[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-141763-en":3,"doc-seo-141763-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":11,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},141763,962084925290,"Caleb Sterling","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45",2,"Literature","Male Pregnancies, Exowombs, and the Meltdown Between Hetero-and Homonormativity","Text explores the subgenre of male pregnancy (Mp reg) and how its narratives, imagery, and performative gender roles are shaped by online gay culture and broader norms. Through an anecdotal discussion in Lisbon, the document traces genre “codes” such as alpha/omega dynamics, contrasts Mp reg with earlier film references, and describes recurring limits on innovation. It also examines Mp reg’s readership and authorship, noting that many fans and writers are women, and relates this to fascination, embarrassment, and tensions with homonormativity, feminism, and nonbinary struggles.","Male Pregnancies, Exowombs, and the Meltdown Between Hetero-and Homonormativity  \nOriginally published in Liverpool Biennial 2021 exhibition catalogue (Liverpool Biennial) .  \nBy Pedro Neves Marques, 2021.  \nI first heard about Mpreg, short for male pregnancy, while dinning with a group of strangers at a first-floor clandestine Chinese restaurant in Lisbon. I was commissioned to write a text for a young artist, in whose honor the dinner was being held, about an animal I had wrongly imagined as intersexed, but which in reality suffers from a condition called neoteny—the retention of infantile features into adulthood. In a way, then, queerness was already on the table, and the subject of Mpreg, once it came up, shouldn’t have come as a surprise.  \nThe large circular table barely fit the room, and the nine or ten of us could hardly move our chairs, squishing on the greasy linoleum floor. One window opened onto Lisbon’s most multicultural square; the other to a funky back alley. I was exchanging glances with the young artist on the opposite side of the table—with whom I’d become amorously involved months later—while eavesdropping the Dutch guy sitting next to me, and soon enough I was deep into a discussion about male pregnancy no less.  \nNow this guy was bro and brutish, not at all someone I’d expect to be into gender issues. My fault for judging him, for he was in fact making a living writing gay Mpreg novellas and fulllength novels sold as eBooks on Amazon and other more subcultural websites, such as the literal [mpregbooks.com](mpregbooks.com)—and what could be queerer than that. Mpreg, I learned, is an online subgenre of literature and fan art whereby cis gay men can get pregnant. The genre follows strict codes of gay culture, particularly the roles and performativities played by each character: one man is almost always top and masc, the “alpha,” while the other bottom and effeminate, the “omega;”sometimes there are also “betas,” who help “alphas” get their “omega.” Predictably, it’s the bottom who always gets pregnant, belly and all.  \nMpreg stories and imagery goes well beyond the classic 1994 movie Junior, wherein Arnold Schwarzenegger gets pregnant and gives birth, Joan Rivers’s 1978 Rabbit Test, wherein it’s Billy Crystal’s turn, and Jacques Demy’s 1973 A Slightly Pregnant Man, with Marcello Mastroianni getting pregnant due to overeating hormone-rich chicken. To my knowledge these are the only Western cinematic commercial Mpreg stories to date. Well beyond these movies’hetero tongue in cheek humor, online Mpreg is wildly imaginative, venturing into all sorts of genres. Stories can take place in the real world or in fantasy universes populated by aliens, vampires, angels, pirates—what have you. Predictably, on the side of fantasy, animals take a prominent role, with alphas shapeshifting into wolves or bears, betas into foxes, and omegas into cubs, among many less homonormative animalities—penguins, for example. Sometimes men may even need to shift into an animal form in order to give birth—quite revealing of an animalistic portrayal of birthing.  \nQuenching my enthusiasm, however, my conversant promptly replied that there wasn’t much space for innovation in the genre. While the setting may shift wildly, along with  \nfertilization and pregnancy details, the plot remains strict. He had tried writing stories where the top gets pregnant, for example, in an attempt at reversing roles or introducing flexibility in the romance, but those simply didn’t sell. As far as he could tell, Mpreg readers desire the norm, perhaps projecting themselves on expected roles, both homo and heteronormative. Still, I left the dinner curious and in the months ahead ended up reading more Mpreg eBooks than I would’ve imagined.  \nNot all Mpreg readers are men, gay or straight. Neither are its writers. Just like yaoi, the Japanese Manga and Anime boys love genre (BL), is mostly written by cis straight women for cis straight women, many Mpreg fans are ","cbCaimwCuHvH6Wq9","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimwCuHvH6Wq9","pdf",280856,1,13,"English","en",105,"# Introduction: hearing about Mp reg\n# Genre codes: alpha/omega and performativity\n# Cultural references and imaginative scope\n# Limits on innovation and the desire for norms\n# Readership and authorship beyond gay men\n# Relation to feminism and transgender/nonbinary struggles","[{\"question\":\"What is Mpreg, and how is it structured in the genre?\",\"answer\":\"Mp reg is an online literature and fan-art subgenre in which cis gay men can become pregnant. It follows codes of gay culture, often centering alpha/omega roles and performativities, with pregnancy typically associated with the bottom/omega.\"},{\"question\":\"What earlier films and media does the text reference to contextualize Mpreg?\",\"answer\":\"The text mentions 1994’s Junior, 1978’s The Rabbit Test, and 1973’s A Slightly Pregnant Man, contrasting their humorous, commercial framing with the online genre’s broader imaginative range.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the document suggest Mpreg stories may resist role reversals or innovation?\",\"answer\":\"A discussion partner argues that despite changing settings and pregnancy details, plot rules remain strict. Attempts to reverse roles—such as making the top pregnant—didn’t sell, suggesting readers may desire recognizable norms projected onto expected roles.\"}]","Male Pregnancies, Exowombs, and the Meltdown Between Hetero-and Homonormativity | PDF",1787665047,20,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"male-pregnancies-exowombs-and-the-meltdown-between-hetero-and-homonormativity","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/male-pregnancies-exowombs-and-the-meltdown-between-hetero-and-homonormativity/141763/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-04","2026-08-25",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":11},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What is Mpreg, and how is it structured in the genre?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Mp reg is an online literature and fan-art subgenre in which cis gay men can become pregnant. It follows codes of gay culture, often centering alpha/omega roles and performativities, with pregnancy typically associated with the bottom/omega.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What earlier films and media does the text reference to contextualize Mpreg?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"The text mentions 1994’s Junior, 1978’s The Rabbit Test, and 1973’s A Slightly Pregnant Man, contrasting their humorous, commercial framing with the online genre’s broader imaginative range.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"Why does the document suggest Mpreg stories may resist role reversals or innovation?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"A discussion partner argues that despite changing settings and pregnancy details, plot rules remain strict. Attempts to reverse roles—such as making the top pregnant—didn’t sell, suggesting readers may desire recognizable norms projected onto expected roles.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,100,104,109,114,119,124,128,131,135],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":120,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":29,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality","religion-spirituality",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":29,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]