Fertile Feelings: A Trans Masc Archive of Pregnancy and Abortion

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

My artistic work combines graphic pictorial narratives in book form with exhibitions and discursive formats. I am starting a new cycle of works in 2025 that deal with reproductive justice in relation to transsexuality. Pregnancy and abortion of trans men is only marginally represented in the media, and its representation is a contested field. In the US-american series "The L-Word" (2004–2006), the trans male character Max Sweeney becomes unintentionally pregnant. The pregnancy is portrayed as a painful experience: Max decides to carry the child to term, but is abandoned by his partner and ostracized by the women who are the focus of the series. In the 2019 reboot "The L-Word: Generation Q", the writers gave Max a happy ending: he is now portrayed as the joyful father of a queer, racially diverse patchwork family. Unlike other characters in the series, he has found fulfillment, love and a place in life. The two images of Max Sweeney can be seen as paradigmatic for the treatment of trans male pregnancy: While the screenwriters in the early 2000s portrayed the pregnant man with a full beard as ridiculous and monstrous, the contemporary version is an idealised cliché. At no point does the character have depth, ambivalence, and the right to conflicting feelings. For this project, I will collect narratives of trans masculine pregnancy and abortion. The methodology is based on Sara Ahmed's concept of the archive of queer unhappiness. I will examine films, series, novels, comics and zines and conduct research in the Berlin archives FFBIZ, Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft and Spinnboden Lesbenarchiv, as well as at the Archives Recherches-Cultures Lesbiennes in Paris. The research will be the basis of a graphic essay and a sonic reading. I will use the time at the Saari Residence to work on the graphic essay.