"Yes I have!"
So it's gone for the past several days, ever since the story came out about Thomas Beatie, the Oregon man who is now pregnant and showed his ultrasound images on Oprah Winfrey's show to prove that it's no hoax.
Yeah well, I don't see what the big deal about this is.
The thing is, Beatie may be pregnant but I'm not convinced that he's a "man" in any sense at all. Born Tracy Lagondino, "Thomas Beatie" had trans-gender surgery and hormonal treatment beginning in her twenties to gain more masculine traits. And legally, Beatie is classified as a male.
But none of that changes the fact that at the basic cellular level, Thomas Beatie is still a woman. That her own body recognizes her feminine qualities enough to carry a child should be ample evidence of this.
Yeah, I'll acknowledge that Beatie now allegedly possesses male anatomy. But if it only takes a surgical procedure to fundamentally alter naturally-endowed biology, then sew on a trunk and ears and call me an elephant!
To me at least, there's nothing sensational about this story. In fact it only demonstrates that there are still things beyond man's ability to alter, and that gender is one of them.
The only thing I'm really concerned about with this story is whether what Beatie has done to her body might have some detrimental affect on the child she is carrying. Hormones are a very tricky thing: even a small excess could trigger severe developmental changes in her baby.
2 comments:
Lets also mention that the Testosterone therapy which keeps her being a "man" was stopped over two years ago. Just because she has facial hair doesn't make her a "man".
Being a man (or a woman) is hardly dependent on hormone therapy. Gender Identity is not about your hormones, your DNA, or even your body. It's about one's identity and sense of self.
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