Reproduction and gender
For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, a transman named Thomas Beatie is pregnant. I read about the news first in The Advocate, but it seems the story has spread to mainstream media, including Oprah. I’ve watched some clips from MSNBC and other news sources where anchors have made fun of the situation, remarking “I’m going to be sick” and that they don’t want to hear about it.
The response is primarily confusion, coupled with disgust. Why? It seems people are shocked by the image of a man who is pregnant (our species, unlike others doesn’t reproduce this way, so that makes sense). Then, on further reflection, they realize that this man has female biology, which is even more dissonant.
Yet, curiously, aside from the child’s unusual delivery, s/he will have a pretty normal life, the son or daughter of–to the eyes of most people–a straight couple. What about straight couples who use artificial insemination and/or surrogate mothers? Or who adopt? How important is the way in which a child is created in contrast to the way s/he is brought up?*
The “ick” factor doesn’t–for most people–apply to these cases. (I say “most” because there are some religious folks, who I’ve linked to here before, that would agree with me that these are all, excluding adoption, in the same spectrum of abnormality.)
Yet if people find it shocking because that it is a man having a child, then they’ve accepted that gender is not entirely biological (since otherwise, they’d say it’s simply a “bearded lady” having a baby, nothing amazing). That opens space to allow for differences in reproductive practices.
If the focus is on the transgender part of the story, and they reject that Beatie is truly man, then what’s the problem with a woman bearing a child (again, back to the “bearded lady” paradigm)? The Beaties would then be a lesbian couple, which some would find troubling, but the story doesn’t seem to be revolving around this element.
Of course, it’s probably a mixture of responses altogether, from people who have no idea that FTM persons exist and have only heard of cross-dressing “transexuals” and maybe the occasional drag queen. Though doesn’t anyone remember the manliest man having a baby in Junior?
I do hope that the couple can slip back out of the limelight, for the sake of their child, so that their lives can eventually turn back to the unremarkable thing that it is: a man and a woman having a child.
Image: The Advocate.com.
*There are some important ethical questions to ask about reproduction, gender, etc. However, in the coverage I’ve seen of this situation, I have seen primarily mocking, disgust and pre-fabricated outrage.
April 7th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
There’s a lot of hormonal signaling etc. that is involved in making a baby. I assume this girl has undergone all sorts of hormone treatments, I would be interested to see how this would affect the baby.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
*He* has been on testosterone but stopped the treatments in order to get pregnant. So his levels are probably comparable to those of a biological female (women also have testosterone).
But “all sorts of hormone treatments” is not quite representative of what he’s undertaken.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I will leave this one in the hands of the Lord.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I’m more confused at your ability to write articles than a man having a baby. It also helps to write a whole paragraph, instead of two sentence blurbs.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
@ Karen - okay, but the Lord isn’t the one making medical decisions for the couple right now.
@ Jon - this ain’t an academic journal, it’s a blog. But thanks for stopping by and offering me constructive criticism on my writing–in your two sentence blurb-comment.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Saw Oprah was not impressed. This is a woman having a baby. That and nothing more. If you believe “he” is a man then you are impressed. She didn’t have any surgery beyond having his breasts removed and the hormones made her grow man hair, and made her cliteris grow bigger. No amount of acceptance will change the fact that “he” is a she. I agree that every one should just leave them alone. I commend them for coming forward so that they could tell the world the truth. OK, we have heard it so now lets move on.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I have been seeing this story pop up all over the internet and Im getting irritated. I dont care whether this person is a man or woman but I do think that this story is a hoax and that the image above looks photoshopped. The story being on oprah is not evidence of its truthfulness, she is simply a talk show host trying to get ratings.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I find that picture and that pose rather confronting… and I’m guessing that the photographer deliberately chose to frame it in a style reminiscent of Demi Moore on the cover of Vogue and subsequent similar images… very good work by the media, but I’m finding your reader’s comments, as well as my own gut reaction to it rather curious.
And not just that - the fact that he/she went on Oprah… that, to me, rings a little bit too much of “methinks the lady doth protest too much”.
After science destroyed most of our old truths, is The Organism the last stand? Is there a sense of ‘if we go down all that sex changing, cloning, genetically modifying track, then the whole of existence is nothing but putty to be moulded by an arbitrary human will?’ A paradise for Nietzsche but the final death of god?
April 9th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
When we glorify this type of lifestyle we normalize it. OK, you think you got a religious nut here. I’m not going to preach. I am going to say that two women living as man and wife is outside the realm of normal biological behavior. The wife, who by the way seemed like a real nice lady , says they are not a gay couple. She can think that if she wants to but the fact is, she is married to a woman.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
@ Mary - I haven’t seen any evidence that this is a hoax.
@ Jeong, yes, I think that a lot of the reactions are out of fear of neat metaphysical categories being destroyed (I think that’s what you’re saying). Yeah, I am not sure why Beatie chose to go on Oprah, except that he may have thought it would draw attention to the problems he had with medical care. I’m still working through a lot of my own questions about transgenderism, but knowing several FTMs in the process of transition has helped me understand the experience. The philosophical questions are, in many ways, secondary (since I think they have a right to self-determination).
@ Merritt - no one said you are a “religious nut.” However, your use of the term “normal” is problematic. Are you saying it isn’t statistically normal? That it doesn’t happen in any species? Or are you saying it isn’t normative (i.e., that it is something that shouldn’t be done)? If the first, true, but what does that demonstrate? If the second, that’s false. If the third, what is your rationale?
As for the question of whether Beatie is “really” a man or a woman, I’d suggest you read “The Riddle of Gender.” Even if you disagree with Rudacille’s conclusions, it will give you some history behind what you’re seeing on Oprah. It is a really interesting book.