My sister and I were watching Shark the other day, where a witness in the dock was being examined by her counsel in court. She was talking about how difficult it was to get a child, and her words were: “Stuart and I had a really hard time getting pregnant” to which my sister dryly added “Yeah, especially Stuart.”
I have a bit of a pet peeve with couples who say ‘we’re pregnant’ or anything to that effect. Since when did the male species become capable of bearing a child in his womb? The last time I checked, men and women were biologically different. To get pregnant, there are certain things you would need..like a uterus, for one thing. Lets get this straight, shall we? Women get pregnant, men..well, they don’t. And don’t bring up Thomas Beatie The Pregnant ‘Man’, because no amount of facial hair or unshaven armpits will change the fact that she was born a woman, thus having a reproductive female organ that allows her to get pregnant in the first place. All the hype surrounding the so-called miracle of a pregnant man (including Oprah!) was just baffling. A former woman makes the headlines getting pregnant? Big deal.
But I digress.
I suppose it isn’t so bad when ‘we’re pregnant’ is supposed to indicate that the man intends on playing an active role in his wife’s pregnancy process. That’s fine. But it just doesn’t measure up to someone who is literally carrying another life inside her stomach. The man doesn’t have to face symptoms like morning sicknesses, erratic emotions, joint aches, back pain, general discomfort and last but most definitely not least, the excruciating experience of labour and delivery. It doesn’t matter how dedicated the husband is for his wife’s comfort, the fact of the matter is he isn’t and will never be pregnant in the full sense of the word, regardless of how many times he says ‘we’re pregnant’ out loud.
So how about we leave that word for the women?
Enough said here.
