REVEALED: How 22 Australian ‘MEN’ gave birth last year – as a politics academic claims blokes being pregnant is ‘masculine’ in 2019
- Medicare data shows 22 males gave birth in Australia during past financial year
- In decade to June 2019 alone, 228 self-identified men experienced pregnancy
- It’s a new phenomenon with no records of men giving birth – 1993 to mid 2009
- University of Melbourne’s Lauren Rosewarne said we had to rethink masculinity
Medicare has confirmed 22 Australian ‘men’ gave birth in one year – prompting an academic to insist masculinity could be associated with being pregnant.
The Department of Human Services has released data on transgender dads as a new BBC documentary Seahorse screens at the 2019 Melbourne International Film Festival.
It profiles a 30-year-old British transgender man Freddy as he prepares to give birth to a son.
The Department of Human Services has released data on transgender dads as a new BBC documentary Seahorse screens at the 2019 Melbourne International Film Festival. It profiles a 30-year-old British transgender man Freddy (pictured) as he prepares to give birth to a son
The government’s Medicare data showed 22 males gave birth in during the past financial year.
This made them among the 228 self-identified men who had been pregnant during the past decade.
There were no recorded males giving birth in the 16 years to June 2009, with only one case classified as ‘unknown’ in that time.
Dr Lauren Rosewarne, a senior lecturer in social and political sciences at the University of Melbourne, rejected Melbourne 3AW broadcaster Neil Mitchell’s suggestion that ‘having a baby challenges your very masculinity’.
‘Masculinity means different things to different people,’ she said.
‘I’m sure your masculinity is different to any other man in your office.
Dr Lauren Rosewarne, a senior lecturer in social and political sciences at the University of Melbourne, rejected Melbourne 3AW broadcaster Neil Mitchell’s suggestion that ‘having a baby challenges your very masculinity’
‘In this case, gender is something that people who go through a gender change have thought extensively about but probably think about it in less binary terms that most of us.’
Dr Rosewarne also insisted someone who was biologically a woman could be male every without having had sex change surgery.
‘They may not have necessarily had an operation, but they now identify as male,’ she said.
‘For them, they consider their entire identity wrapped up in the identity of a male, therefore they refer as males.’
The academic also suggested society needed to adjust its idea of gender.
‘It is something culturally we have to think more about and it’s jarring for some people,’ Dr Rosewarne said.
‘Jarring is not a bad thing, we all have to adjust our way of thinking.’
‘It’s not just about what bits you have.’
In the ocean world, the male seahorse carries the eggs from the female in its pouch and then gives birth.