Today I feel hungover, despite the fact that all I had to drink last night was a hurried half-pint of Grolsch at the Maid of Muswell, before getting caught in a downpour.
Anyway.
Every so often a news story comes about and I think: I should blog about that. In general, I don't bother, because I don't really enjoy blogging that much, but also because most of the stories involve politics or complex situations - and I'm not much of an expert. There are so many bloggers on the net, all of whom are better informed about history, politics, sociology, economics etc and I know that I'll just come across as someone who doesn't really know what he's talking about. Also, by the time I think of an opinion on a story, it's normally about six months old.
Nevertheless, I keep reading stories about the "pregnant man", Thomas Beatie, who subsequently gave birth to a girl last month and wanted to write about it. Mostly, because I don't really understand why it's such a big story. The press has been having a field day, with front-page photos of Thomas mowing the lawn and cradling his baby bump.
Every time I saw a tabloid headline screeching "PREGNANT MAN!" I wanted to shout back "No! It's not a pregnant man! Why are you making such a fuss?" It's a hairy woman with no breasts. But "Hairy woman with no breasts is pregnant!" isn't such a good headline, is it? Of course, transgender politics is a complex issue, rarely handled sensitively, and vast swathes or ignorance and prejudice still surround the issue. Most transexuals face huge obstacles in being accepted by mainstream society. So, from a sociological point of view, I'm happy to accept Mr Beatie (a female-to-male transexual) as a man. I see no reason for him to experience any prejucide or be treated like a freak. In terms of his interaction with other people and his legal status, if he wants to be considered a man, great! I'll wave my flag in support. But from a medical point of view, the story is a bit of a non-starter, isn't it? Because medically speaking, Thomas is basically a woman. He's taken hormones and has a bumfluff beard, and has had his breasts removed. But there's no great medical miracle here. And for me, there's no real story. I mean, there are hundreds of thousands of transexuals in the world (although female-to-male TS still seems to make people more uncomfortable than male-to-female TS) and many of them are married and living happily in their "new" sex. So the fact that a woman has become a man isn't in itself a story. And I would have thought that most people accept that if lesbians can use sperm donors to get pregnant, then so can male-to-female transexuals, so there isn't much of a story there either.
Like I said, from a sociological point of view, it's a (vaguley) interesting story. That's all. My issue isn't with Mr Beatie having a baby. I'm just slightly annoyed at the way that the story has been mis-sold. Maybe I'm prejudiced for not treating Thomas Beatie as a man; maybe I'm blinkered, but medically, he's 99% a woman. And women getting pregnant isn't a story, is it? Unless it's Britney Spears.
On a totally unrelated topic, here's another video of shoes: