“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 can start a family, the culture considers pregnancy one of a woman’s most important life achievements. In other words, the culture privileges biological ties above all else. These cultural assumptions stigmatize transmen and nonbinary individuals who become pregnant. Using relational dialectics theory (RDT), this study highlights how marginalized discourses resist dominant discourses to make meaning of a semantic object. RDT’s corresponding method, contrapuntal analysis, revelated three discourses that compete 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). Findings revealed theoretical implications and practical applications.