Hm. This is one of those where I'm both delighted to be asked, and dreading because I have to actually come up with an answer.
Here's the thing- pregnancy in general has fascinated me ever since I was miniscule. I read books on it. It became one of my major fictional and personal kinks as I got older, though not all-consuming (I like plenty of other things as well). I could list any number of analytical reasons that it strikes a chord with me, but at least to my mind, at the end of the day a kink is something that, for whatever reason, does it for you, and you work around it from there.
That said, I understand that it's not always a 'good thing' to happen to a character- the circumstances, process and results can be hugely conflict-raising and/or terrifying. And me being me, I also have sort of a thing about snatching some shreds of good or joy out of a tough bind, so I like seeing characters do that. The blending of toughness and tenderness to see it through and keep up afterwards are also kind of a thing for me. And it's not always a guaranteed result, even if that's the ending I (fictionally) much prefer.
Add into that a long-time thing for genderbending and genderblending, and the movie Junior was not my first inspiration. It just let me know "Oh-! So I'm not the only one who thinks about these things- even if it is rare and open to be mocked."
(It's not anything really personal for me- I feel pretty solidly female and happy with it- but I enjoy playing with the 'what ifs', and some of the 'explore through this different shape, but in the end, we end up looking prettymuch like each other'. I twitch a bit when GLBT-fetishism is mentioned, because I really don't want to be doing it at the expense of anyone else, but damnit, it's my imagination and I can play with things here like space, time, physics and sex.)
Where was I? Appeal of mpreg- okay, now that the big psychologicals are out of the way. I like seeing what happens when one contrasting situation is applied to another- Enemy Mine is another great example, going the hermaphroditic route rather than a straight 'reality goes sideways or gets a flimsy excuse to go on vacation' example. You take two enemy soldiers, strand them together so they have to learn to live with each other- and then you take one of the big situations of life (children) that's usually left behind the lines, or deemed irrelevant to a tale of high adventure, and make it so it's right out there in the open, and important to their understanding of each other. Plus, baby + wilderness survival = the stakes just got higher.
Also, going to the kink side of things for a moment- fertility and virility in one, is also a thing for me, as well as strength/toughness and the 'softness' of carrying and caring. It's sort of a physical and emotional decadence that I love experiencing in fiction.
...I'm hoping that you can get some coherent explanation out of all that- I think the shortest answer I ever came up with was in the 'why do you like' section of that mpreg meme I did once. Two parts kink- one part fluff. One part angst. One part puzzle of how do I make this silly idea fly in whatever universe I'm applying it to. Two parts tough-guys with ready-made soft spots, plus all that emotional and social contrast stuff I blabbed about. Babies do not automatically make everything better- but sometimes it's wistful to see what happens.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-11-17 06:13 pm (UTC)Here's the thing- pregnancy in general has fascinated me ever since I was miniscule. I read books on it. It became one of my major fictional and personal kinks as I got older, though not all-consuming (I like plenty of other things as well). I could list any number of analytical reasons that it strikes a chord with me, but at least to my mind, at the end of the day a kink is something that, for whatever reason, does it for you, and you work around it from there.
That said, I understand that it's not always a 'good thing' to happen to a character- the circumstances, process and results can be hugely conflict-raising and/or terrifying. And me being me, I also have sort of a thing about snatching some shreds of good or joy out of a tough bind, so I like seeing characters do that. The blending of toughness and tenderness to see it through and keep up afterwards are also kind of a thing for me. And it's not always a guaranteed result, even if that's the ending I (fictionally) much prefer.
Add into that a long-time thing for genderbending and genderblending, and the movie Junior was not my first inspiration. It just let me know "Oh-! So I'm not the only one who thinks about these things- even if it is rare and open to be mocked."
(It's not anything really personal for me- I feel pretty solidly female and happy with it- but I enjoy playing with the 'what ifs', and some of the 'explore through this different shape, but in the end, we end up looking prettymuch like each other'. I twitch a bit when GLBT-fetishism is mentioned, because I really don't want to be doing it at the expense of anyone else, but damnit, it's my imagination and I can play with things here like space, time, physics and sex.)
Where was I? Appeal of mpreg- okay, now that the big psychologicals are out of the way. I like seeing what happens when one contrasting situation is applied to another- Enemy Mine is another great example, going the hermaphroditic route rather than a straight 'reality goes sideways or gets a flimsy excuse to go on vacation' example. You take two enemy soldiers, strand them together so they have to learn to live with each other- and then you take one of the big situations of life (children) that's usually left behind the lines, or deemed irrelevant to a tale of high adventure, and make it so it's right out there in the open, and important to their understanding of each other. Plus, baby + wilderness survival = the stakes just got higher.
Also, going to the kink side of things for a moment- fertility and virility in one, is also a thing for me, as well as strength/toughness and the 'softness' of carrying and caring. It's sort of a physical and emotional decadence that I love experiencing in fiction.
...I'm hoping that you can get some coherent explanation out of all that- I think the shortest answer I ever came up with was in the 'why do you like' section of that mpreg meme I did once. Two parts kink- one part fluff. One part angst. One part puzzle of how do I make this silly idea fly in whatever universe I'm applying it to. Two parts tough-guys with ready-made soft spots, plus all that emotional and social contrast stuff I blabbed about. Babies do not automatically make everything better- but sometimes it's wistful to see what happens.