Can Thomas really be considered the first pregnant man?

No

3 of 11

by D. Warnaar

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It is a physical impossibility for a man to become pregnant and I honestly find it asinine that this is even newsworthy. Upon hearing about "the first pregnant man" on the news, I was dismayed to discover how misleading the media was regarding this situation. To call Thomas the first pregnant man is seriously deceptive mostly because, well, "he" still has female parts. Changing your appearance does not change your sex. To the outside world I may appear to be a natural blonde but I am still really a brunette. In the same way, just because Thomas looks like a man and changed her name to a man's does not make her a man. She is, for all intensive purposes, simply a woman who looks like a man. The bottom line for me is that Thomas was born a woman and still has female genitals so it is completely false to call him the first pregnant man.

Being a few weeks away from being nine months pregnant with my first child, I find that Thomas's story takes away from the absolute miracle of pregnancy and stories like these make me sad that this is the world that my child will grow up in. While moments of my pregnancy have been less than pleasant and there are days when I'd give anything for my husband to be the one carrying the baby, I ultimately feel that pregnancy is a special rite of womanhood (and I would venture to guess that most men are glad that they are not the ones to have to go through it!).

As a society, we are becoming increasingly expected to be okay with the motto that "anything goes" and "whatever makes you happy is right". While I don't believe that we should judge others or that I should have any say over how someone else chooses to live their life, I do believe that there are some things that are more black and white than society and the media would persuade us to believe.

Those of us that are a bit more traditional or conservative are the ones who ultimately suffer for our beliefs. When I first went to the doctor after becoming pregnant, my doctor asked me two personal questions: (1) Did I know who the father of the baby is? and since I am married (2) Am I sure that my husband is the father? Can you believe she was shocked that yes, I know who the father of my baby is and yes, I am sure it is my husband? She apologized for asking but informed me that I fall into a small percentage of the women she sees. How sad that being "traditional" puts me into the minority.

What a confusing world it will be for our generation's children to grow up in. I am only in my mid-twenties and still am amazed at how much what is socially acceptable has changed in my relatively short lifetime. I conclude with a resounding "NO!" that Thomas cannot be considered the first pregnant man.

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