A Little Mpreg Appreciation Post

[shadowfireflame]

Younger me could never have foreseen this post and would have recommended institutionalization had someone tried to suggest to her that one day she'd be typing up her reasons for reading about fictional guys having ass babies...and yet, I regret nothing. :D

In response to the lovely lobelia321's request to explain mpreg, I typed up some awesome stories I love that are mpreg (male pregnancy; guys having babies), as well as the reasons why I like it so much, so I thought I'd share them here while I have it all coded out! I know lots of people don't like the trope, but here are my reasons. :)


I suppose the main reason is that mpreg provides me with a bunch of kinks in one handy explanation (if you can suspend disbelief that men can have babies).

First off, not all mpreg fics do this, obviously, but they can say a bit (or a lot) about traditional gender stereotypes and subverting them (it's also why I like genderswap). Suddenly not just women can have babies, so child-bearing and child-rearing can be seen as a gender-neutral activity, which is interesting to read.

Then there's the fact that my OTP in whatever fandom (usually two males) can think about having a child together without having to go through a female intermediary or adopt. The kid can be biologically both of theirs. I like kidfic, so that's a cool fantasy element to me.

Then, and this is the biggest one for me, there's the emotional hurt/comfort. The angst about am-I-pregnant, how-did-I-become-pregnant (if mpreg is the cause of a rogue spell and not just standard in the verse), should-I-keep-it, should-I-tell-him, etc. This is another opportunity for discussion/exploration of gender norms or issues with abortion. Is the universe okay with it? Is our protagonist okay with it? What will the father of the child have to say about it? How will he react? How will their lives have to change?

And if the pregnant one does decide to keep it, there's the physical hurt/comfort involved with the pregnancy itself. One of my guys snuggling the other because he has morning sickness, or his back hurts, or he's in some kind of physical danger which not only affects him now, it affects their unborn kid—oh, man, I'm such a sucker for hurt/comfort, and mpreg just adds another potential layer to that. I'm a sucker for the protective BAMF kink, too. :)

And finally, there's the kids themselves. What are they like? How do they look? Do they share any traits of their parents? What are our guys like as parents? Naturals? Bad? Neglectful? Surprisingly good?

Also, I don't have any kids at the moment (nor any plans to ever have kids), but I am still very interested in pregnancy and children and parenting (from a distance, anyway). So I suppose I feel I get to live these experiences vicariously through my favorite characters. If I actually had kids, maybe I would feel differently. But some of the fics can be surprisingly educational. I'm not saying they're all 100% accurate—I know that's not true—but I have learned a lot about pregnancy from reading them that I didn't know before and that I wouldn't have ever thought to explore otherwise. Fanfic: sexy and educational!

Mpreg can be fluffy, comedic, angsty, dark—anything, really. Often it's all that wrapped up into one big story. There's a lot of potential.

Let's have some recs! There are lots of other mpreg stories I love, but these are ones that helped me to see what was so interesting about the trope in the first place.

Harry Potter

Things That Change by eutychides/Ociwen (Harry/Draco)
This is my go-to mpreg for H/D, and one of the most fascinating stories I've ever read. Rather dark at times, Draco ends up having more than one child, and it's very dangerous. His relationship with Harry is not all sunshine and rainbows, either. The link is to Part 26, and previous parts are linked from there.

“I’d Rather Change Nappies Than Have My Cock Sucked” and Other Ravings of a Pregnant Wizard by frayach (Harry/Draco)
Draco's a professional Quidditch player here, which is just awesome to me. Probably the most common complaint I hear about mpreg is that it can feminize its pregnant character too much, and I think this author shows how to write it convincingly while still having the main character be very masculine. Great story.

Coming to Terms by rurounihime (Harry/Draco)
A beautiful but painful and almost nasty story (at first, anyway), dealing realistically with issues like maternity leave, monetary problems, and father's rights.

But I Have A Penis by florahart (Harry/Draco)
Both Harry and Draco get pregnant due to a Parseltongue accident, lolol. Very funny and affecting story to me with great hurt/comfort elements.

Sherlock

Most Sherlock mpreg is a result of Omegaverse (see my post for recs there), but here are two I enjoyed that are non-Omegaverse:

The Small, Shared Things by anchors (John/Sherlock)
A serious, plotty mpreg story in Sherlock fandom with pregnant!Sherlock, and the fact that it’s so in-character and stunningly written is just icing on the cake. This story is fascinating in large part because of how much Sherlock utterly hates talking about the day-to-day details of the situation, which are messy and complicated and realistic. But John has to deal with the practicalities: their money situation and Sherlock’s eating habits and sleeping habits and nicotine patches and chemical experiments—and the work.

Highly Classified by ladyofthelog (verity) (Gen)
Gen with fem!John and mpreg!Sherlock—tagged as “anti-fluff,” and it works very well. I…have no earthly idea how the author and her muse came up with this idea, but it’s totally creepy and ominous and wonderful. I quite like the body horror aspect of mpreg, or generally non-fluffy mpreg where the baby would be coming into an unhappy environment, so I enjoyed this.

And this one is technically Omegaverse but focuses entirely on the mpreg side and graphic birth:

Holmes for the Holidays by annabagnell and hotbisexualarmydoctor
John/Sherlock. While they’re spending Christmas at Sherlock’s parents’ house, a pregnant Sherlock and John get stranded during a blizzard—and the baby decides it’s time to be born. Aaaaah, what a crisis situation! Good thing John is such a BAMF and Sherlock’s family is supportive (including Mycroft, eventually). I love how the authors explore the awkwardness of the situation with Sherlock being embarrassed in front of his parents and John feeling weird about lying in their bed. And Mycroft’s evolving feelings about the situation were great as well.

And for a more traditional "fpreg" (as lobelia321 coined; a.k.a. female pregnancy, lol), there's also the fantastic female!Sherlock series:

What Comes Undone by song_lin (John/fem!Sherlock)
An epic, fascinating, and brilliantly written story where Sherlock is a pregnant BAMF. Superb characterizations and plotting. Little moments about Sherlock's relationship with her daughter still make me smile.


Hope this helps those mildly interested in the trope? Veterans should please let me know any fics in these fandoms with a heavy mpreg element that I've missed! :)

P.S. There's an LJ Friending Meme going on right now! My comment thread is here. :D

Back to the Harry Potter Recs Masterpost: (Portkey)

Back to the Sherlock Recs Masterpost: (Taxi!)

Comments

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

I read your explanation, because interesting, but you do make me realise just how many things I pretty much refuse to read, lol. Mpreg is one (and ramifications thereof, including kidfic, although there have been exceptions). Omegaverse, as I think I've already mentioned. I'll read genderswap but it doesn't do a lot for me, even from authors I usually love, so I usually skip it. Certain 'hard' kinks. And of course, incest... wait, no, never mind *g*

Is there anything you won't read/try? Just curious.

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know lots of people don't like mpreg/kidfic/Omegaverse. Genderswap took me some getting used to.

Is there anything you won't read/try?

Ooh, interesting! I've never been asked that before. Let me think...

I feel I'm pretty open-minded. There are some kinks/tropes that I have tried that don't really work for me (watersports and Mary Sues, and most BSDM doesn't do a whole lot for me), but I won't not read them simply because they feature those things. I think with good enough writing and characterizations, I can be convinced of pretty much anything. If a story's been recced by someone I trust and I'm in the mood, I'll give it a try.

I read fanfic a little differently than most people I've discussed it with, though. I read fanfic for my main character (that is, Sherlock in Sherlock fandom and Draco in Harry Potter fandom) rather than for any particular kink or pairing. So I wouldn't read a story in which Sherlock/Draco isn't a main character (unless it's peripherally about him, as is the case with some Mycroft-centric stories or post-Reichenbach John character studies) unless it's really very special and recced all over the place. So I'm not reading most Mystrade or MorMor or Molly/Jim or any of that because I'm really only interested in Sherlock. But I'll read Sherlock in pretty much any situation and with pretty much anybody (I couldn't quite wrap my head around Mrs. Hudson/Sherlock, but I did still read it). I read much more John/Sherlock than anything else, but that's because there is more of that pairing than anything else. Same with Harry/Draco. :)

I guess the only ones I would rule out are stories that make it clear from the start or the tags that they are are directly out-of-character from the way I see the character. So I suppose if I read "extremely submissive!John" in the tags or something, I wouldn't read that. Or "Sherlock likes to see John suffer." Except dark!John, I love dark!John for some reason. Well, I know the reason: I like to see Sherlock suffer. :)

Yay for rambly replies! <3

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

I can't say I understand watersports, but I've read it! And its close cousin, desperation!kink, which I do weirdly quite like, especially for Mycroft. BDSM I love, though, although I simultaneously find it ridiculous. Don't even ask how that works; I think it's the 'toys' aspect of it that makes it feel like some kind of demented, smutty playtime. Which I guess it kind of is *g*. D/S is more my thing in that respect. On the other hand, spanking/discipline completely, utterly eludes me in the appeal of it, even though I've both read and written it, just for the experience.

I don't even quite know what I read for, or it varies enormously. If I tried to pin it down, I would say I read for relationships of some description (preferably with a dose of smut, although not always), but that's so broad as to be virtually a non-answer! But I'll read anything that calls to me, for whatever reason *g*

Dark!John and dark!Sherlock are both awesome, unless they start veering unconvincingly ooc and then I'm out. But I tend to agree there's usually someone who can perform the impossible of working any given scenario. I kept avoiding a certain Sherlock/Mrs Hudson fic for months despite seeing multiple recs, because, euww, until I gave in and read it. And loved it. Sigh.

Hah, I see your rambly reply and raise you ;)

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, desperation kink, yeah, I could get into that. Funny that it's "especially for Mycroft"! But I get it! He always seems to perfectly put together, it's fascinating to see him out of that element.

I definitely prefer the D/s elements of BDSM over, like, the pain-inducing part. John ordering Sherlock around for once, though, I am totally into that. Guh. But when a character likes being hurt, I understand that some people are into that, but it's hard for me to get into that mindset. But yeah, some writers can totally pull it off and make it convincing for me. (Fuck, I've really got to read the Cold Song series. It's been on my "to read" for literally MONTHS. People keep saying it's the best story ever, and I've really got to get on that.)

I didn't know what I read for until somebody was like, "What's your OTP?" and I was like, "Um, anything with Sherlock in it?" And then it kind of hit me, lol.

Well, now I pretty much have to read that Mrs. Hudson story...still have the link? :)

<3

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, I thought you'd read it, since you mentioned "I couldn't quite wrap my head around Mrs. Hudson/Sherlock, but I did still read it" and there aren't that many of them XD

It's "Save the Last Dance for Me" and I actually went and reread it yesterday after replying to you to find that she's continued it since! I read the other chapters, and enjoyed them, but to be honest I think it possibly works better as a stand-alone, at least for me.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/517993

Let me know what you think? Curious! And what is Cold Song about? :)

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for the link! Looks interesting! I think the one I read was much shorter and had a dark!Mrs. Hudson maybe? It was from the time before I started keeping links. :(

And speaking of, here's a link--
The Cold Song Series by Eldrichhorrors

As for what it's about, I heard it has BSDM elements with sub!Sherlock and maybe some backstory, and I'm all about the sub!Sherlock.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Can't guarantee I'll try, but will keep it mind for when I'm in the mood :)