Self-Shooting Uterus-Owners: Examining the Selfies of Pregnant Transmen within the Politics of Human Reproduction

  • Aireen Grace T. Andal Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2019.3.1.059

Abstract

This work examines how transmen pregnancy is found within the discourse of moralizing and pathologizing reproductive health. Moralization criticizes the “artificial” character of transpregnancy, and pathologization sees transpregnancy as rather “abnormal”. This work analyses these discursive contentions with case of the increasing public visibility of pregnant transmen through selfies. A commonplace reading of these transpregnant selfies can be, on the one hand, extended forms of othering or, on the other hand, emancipation from moralization and pathologization. However, this work argues that the visual display of transpregnant bodies is neither a form of othering nor gaining recognition but rather a suspension to moralization and pathologization of trans-identities. Transmen pregnancy has the character of both disrupting the concept of pregnancy-as-usual and at the same time evokes a very familiar experience of human reproduction. This thus gives transpregnant selfies their liminal character of both abnormal and normal at the same time. Given that transpregnancy is still a new subject for philosophical inquiry, this work hopes to contribute to the literature by surfacing some of transpregnancy’s ethical dimensions when juxtaposed in the cyberspace.

Author Biography

Aireen Grace T. Andal, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Aireen Grace T. Andal is a graduate student and junior researcher at the Centre for Comparative Studies of Toleration and Recognition at Ural Federal University. She has a bachelor’s degree in sociology in the University of the Philippines. Her current research interests are in the fields of bioethics, identity politics, international relations and urban spaces. She also serves as a member of the 2019 Editorial Board of Dialogic Pedagogy Journal.

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Published
2019-04-01
How to Cite
Andal, A. (2019). Self-Shooting Uterus-Owners: Examining the Selfies of Pregnant Transmen within the Politics of Human Reproduction. Changing Societies & Personalities, 3(1), 36-51. doi:10.15826/csp.2019.3.1.059
Citation Formats
Issue
Vol. 3, No. 1 (2019)
Section
Articles