'Pregnant man' on Doctor Who

[junebedford82]

Anyone catch this? Sounds like usual BBC bollox. Insulting to women.

www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz-tv/hot-tv/740560/Doctor-Who-tonight-pregnant-man

He was an alien. In their species men give birth to boys and women give birth to girls. I didn't find it particularly insulting.

Tbf he was a male alien who gave birth to boys ive actually just watched it and thought he was quite sweet

Thats actually pretty interesting. How do they balance the sexes? Humans are born roughly 50:50, which is also pretty interesting when you think about it.

Well he did say he didn't use precautions so I'm assuming they had equal contraceptives and he had a pouch like a seahorse 😁

It was an alien. The dialogue was actually extremely clear and precise that male humans do not give birth. It was an interesting idea, I thought. Not at all insulting to women. Did you watch it?

And they did say that the 'baby pouch' had no nerve endings so the procedure was painless.

I found it quite amusing and a bit thought provoking! But not in a 'trans' way!

They are certainly all 'Millennial' though! But I notice in the DS piece that nobody mentioned that it was a woman who was a general, a war hero and an ace pilot, with a male clone serving her every need!

They didn't seem to notice the positive female affirmation. A bit of a one sided moan, maybe! Bless!

The dialogue was actually extremely clear and precise that male humans do not give birth
It was, wasn’t it? Wasn’t quite where I was expecting the right on BBC to go with it tbh, wonder if they get any complaints?

I just couldn't see the point of the pregnant man really, it didn't add anything to the story. DD loved the episode, me and DH just spent the whole time wondering how he was going to give birth, seems a bit shit in evolutionary terms to always need a medic nearby to perform a CS.

I think this series of Dr Who plays a lot with the whole man/woman male/female thing, but so far even in my heightened state of wariness for 'fashionable' viewpoints, I have been ok with most of it.

It has been the aliens who have the male/female switch, the humans seem to remain definitely - and happily - bimodal.

(derail) But in the last episode (the one with Chris Noth), I couldn't help but notice that when the Doctor shouted something like "don't kill the alien monster" at the threatening alpha male, SHE was not getting through as well as even Tennant would have.

A woman shouting at a male just came across as not authoritative.

I don't know if it's just the relative screen presence of the actress and Chris Noth, or if it was an intended dig at human socialisation by the writers.

I had to explain Chris Noth to DH and the shorthand of who he has been on screen before this! He was kind of perfect as the obviously greedy misogynist pillock. I came to the conclusion he was deliberately cast to make just that point!

And even in that episode, where he was a bit of a bulldozer, it was ALWAYS a woman who had the answer to every problem!

I may be disappointed with the plotlines, the Rosa Parks was just abysmally clunky, but the 'genderism' hasn't made me shriek, yet!

I had to explain Chris Noth to DH and the shorthand of who he has been on screen before this!

I'd never seen him before but still thought 'He was kind of perfect as the obviously greedy misogynist pillock'

Did you watch it op what did you find so insulting ?

Other Sci fi shows have explored similar themes, in The Orville (a star trek inspired show) there is a race of only males, when the two males involved have a female baby (a rare anomaly amongst their species) they opt to have the baby corrected into being male. The process and arguments laid out were really interesting... It's a Seth MacFarlane show so more a satirical take on humanity.

I'm sure there are other examples.

And lots of older sci fi does the same. Heinlein had all sorts of weird tales including male brain transplanted in to female body; male cloned into female version of himself for a different life experience.

It's nothing new in the sci fi genre

I had to explain Chris Noth to DH

Watched that episode with the whole family and none of us had heard of him or seen him before.
(Same for all the companions actually).
Did we miss out on something?

He played a long running character in Sex and the City, nicknamed Mr Big - boyfriend of the main character. I don't think it was vital to have known that, as the type of character he was playing was pretty clear.

Star Trek did a few things, especially iirc Enterprise - Trip's accidental pregnancy for instance.

That's the beauty of sci-fi - it's fiction and lets you explore any physically or biologically impossible scenario you can dream up.

I thought it was fine but I hate the plot lines this series. Its all so touchy feely and educational.

Can't she just fight a Big Bad?

I thought it was there to give the message about a fathers involvement with a child being important - and to resonate with Ryan. Actually a pretty decent message ...

Me thinks OP was trying to jump on a bandwagon and missed completely.

I think ninja is right. It was for Ryan's character development.

Like ninja, I saw this subplot as an exploration of Ryan's upbringing and the relationship with his father. The reinforcement that a dad didn't have to be perfect, he could make mistakes, but that being there was what mattered. Quite sweet, really. And a positive thought for today's young boys to absorb.

I must say I quite liked the idea of a pregnancy that lasted only a week, no matter how intense that week would be!

And as has already been mentioned, it was made quite clear that the human species did not propagate this way - Ryan and Graham (and Yasmin) were pretty clear on that!

I haven't seen this episode yet but I found the trans enthusiasm for the new female doctor a bit...odd. There's no hint of being female as being better for the Doctor than the male bodies before. It's just a case of, oh, better get on with it then, and acceptance of the body she has. Isn't that almost the opposite of trans?

I liked it. (And yes, all sorts of weird reproductive set ups have been part and parcel of sci fi from the word go).

I don't see the problem. He was an alien. They explained the alien biology and how it sat relative to human biology (ie men cant have babies)

Sci fi shows have always had similar storylines.