She omits two interesting examples that immediately leap to my mind: 1) Alien Resurrection and 2) almost anything by David Cronenberg.

SPOILERS follow

In the Alien film, Ripley is never actually pregnant -- it's the Alien queen who gives birth to a human-alien hybrid "baby." But at the end of the film the hybrid indicates that is sees Ripley as "mama," and Ripley in turn seems to acknowledge it as "child" (she strokes it and speaks softly to it) -- but then she uses her own acidic blood to make a small hole in the spacecraft, through which the hybrid is slowly sucked out. The suction scene, in particular, always struck me as a metaphor for abortion, though I haven't seen much written about it as that.

Cronenberg is perhaps a category of his own -- he seems to be weirdly fascinated with reproduction, gynecology, etc. There's  Dead Ringers (with Jeremy Irons playing identical twin gynecologists, one of whom, IIRC, specializes in treating women with deformed wombs), but there's also The Fly (in which Geena Davis' character dreams she gives birth to a giant maggot) and eXistenz (in which Jennifer Jason Leigh carries around a virtual reality pod that attaches to her with an "umbycord" -- do a Google image search on the film, and you'll see what I mean).

I've never come up with anything coherent out of all this, but there's certainly plenty of fodder there for those who want to try.

Actually in the X-Files, Scully is not impregnated by aliens (the film sequence shown is from when she is abducted and treated like a guinea pig by aliens but that's what the aliens do to anyone abducted in the series male or female).  She undergoes in vitro treatments with Mulder as the sperm donor and also the series suggests they have a physical relationship, either way that's how she becomes pregnant, fertility treatment or sex the standards now of reality.

I think the whole point of some of these "pregnancy plots" is to (roughly paraphrasing) take something that is natural and distort it into torture porn. That's what makes them horrific - it's taking something we associate positive feelings with and turning it on us.

I think this directly speaks to the lack of control women have over their own bodies.  Neither in the science fiction episodes presented nor in an increasing number of states are women allowed to make decisions about what is best for them without interference - whether from the government or aliens.  I'm not sure about in film, but in reality women are portrayed as unintelligent and incapable of making tough life changing decisions without the help of (mostly white, mostly wealthy, mostly male) legislators creating laws that require a woman to listen to some bizarre statement, go through a waiting period, or watch an ultrasound - all against her will.  It's as if these politicians believe that women are inferior and thus, must be forced to "understand" what's going on with an abortion or pregnancy.  I personally find it foul and loathsome and something that keeps women's second class status as citizens tied to their ability to reproduce .  The links from science fiction to the current attack on women's rights is a great way to bring these themes together.

I came in here to say basically the same thing.  Distorting a natural process is certainly the obvious subtext of these plotlines and clearly is what many of the writers were thinking of when they created these storylines.

Sarkeesian's mystical pregnancy theory is kind of a sub-subcontext that is probably mostly unexplored by writers and most viewers.  It is present and definitely important, however.  And we can see additional sexism inherent in the potential assumption that pregnancy and birth is the ultimate goal or happiness for women, therefore these forcible impregnations and horrific offspring would represent the ultimate sort of torture.  Though perhaps in some more completely realized characters like Starbuck, loss of bodily autonomy might also be a significant horror.

For what it's worth, Battlestar Galactica does have a couple of interesting episodes that deal with abortion and abortion rights.

She also omits many media artifacts that don't originate in Western culture, for example the prolific sub-genre of hentai (anime) porn featuring alien impregnation, usually by means of monstrous tentacles.

While this video is interesting and brings to light a common trope, it does fail to mention SciFi's love of the male pregnancy. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger became pregnant. And, since she singled out Star Trek: The Next Generation and Counselor Troi, I will point out that the Star Trek franchise also has a male pregnancy under its belt. The Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Unexpected" deals explicitly with the pregnancy of Trip Tucker, and his feelings about being pregnant. I'm not sure if it's ever mentioned again in the series, but I don't remember it. 

I found this entire piece interesting, though. I'm currently studying fanfiction of science fiction shows, and I've stumbled upon the genre of Mpreg (male-pregnancy). Even though it is only occasionally mentioned in the actual shows, it is quite common in works written by fans of the shows. But then, fans do seem to like creating their own tropes.

While the pregnancy plotline itself is problematic, I think that the most telling part of it is that none of the victims ever choose to terminate the pregnancy. That is, not only is it a harrowing experience, the implicit message is that there is no choice but the go through with it, wether it's a demonic fetus, a fetus that may kill the mother or even far far from being human. Heck, when the pregnancy does get terminated, as in torchwood, it's a man's choice, anot the choice of the woman herself.

Actually, the Immaculate Conception (of Mary) is not the same as the virgin birth (of Jesus.) Just a little quibble on a great discussion.

I'd like to point out that the episode from the second season of Battlestar Galactica that is referenced in this video, "The Farm", is something of a subversion of this trope. It is used as a metaphor for religious anti-abortionists wanting forced pregnancy to be the norm -- part of an ongoing deconstruction of abortion politics that takes place throughout the series. In the same episode, the Cylons' attempts at forced impregnation are contrasted with the voluntary and consenual conception between a Cylon and a human.

I'm trying to think of what the male equivalent of this would be, and I keep thinking of the NeuWho episode "The Doctor's Daughter", where the Doctor is presented with a sort of random grown up clonegirl with some of his DNA that disappears into the ether after a single episode.

Not that it's really comparable, since this is more about the pregnancy itself than the whole motherhood part. But I do think men get random throwaway one-episode or one short character arc fatherhood experiences too.

On another note: I personally REALLY REALLY liked the way pregnancy/motherhood was handled on BSG in relation to Starbuck and Eight/Sharon/Boomer; I thought the relationship between Sharon vs. Boomer and how they dealt with Hera was really interesting and I thought the whole mindfuck thing around Starbuck and Casey in addition to the Farms arc were really good. It didn't feel anything like Cordi's two ridiculous pregnancies or any other arcs like that; it added a lot to Starbuck's character and put her in interesting situations that tested her and made her grow in interesting ways. She's one of my favorite characters in fiction and forcing her to struggle with that particular part of her biology and psychology was fascinating to me.

I guess this is sort of a problem I have with calling a moratorium on *any* trope, because even if they generally are ridiculous, they can occasionally be done well, and when you don't differentiate between interesting inversions and subversions and tropes being played straight you end up missing a lot of nuance. (Granted, it's possible that the majority of the audience is missing a lot of nuance too, but it's also likely that that part of the audience don't know what tropes are and aren't reading about them on the internet.)

Oh, and I know it's been stated elsewhere in the conversation but it bothered the hell out of me that she referred to Jesus as the original virgin birth story.

I'm currently writing my PhD thesis on gynohorror in film (from 1960 onwards). The two overriding points I've found, no matter the details of the film, are that a) any time a pregnant woman shows up, or a woman is made pregnant, no matter how badass she may be, she is denied agency and bodily sovereignty (be it through others' actions or an overt treatment of the child's life as more important than her own); and b) the woman may or may not want the child or the pregnancy (in films which aren't about forcible impregnation), but either way she is punished for her choice or it is implied that she will later suffer for her choice - that is, either way she is screwed. While the films may employ foetal imagery or deal with the issue of abortion implicitly or explicitly, actual abortion in Western / Anglophone films is so rare that its very exclusion is notable. All in all, quite depressing.

I get the feeling video games aren't as widely examined as film, but I was still surprised that there was no mention of the very recent Duke Nukem Forever, which featured not just an overarching plot about women being forcibly impregnated by aliens, but sequences where women impregnated by aliens can be killed or are essentially forced to be killed by the player--and of course, it's played for laughs, with abortion quips.

It's science fiction. Can't the aliens get the men pregnant?

The headline here had me worried. You are aware there actually is real 'pregnancy porn'? I remember a German brown paper magazine from the eighties called 'schwanger'. This observation is apropos of O/T, except that northern European weirdness has been in the news again recently on account of Anders Breivik. I'm sure there are PhD theses to be written on why Germany, Scandanavia and Japan produce some of the most specifically perverted porn of all in the post war era.

One of the fundamental points not addressed here, and admittedly only partially relevant as this is specifically about pregnancy torture, is that ALL trauma is downplayed for dramatic effect.  I have known combat vets who have gone through one episode worth of Sci-Fi battle and been rendered non-functional.  Sadly much of drama ducks all of the long term implications of violent/degrading plot devices?  How many times has Pickard been captured and tortured (quite clearly once in sexual terms)?

Men giving birth/getting pregnant is fairly common in the mystical birth troupe too and plays with the ideas of gender and reproductive devision of labour. Sarkeesian's argument here ignores this.
Who would of ever thought Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito would of been cast in a torture porn comedy film; "Junior"? Lets not forget Hurst giving Birth in Alien http://theoatmeal.com/comics/aliens Or Dave Lister being taken 'advantage' of by Debs Lister in the alternate reality Red Dwarf. As for the examples used in the above video, Starbuck having her ovaries surgically removed in BSG is not 'mystical' and she is not pregnant so therefore doesn't really fit the 'mystical pregnancy troupe Sarkeesian is trying to highlight. Why was the example of Athena's human/Cylon hybrid pregnancy/child from the same show not used? I would guess as the character is in a loving relationship during pregnancy and the relationship between mother and mystical daughter is explored in detail dilutes the attempted dig at the male dominated stereotyping film industry..I'd of probably gone with the film Species as an example; man's fear of (alien) female pregnancy surely would of been a good hitter?well probably not as, on the whole,its the men who are being tortured in that "torture porn".
:-P

Although not a movie, Margret Atwood's 'The Handmaiden's Tale' is a well-written, powerful book exploring the issues mentioned in the video but set in an alternative reality. A nice antidote to Hollywood's take on pregnancy and is a must read!

Just a note for Magentamoon_3, there is a film adaption of 'A Handmaid's Tale', staring Natasha Richardson, Faye Dunaway & Robert Duvall. I've not seen it, so I can't tell you how well it's adapted, and it has 5.2 stars on IMDB.

Can anyone name all the clips from Laura's video and what they're from?

do you have a boyfriend? and does he put up with you? proof that some men (not me) can change...stop being a crazy man hating bitch please...

The problem with the feminist approach to fiction is that it does not allow for shock, horror, violence, or the idea that a human being can be relegated to the level of furniture through the exploitation of their biological functions. A woman may undergo pregnancy and it can carry on as entertaining by dint of it being a process that still holds much mystery in terms of religious, spiritual, and in some cases biological means. On the other hand, were you to flip the concept on its head and introduce a species of aliens that are harvesting the semen of men in order to produce a race of hybrids, chances are that would become less a case of horror or intrigue and more a masturbation fantasy. The value of entertainment is the creation of new life, the twisting of that life, the uncertainty that goes along with it, and the horrific pain of childbirth. There is no male analogue, otherwise I'm sure that would be capitalized on by writers also. While I'm all for gender equality in real life, I must accept the fact that fiction presents vistas of the imagination which prey upon prejudice and inequality. If it did not and simply reflected the bland facts of real life, it would not be entertainment. Should the nature of pregnancy be reduced to torture porn in non-fiction, I would agree that hings had been taken too far. But, in the use of human reproductive functions as a springboard for fiction, I must say that it's a plot device like any other.

You Are Right about the trope of force or unplanned impregnation or pregnancy in sci fi or fantasy tv show or movies and miniseries's

I think there's just a lot of overly sensitive bitches who are gonna complain about every thing because they have nothing better to do

Shut up you weak pussy’s

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