“I am a binary trans man and I love being pregnant”: Making meaning of pregnancy in seahorse dad narratives

Abstract

Although there are many ways one might start a family, the culture in the United States considers pregnancy one of a woman’s most important life achievements, privileging biological ties above all else. These cultural assumptions stigmatize seahorse dads, or transmen and nonbinary individuals who become pregnant. Using relational dialectics theory (RDT), this study examined posts on Reddit to highlight how marginalized discourses resist dominant discourses to make meaning of a semantic object. RDT’s corresponding method, contrapuntal analysis, revelated three discourses that competed to make meaning of seahorse dads: the discourse of pregnancy as a woman’s burden (DWB), the discourse of pregnancy as a woman’s privilege (DWP), and the discourse of pregnancy as an independent process (DIP). These discourses interacted through contractive practices (i.e., disqualification, naturalization, and neutralization), synchronic interplay (i.e., entertaining, countering, and negating), and dialogic transformation (i.e., hybridization and an aesthetic moment). Findings revealed theoretical implications and practical applications.