From Fan History Wiki

Mpreg is a combination of the words "male" and "pregnancy." Thus, it used to describe a fan work in which a male character becomes pregnant. Mpreg usually occurs in slash/yaoi relationship fic. Mpreg tends to be a "love it or hate it" genre in fan-fiction, with archives and communities solely devoted to enjoying it while other fen will avoid reading it at all costs. Mpreg tends to be found more often in fandoms with science fiction, fantasy or magic components to the canon, although in recent years it has begun to appear in more "realistic" universes and even RPS fandoms.

[edit] History

Harry Potter mpreg and Mary Sue reference total comparison on blogs between November 7, 2006 and January 7, 2007

Although the genre has been around for many years, the popular term of "mpreg" was coined by two writers under the pseudonyms of Taleya Joinson and Texas Ranger, who created and maintained what is believed to be the first fan fiction archive dedicated to stories of this genre in 1998. [1]

In January 2002, Sara Davis said "Most yaoi fans frown on the mpreg fics. The few who don't are the butt of constant jokes by the rest." [2]

LiveJournal has an active and thriving mpreg community. The material is posted to mpreg communities (some fandom specific, some multi-fandom), to general fan fiction communities, and to personal journals. mpreg has been helped on LiveJournal because of the exploding popularitly of crack!fic there, and the ability to create communities just for this material where it is less likely to be criticized by those who dislike the genre. It has helped to normalize and avoid scorn for the material.

Some of the communities that have been created on LiveJournal for mpreg include:

• hp_mpreg, a Harry Potter mpreg community, created on December 27, 2003[3]
• lotr_mpreg, a Lord of the Rings mpreg community, created on January 3, 2004[4]
• _bloompreg, an Orlando Bloom mpreg community, created on May 27, 2004[5]
• snarry_mpreg, a Snarry mpreg community, created on April 18, 2005[6]
• atlantis_mpreg, a Stargate Atlantis mpreg community, created on August 20, 2005[7]
• mpla, a multi-fandom mpreg community, created on April 26, 2006[8]
• mpregwinchester, a Supernatural mpreg community, created on September 10, 2006[9]
• jrock_mpreg, a jrock mpreg community, created on June 13, 2007[10]
• inuyasha_mpreg, an Inuyasha mpreg community created on August 17, 2007[11]
• mcr_mpreg, a My Chemical Romance mpreg community, created on October 15, 2007[12]

[edit] Fandom attitudes towards mpreg

[edit] CSI

Almost any couple on CSI can have children, helped along because Catherine Willows is canonically a parent. mpreg is not as present in this fandom as other fandoms because the show is set in a context where that would not be realistic. Instead, if two male characters have a baby, it comes about through adoption or events in their past. This happens occassionally for pairings like Nick/Greg.

[edit] Digimon

Mpreg has been found in the Digimon fandom.

[edit] Harry Potter

The Harry Potter fandom has seen its fair share of mpregs; the magical setting of Harry Potter makes it possible for mpreg-writers to explain away the biological improbabilities of male pregnancy.

[edit] Star Trek: Voyager

Chakotay/Paris is the major m/m slash pairing. When the couple is pregnant, it tends to be a result of mpreg. The story may or may not be humor. This contrasts to f/f slash pairings like Janeway/7 where the characters generally have a medical procedure which results in the child sharing both mothers' dna.

[edit] Torchwood

The Torchwood fandom has its fair share of mpreg stories, due mostly to the fact that with aliens and time travel, anything is possible. Another reason that mpreg is almost canon is that in the pilot, Captain Jack Harkness makes a reference that he's "never doing that again" after referring to pregnancy.

[edit] Xena:Warrior Princess and Hercules

Mpreg was somewhat popular in the slash fandom for these series, particularly when the gods were involved in a pairing. Given that "mpreg" was part of Greek Mythology, many writers felt it an easy jump to make male gods such as Ares, Cupid or Strife pregnant.

[edit] Historical Definitions

The following term dates to August 2003 in the Hello Kitty fandom:

Mpreg, what does Mpreg stands for? It means Male Pregnancy. This is only for Fanfic.. [13]

The following is from an academic writing in July 2003:

A particular subgenre of this however, leaves me completely stunted. Male Pregnancy, short "mpreg". What is especially baffling is that there seem to be more males writing mpreg than it is common in fanfiction. Most fanfiction writers are women, with the ratio being somewhere along 80% to 20%. Yet the ratio of men writing mpreg seems to be higher, somewhere like 35% to 75%. (The figure is hard to gauge just over internet surveys.) I would like to know from you now what underlying issues could cause a man or a woman to write about men getting pregnant. (Like in the movie "Junior" with Arnold Schwarzenegger.) This is especially interesting as there seem to be common themes in mpreg fanfiction:

• Women are Evil
• Women who are not mothers are very evil
• Mothers regularly abuse and psychologically scar their children
• Fathers often beat and rape their male children
• Women who are married to the characters in canon are evil

bitches (canon= the show/material the fanfiction is based upon, for example the TV show "Buffy" or the "Harry Potter" books by JK Rowling.)

• The heroes of the show are the real villains
• The villains of the show are victims
• There's a very strong current of extreme victimization running

through the protagonists' stories.

• The strong male characters become passive, weak victims.
• The strong male characters are excessively feminized and

infantilized [14]

The following definition dates to October 2003 and was written by Chantal Gouveia:

M-Preg: Twisted invention of Male-Pregnancy, this is one outlet to make your characters get all the suffering of being female with none of the benefits. [15]

The following definition dates to April 2007 in the comics fandom:

MPreg—Male pregnancy. Fanfiction is equal opportunity. Fairly common in anime and Harry Potter fics, where the laws of physics in anime and the magic of the sorcerer stone apparently give male characters a set of ovaries. Would make for an interesting episode of Jerry Springer... [16]

The following definition was provided in the July/August 2008 edition of the Literary Review of Canada:

mpreg (where a man gets pregnant)[17]

[edit] Finding good mpreg

While much of the above is found in some fanfiction, moreoften than not fanfic authors tend towards character-bashing of canon males and females that they themselves dislike. This is not always encouraged by fans. Themes such as sexual, psychological or emotional abuse are to be read at the discretion of those who are curious about the fics, and most online fanfiction communities require those who post their stories to list "warnings" about any material that may strike potential readers as objectionable.

Contrary to popular belief, there are many good Mpreg stories to be found, and if the finding takes too long, one may always post a "request" for a fanfic to their specific tastes on any given community and wait for someone to follow their prompts and create a story to their liking.

As with many forms of literature, Mpreg is not to everyone's liking and those who shun it or frown on it are tolerated so long as dislike doesn't come in the form of "flames," or unnecessarily harsh, expletive-laden reviews.

[edit] Examples

There are many examples of mpreg fiction out there. Below are just a few in various popular fandoms.

[edit] Harry Potter

• Misunderstood, Still Misunderstood, Curious by soberloki: ONESHOT, DRABBLES. 3X100 words, Snarry. Harry and Snape have three conversations with third parties at different times in their relationship. Implied violence, minor character death, MPREG.
• One Daiquiri Too Many by MiZ PuNk: Draco's diet isn't working. Silly one shot written for the Who's Your Daddy Challenge? at hp mpreg on livejournal. Warnings: Slash, mpreg, OOC, mild language & no beta. Written June 2004.
• The Joys of Sexual Education by Roslyn Drycof: Seventh years must take sexual education, and GryffSlyth has Snape and McGonagall as their teachers. Students must be paired up to complete a final project. Harry and Draco hate theirs, but must do it or fail. HD, sim. mpreg
• The Best Thing by AngelVampyr: MPREG SLASH. Harry and Draco snuggle. For the harrypottermpreg list 300th member celebration.

[edit] Hercules

• The God Within by Wildannuette. "When Strife is stabbed with the Hinds blood dagger he finds a new way to survive with the help of his friend Joxer."
• Waiting for the Night to Fall by JaimeBlue. "One lonely night, two men console each other after the deaths of the women they loved."

[edit] Highlander

• Misconceptions by Diana Williams. "The shared Double Quickening in 'Revelations' has an unexpected side effect, one that changes the lives of Methos and Duncan MacLeod." This very long (292,406 words) Duncan/Methos fic was one of the major pieces of mpreg written in the Highlander universe.

[edit] The Sentinel

• Nine Months by Natalie L.. "Jim and Blair explore the options of a gay couple to start a family, and embark on a journey with miraculous consequences."

[edit] Stargate SG-1

• The Altar Series by Nessessitee

[edit] Star Wars

• Shadows - The Calm Before the Storm: Obi-Wan/Anakin mpreg story by Dragon Myst. "When one wants something, or someone, so badly, they will do anything to get it."

[edit] External Links

• The Mpreg Archive
• The Question of MPREG: djinanna on December 31, 2003
• Random Rambling about Mpreg (again): opengoal on June 10, 2008

[edit] See also

• kidfic