Over the weekend Thomas Beatie, the pregnant man gave several interviews about his new girlfriend and how they are both trying to get pregnant at the same time. When I Tweeted this yesterday, someone brought up a very good point. If you are transgendered, aren't you picking a sex? If I call Chaz Bono a woman, it is wrong. Chaz is a man now. So, what is Thomas Beatie? Is he a pregnant man or is he a woman with a peen? I am probably being naive, but I just don't see how you can be both. I fully support someone's right to change sexes, but has he really changed sexes? Maybe someone out there can educate me and I'm sure others who are also confused.
Entward, I'll be honest. The whole thing confuses the shit out of me as well. But so long as they've properly planned for the babies, financially emotionally physically and mentally, then more power to them.
ReplyDeleteI hope they're not using this as a means to more publicity. It pisses me off so much when children are used for that purpose. They don't know better and grow up thinking the people using them are saints. One of my biggest pet peeves. Children shouldn't be used as pawns, whether for money or to keep a man or whatever other ridiculous reason.
I'm feeling a little pensive today, I apologize for the rant. ;*)
Transgendered people challenge the notion that gender is a binary choice. So yes, you can be a pregnant man, a woman with a penis, a woman who becomes a man but still likes other men sexually, etc.
ReplyDelete"So, what is Thomas Beatie?"
ReplyDeleteAn attention-whore.
Or he's Jon Gosselin in disguise.
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ReplyDeleteWhat @anita_mark said. If this person were genuinely interested in expanding his family, there would be no interview. No one thinks about this guy anymore unless he puts himself out there.
ReplyDeleteI dont understand any of this, and dont pretend to. just hope they are happy.
ReplyDeleteITA anita_mark!!!
ReplyDeleteHe has lady parts so his inner self is female
ReplyDeleteword, Anita. On both counts.
ReplyDelete"Entward"...? That's funny. Reminds me of Squidward on Sponge Bob.
ReplyDeleteI've got my hand up for being in the confused group.
Misch, I thought a person could have the part(s) that don't match the inner self?
I think it's all about being in the tabs unfortunately.
He has lady parts, but he considers himself a male, so therefore, we should take him as a male...if he weren't popping out kids.
ReplyDeleteThomas is not an attention whore or Jon Gosselin. He has not had a reality show and lives a normal life working and taking care of his family.
ReplyDeleteAs for being a man:
Transgender is a state of mind not body and is completely separate from sexual orientation. Many transgendered people think they must be gay because it is even harder to realize that they were born in the wrong body.
Thomas had sexual reassignment surgery - penis constructed, breasts removed and took testosterone to enhance male characteristics. He is legally a man in most states but not all. Most reassignment surgery does not include removing female organ - uterus and ovaries - because of the cost and no biological need.
Thomas went off hormones so that he could try to conceive, something that was considered very unlikely, by invitro when he and his wife learned she was infertile.
Google Thomas Beatie and NYT for several articles that go into more details. And yes this is confusing and hard to understand but it is just as hard if not harder for the transgendered.
@Sean -- His new wife can conceive though. So why should he be trying if she can have babies?
ReplyDeleteI think he is rushing this a bit, only because he just separated/divorced from his wife this past spring but what do I know? I wish him the best.
ReplyDelete^^^ I agree with anita_mark. He is seeking attention. I can see him having kids this way with the first wife (because she was infertile) but to get a new girlfriend and go through the same process again and leak the whole thing to the media? Yeah, he obviously misses the spotlight. I just don't know if the public is going to be as giddy about this like they were the first time.
ReplyDelete@SEAN - he hasn't had a reality show, but that's not for lack of trying. He claims that he would have been on DWTS if not for Chaz Bono. So yes, he is like Jon Gosselin.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, you can't have it both ways. It's fine if you want to switch genders, but pick a side and stick to it.
Anita, word.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't the same as this situation, but it is interesting...my neighbor is a bio man, age 48, and going through the process of gender reassignment
surgery. She dresses as a very feminine, albeit unconvincing, woman and lives as such. one would assume she prefers men sexually, but she identified as a lesbian.
All I can think of is the repeated flushes of hormones as he gets on and off the fertility carousel. It doesn't seem like it would be good for the body.
ReplyDeletePeople want gender and sexuality to fit into these neat little boxes, even when it comes to benig transgender. I don't think it's that simple, and I don't think it's necessary to understand how Mr. Beatie identifies, as long as his children are loved and cared for and safe.
ReplyDeleteI will agree he's sort of an attention whore, though. AWing recognizes no gender, race, or religion - anyone can be afflicted :)
I'm on board with everything Sean said except the attention whore part. How else is this out in the mainstream press if it wasn't put out there by him (TB,not Sean, obvs)? Other than the specific issues (re transgendered, which is beside the attention whore point) there is no difference between this and say Kim Kardashian leaking to the press that she is trying to get pregnant. I'm not at all saying transgenders should hide in the closet...they deserve the same rights and respect as anyone but publicizing your actions for publicity's sake makes you an attention whore in my book.
ReplyDeleteToo confusing. Transgender to me means that the person has crossed over to the other gender with hormone treatment to make themselves the other gender. If she was born a woman and is now having babies, how can she have crossed the hormone barrier it takes to be transgendered?
ReplyDeleteSo is Trans-gender just how you dress outwardly? Because I do not believe this woman/man identified as a woman.
I think you may be confusing "sex" and "gender".
ReplyDeleteAnd you know what, if the Duggars and Octomom can become famous because of their reproductive choices, why shouldn't this guy? I think famewhoring should be equal opportunity *L*
I just don't get it...and please, feel free to educate me. If he is taking male hormones (which, I'm assuming he is since he has a lot of facial hair, etc.) how is he still capable of carrying a child? I mean, I had trouble conceiving at 34 without the added male hormones.
ReplyDeleteI always felt that if you are a transgender and you are a woman wanting to be a man and vice-versa than that is what you should be especially if you are considered legally a man or woman. To me you are beating the purpose of who you want to be.
ReplyDeleteWomen and men have both testosterone and estrogen in their systems. In neither is there an absence of either. To further add to the confusion, there are a variety of transgendered states. For me, I just remember that everyone is different and I don't have to police anyone's gender expression.
ReplyDelete@B, that's what I mean about the "hormone carousel." He was taking male hormones to transition, then went off them to conceive and carry each of his children, then after giving birth went back on the male hormones. Even assuming that he didn't take any fertility medication to help him conceive and/or carry his children, that's a lot of hormone manipulation. Then add to that the natural hormone fluctuations that are a normal part of pregnancy, and to go through that on/off process more than once...I don't know. It seems like all that would be very hard on the body. I'm sincerely concerned for his health. Seems like he's pulling it off OK so far, though. I hope he stays healthy.
ReplyDeleteThomas Beattie is:
ReplyDelete1. A woman that has had her breasts removed.
2. A woman with a man's first name.
3. A woman that still has a fully functioning female reproductive system & has given birth after all of the above.
Therefore, Thomas Beattie is a woman because it is biologically impossible for a man to give birth!
Stop calling this person "The Pregnant Man". She is just a woman with serious psychological problems, because if she really had changed to a man, she wouldn't be having babies & wanting to conceive more within her body!
@califblondy Entward sounds better, but really he reminds me of a real life Patrick....but Entrick sounds odd to me.
ReplyDeleteactually Entward sounds like some shit a Twihard would say.
ReplyDeleteDo not want.
Apparently then I'm a Twihard shit that's going to be really annoying you by over-using the word.
ReplyDeleteENTWARD. ENTWARD. ENTWARD.
Get used to it.
Ok Enty, you know you have a bias towards trans men so maybe you fully support their right to be who they are, but from your history of writing things about trans women from the "transsexual man who has surgery to look like Britney Spears" to the celeb married to the woman who was really a man with fake id, I thinks you do have a problem with trans women in particular and let me say, get over it. It's not that damn deep!
ReplyDeletehe/she should be in an insane asylum.
ReplyDeleteThomas has had a reality show about his pregnancy on Discovery Channel.
ReplyDeleteHe is entitled to have kids just like the rest of it. He took on the pregnancy role when his wife could not conceive--but if his girlfriend can, why is he getting pregnant again?
I kind of agree with the person up-thread who said if this was a serious plan to have more kids, then have them--why the interview?
Good for them. As long as they're not peddling home made porn, they are good guys in my book.
ReplyDeleteI mean, they're not even selling a perfume.
In my mind saying Entward flashes a B&W pic of Johnny Depp a la Ed Wood, much classier than my Enty one, of a greasy, fat man rolling in bacon....
ReplyDeleteSo, because he is transgender he shouldn't be able to have biological children? I personally think its his decision. The thing is, I bet many transgender people would love to have biological kids of their own. This is a man who is using what he's got to have kids. Good for him.
ReplyDeleteWell i dont think its fair he gets to pick both!!
ReplyDeletetbh I'm kind of shocked by all the "pick one and stick to it" / "why does he get to do both" comments. I don't understand the need to put people in boxes. Let him and his family do what they choose to do, and (to agree with a lot of people here), as long as the children are happy and cared for, I really don't see an issue.
ReplyDeleteHalf kidding about saying unfair he gets to pick both, but he is divorced, not yet remarried and giving interviews aboutvhow he may hv more children. Why is he even discussing this on tv? He seems a bit unstable, and none of us know what kind of parent he is. As for his gender, to each his own, i dont pretend to undrstand, its all ok with me. But deliberately putting yourself im public eye when u hv children to consider, that does not set well with me.
DeleteYou have to go to work and pay taxes.. for this?
ReplyDeleteBOSTON — State prison officials must provide taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery to a transgender inmate serving life in prison for murder, because it is the only way to treat her "serious medical need," a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Michelle Kosilek was born male but has received hormone treatments and now lives as a woman in an all-male prison. Kosilek was named Robert when married to Cheryl Kosilek and was convicted of murdering her in 1990.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/michelle-kosilek-transgender-murder-convict-surgery-approved_n_1855192.html
I read that Agent **it.....my first thought was anger, and second was that the judge must want the other prisoners to get some more action. Because for the life of me, I cannot figure out how, a rational mind would find that acceptable (*** rational mind, acceptable MEANING -a prison inmate getting elective surgery -so I'm clear and all the Chaz B supporters out there don't scalp my children)
ReplyDeleteI think we've all ventured too far from what was naturally intended and are trying to convince ourselves that the most unnatural things are what's normal.
ReplyDeleteYes I'm saying it's a F'ed up, and not a FREE world which we live in. And as some of you say that the, "pick one" comments are upsetting, well so are the anything should be allowed to go comments to people like me.
//stepping off my soapbox
It's crazy just like SHE is. Sorry. That's all
ReplyDeleteHe is a man, as he self identifies as a man. How hard is it to grasp that?
ReplyDeleteHe merely has to stop taking hormone therapy in order to be able to conceive. It is pretty common for the internal female organs to be left alone in reassignment surgery because of the fact that it isnt medically necessary to remove them and doing so opens up the patient to a myriad of post op complications.
Sex and gender are not the same thing, and gender is not binary. There is a whole spectrum of gender identities.
Also, I think that if you REALLY want kids, you will do whatever you have to to have them.
Btw...being transgender doesnt make you sick or crazy.
Being transgendered doesn't mean you're "picking" a gender. It also doesn't mean you have any sort of illness.
ReplyDeleteGender is not just "boys and girls." It's not one or the other. There's a very large scale of gender identity. Just like everything else, gender is shades of grey, not black or white.