ’she’ as the pronoun to describe a PREGNANT transgender F to M is not insulting.

I think perhaps we should allow transgender people to decide for themselves what’s insulting, no?

Males (biological) do not have wombs or eggs.
Or would you rather we just ignore biology and pretend that they do?

Are you really that uncomfortable with biology?

The headline ‘Pregnant man’ is misleading.

The person in question is legally a man. He lives as a man. He identifies as male. Why does it matter to you so damn much if he uses male pronouns?

But producing an egg and growing a placenta, and carrying a baby to term.. that is biologically female, even though he is male in gender.
Those are two separate, yet overlapping things (gender and biology).

So why should biology trump gender when it comes to pronouns? Pronouns largely relate to how one appears; people who have XX chromosomes but male sex organs are almost always referred to as “he.” This man has lived his adult life as a man. Why are we privileging biology over experienced reality when it comes to pronouns?

And again, why do you care so much? How does it affect your life if we call this guy “he”?

What Roy said. Not to mention how offensive it is to refer to a man (yes, trans*men, even pregnant ones, are men) with female pronouns.

If you have a functioning ovaries and uterus, and use them to conceive and grow a child…..

you are functioning as a FEMALE biologically. Intentionally.

So using ‘she’ as the pronoun to describe a PREGNANT transgender F to M is not insulting.

Unless you consider being a biological ‘she’ an insult.

What I find insulting is complaining that folks use the female pronoun for an individual that is performing a female biological function.

Males (biological) do not have wombs or eggs.
Or would you rather we just ignore biology and pretend that they do?

Are you really that uncomfortable with biology?

The headline ‘Pregnant man’ is misleading.

Makes one think some guy actually surgically got an egg to implant and grow on the bowel (with is theoretically possible).

‘Pregnant F to M transgender person’ doesn’t sound quite as catchy… but is a more accurate.

I think it is cool that he / she could reverse the effects long enough to conceive and have the child. It shows both how plastic our bodies can be, and at the same time the underlying skeleton of biology.

I don’t care what gender he decides to live as, or what future parental rearing role he fills.

But producing an egg and growing a placenta, and carrying a baby to term.. that is biologically female, even though he is male in gender.
Those are two separate, yet overlapping things (gender and biology).

Yet we only have 2 pronouns.
Maybe we need more.

And if the use of a female pronoun to describe a person performing a female biological function (pregnancy) is insulting to you, I wonder why.

-Jag