Man as Hospitable Space: The male pregnancy project

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Notes

¹ The topic is often treated with disdain and irony in ‘serious’ scholarly literature, and even avoided. Thus, Teresi and Mcauliffe admit in their chapter on ‘Male Pregnancy’: ‘We never wanted to write this article. […] We took the assignment with the assumption that after a few phone calls and a couple of library searches we could honestly report back that there was no real future in, or scientific basis for, male pregnancy. We were wrong. Some important researchers convinced us the idea was altogether feasible’ (Teresi and Mcauliffe 1998/1985: 182).

² In a recent conversation, Lee remarked: ‘I never speak of Male Pregnancy [project] when I talk about my [art] work. But after my talks the audience members almost always ask about it’ (Lee 2009b).

³ ‘Men getting pregnant used to be a big joke – a point of ridicule. […] If you're a man who actually wants to become pregnant, without the intent of performing or putting on a show, then you're still considered weird’ (Lee and Versalius 2002).

⁴ The detailed explication and critique of the current philosophical conception of hospitality is not the subject of this short essay, but this concept does provide a larger background for my discussion. See, as one example, Derrida (1999).