Guilty Pleasure: Home Improvement Shows

A love of architecture and design has paved the way for an addiction to home improvement shows. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but when I do, it often includes programs that feature home remodeling, space design, and landscaping.

Saturdays consist of at least four hours worth of such programs, mostly brought to me via HGTV. Among my favorites are Designed to Sell (a program that helps homes sell through a $2,000 redesign) and Color Correction (a program that shows how to use color cohesively in a space).

In my current line of work, I am often tasked with the responsibility of developing space design that will be conducive to my clients’ needs, including some fabrication work. These TV shows not only provide an enjoyable viewing experience but are also a constant source of new ideas or validation about concepts for space design.

Pregnant Oregon Man

I’d heard snippets of the “miraculous pregnant man” throughout the week but never until today decided to read up on it. I came to find out two things: first, the “man” in question is from Oregon (thanks a lot!); secondly, the “man” is actually a transgendered who decided to keep his reproductive organs.

“Thomas,” the ex-beauty queen, proudly said that being pregnant didn’t make her feel less of a man, and that the moral of her story is that “wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.”

“Thomas” was known as Tracy Lagondino as recent as 10 years ago. She was lesbian who decided to live as a man, and took the necessary medical steps toward manhood. The media jumped on the opportunity to play this story out, all over the world. “Thomas” and his wife guested on Oprah. But the public is very divided about this subject matter. Some view it as a step in the right direction toward pushing forward the individual’s right. Others, especially those who oppose the idea of homosexuality, transgenderism, and other expressions of gender identity– see it as yet another blow to traditional gender roles.

But this whole idea is not necessarily impossible. Male pregnancy has been known to happen with seahorses due to geographic and genetic isolation. Of course, we’re not talking about an animal species that had to evolve into male pregnancy out of necessity. Humanity, as a species, haven’t reached that point when we would have had to take the next natural step toward the extension of our species. So, why did Tracy/Thomas do it?

“I opted not to do anything to my reproductive organs because I wanted to have a child one day. I didn’t know how, it was just a dream, there was no plan laid out.”

And what about the risks of carrying this pregnancy to term? Does Thomas’s current physiology protect him from the hypothesized dangers to male pregnancy? What of the child? How will his/her peers respond to the knowledge that he/she was borne from his/her father? Is society ready for that idea? And, if not now, when?