The Pregnant Man – Thomas Beattie became the sensation of the world in April when he appeared on Oprah to defend his choice to have a child as a transgendered man. Sticking up for your beliefs? Awesome, and definitely commendable. Eventually turning into a fame slut and marketing out your second pregnancy? Not cool. Now pregnant with his second child, Beattie has already cemented a book deal on his experience and been interviewed a second time as a ‘Barbara Walters Exclusive.’ One child is a miracle. A second one immediately afterwards is a marketing scheme.

Batsh** Insane Celebrities Across The Media - Britney, Lindsey, and others: we’re talking to you. 2008 was the year of the mental millionaire, with the world playing a captive audience to the tragic, bizarre, and sometimes just eerie behavior of celebrities. We watched Britney Spears struggle to put her life back together after divorce, Lindsey Lohan battling various addictions, and Scarlett Johansson crossing the borderline into stalker-ish about Barack Obama. Here’s the real scoop: an estimated 57.7 million adults are suffering from a diagnosable mental illness in the United States alone. What makes these celebrities any different from these people who are suffering in private besides their income and the paparazzi that shadow them? Watching people suffer is definitely a trend that shouldn’t cross over into ‘09.

“Reality” Dating Shows - Now that Flavor Flav has finally hung up his clock and gone off the air, there are about thirty shows taking his place, and they’re spreading like cockroaches. Tila Tequila, the ‘Ikki Twins,’ and others are taking over Vh1 and MTV mercilessly, swamping our televisions with drunken fights (actually funny to watch), and pointless drama. Who makes their boyfriends/girlfriends eat nasty pig parts and do bizarre things in the name of love? These loveless actors do. Some dating shows range from the creepy (Date My Mom) to the outright postmortem (The Bachelor), but either way, they all need to go.

Political Ignorance/Apathy – In the year of the historical election, political action was awesome and political apathy was absolutely the anti-cool. The worst of the worse were the nonpartisans who were both apathetic and uneducated about the election. Their “why should I bother to vote” statements were both inhibiting to the democratic tradition and simply irritating. Guaranteed to piss off people who were voting, the ‘Not Voting’ demographic drew on fallacies and the platforms that they didn’t really understand to prove why they weren’t going to vote. The election was basically a two horse race, but there were still other entries available as an alternate, so not voting at all was just not cool.

Guys in Girl Jeans – It’s creepy. It’s weird. It’s a guy shopping in the same section as you in PacSun. As you put down the pair of sunglasses you were looking at and openly stare, you realize he’s not just shopping for a shirt to give to his girlfriend. He’s holding three pairs of jeans in his hand, and there’s no girlfriend in sight. As you watch, he takes the jeans and starts walking to the dressing rooms. You are not witnessing a confused shopper. You’re witnessing the Girl Jean Phenomenon, a plague of 2008 pop culture, and a trend that needs to die on December 31st. Guys wearing our jeans is not cool or edgy. It’s just lame and, now, overplayed.

Saturday Night Live – Is it still going? It’s been in the process of becoming painfully unfunny in the years since Will Ferrell left, and now with the exit of Amy Poehler, we just need to euthanize it. A classic sketch show that began in 1975 with genuinely funny people, SNL has run over six hundred episodes of pure comedic bliss continuously for thirty-three years. As with all great series, though, the time has come to put SNL out of its misery before it becomes the kind of joke it used to make.

Churning Out Tween Pop Stars By The Dozen – If child enslavement was defined as being manufactured on a kids’ show and being shoved on the masses, Disney and Nickelodeon would be doing massive amounts of time in jail. The list of sugary sweet music artists includes, but definitely is not limited to The Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana, Demi What’s-Her-Name, That Miranda Kid, and a host of others, few if any of whom have actual talent. But you wouldn’t know, because should you approach any method of media that is playing a song by them, you’ll be deafened instantly and hopelessly by the cacophony of shrieking that erupts. The Original Disney Channel Star, Hilary Duff, unfortunately started it all when she split from Disney in 2004 to pursue a solo career (which caused a big fuss, if I remember right). She was an original, at least for the Disney Channel. These cookie cutter kids? About as generic as it gets.

Agree or disagree? Think something else should have made the list? Voice your opinions below, and tell us what you think about the worst pop culture in 2008!

In the April 8th issue of The Advocate, the leading GLBT magazine, he wrote an article entitled, Labor of Love: Is society ready for this pregnant husband? , in which he discusses his decision to carry his daughter and the difficulties which he and his wife now face.

During his sex-change surgery, Thomas decided to only have his breasts removed– keeping his reproductive organs intact. Therefore, since Nancy, his wife, lost her womb to a disease, it was up to either Thomas or a stranger surrogate to provide the couple with offspring.

The first few doctors they went to were horribly unsupportive. One nearly insisted that he shave off his facial hair and go to counseling.

After all of that, the first pregnancy nearly cost him his life and did cost him the embryos.

It also revealed the close-mindedness of his family—his brother told Thomas :

“It’s a good thing that happened. Who knows what kind of monster it would have been.”

The second attempt was successful, as the media blitz reveals, and the couple are expecting their daughter this summer.

Thomas and Nancy appeared on Oprah this past week and discussed their story. Thomas responded to the acusations that his choice to carry this baby makes him less of a man, stating,

“I have a very stable male gender identity. I see pregnancy as a process, and it doesn’t define who I am. It’s not a male or female desire to want to have a child…it’s a human desire […] I’m a person, and I have the right to have my own biological child.”

Pregnancy is already highly politicized to the abortion controversy. Pro-Choice vs. Pro-Life is debated in colleges, churches, and courthouses across the country.

Thomas Beaties’ unique case adds an entire new dimension to such discourse.

The Pro-Life camp, often Christians, argues that life begins at conception—leading them to oppose not only abortions but also embryonic stem cell research on the basis that an embryo is a human life.

I wonder how many within this camp truly believe that the fetus inside of Thomas Beattie deserves an equal right to life. Christian literature and evangelists often characterize Transsexuals and Homosexuals as “deviants” and argue that their “urges” can and must be fought against.

Across the way, the Pro-Choice camp argues that a woman should have complete control of her fertility and pregnancy.

I similarly am curious how many fellow liberal-progressives are willing to extend this right to a transsexual man such as Thomas Beatie. The Huffington Post’s story on Thomas’ Oprah interview has attracted many hateful comments. Surprising, given that the HP is a super liberal/progressive online news source, yet perhaps not unexpected. As the fiasco of the Gay Marriage Amendment over the past few years has revealed, even the most progressive people often balk in the face of the GLBT movement.

What do you think? Is Thomas Beatie a delusional lesbian, an awe-inspiring transsexual man, or simply an expectant father in every literal sense of the word?

For a great series of blogs on this issue check out RecoveringStraightGirl.com

Also, YouTube feature Thomas’ ultrasound for Oprah.