Ticklishchap
One Too Many
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- 1,742
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- London
"Self-definition." Therein lies the rub.
Sure, every person can choose for his- or her- or non-gender-binary-self how to identify or "define." But demanding that others accede to that "definition" is to believe that a person can control how others perceive him or her or non-gender-binary individual.
A person born male who wishes to present as female does me no injury. And, as I have no control over what that person thinks, I won't waste any energy on it. But if what I see is a man in makeup and women's clothing, well, I'm not about to apologize for that.
I really am sceptical about the whole thing. There is a rich tradition of female impersonation - as in La Cage Aux Folles - but that is not actually claiming to 'be' female. It involves acting and using the imagination. I can't say that I really believe a man can genuinely 'become' a woman or a woman 'become' a man. The physiological and emotional differences between the sexes are too strong. And that's good: the idea of interchangeability and 'self-definition' seems a dystopian nightmare.