This is what our politically correct society has wrought.
Now we don't just have men or women who want to be respected as the opposite sex, or white girls who want to be thought of as black girls because they feel they were born the wrong race, but we now have otherwise completely healthy people who feel inside as if they are really disabled people. Some have gone as far as to cut off their own limbs to really be the disabled person they feel they are inside (and get that handicapped parking tag).
Yes, this is really a thing.
Via The Daily Caller:
Wow. I bet some disabled people wish it was that easy on the flipside of things...Ahead of the upcoming Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Canadian paper National Post ran a story on "transabled" individuals, people who identify as disabled even though there's nothing wrong with them.
"We define transability as the desire or the need for a person identified as able-bodied by other people to transform his or her body to obtain a physical impairment," Quebec-based academic Alexandre Baril said in an interview. "The person could want to become deaf, blind, amputee, paraplegic. It's a really, really strong desire."
The Post also interviewed St. Thomas University professor Clive Baldwin, who has studied "transability" for years and claims to have identified 37 people who are transabled. "One person we have spoken to wants to become blind, and another wants a penectomy, the removal of his penis," he said.
Author Sarah Boesveld draws the obvious parallel to transgenderism. "As the public begins to embrace people who identify as transgender, the trans people within the disability movement are also seeking their due, or at very least a bit of understanding in a public that cannot fathom why anyone would want to be anything other than healthy and mobile."
Not to be insensitive here, and to each his own, but come on, let's face it.
We're so politically correct these days, that pretty soon we're going to have people who want to be respected for the anime characters or inanimate objects they really feel they are inside or... well, really the sky is apparently the limit so go ahead and fill in the blank.
What's next, someone who is 15 really feels they are 21 inside so they should be legally recognized as old enough to buy alcohol? Or how about a 15 year old who really feels he is 85 so he should get social security benefits because he's "trans-aged"?
Then what? Transanimals (a guy who thinks he's really a narwhal)? Transoccupationals (a bus driver who thinks she's really a movie star?) Transmuppets (some dude who really thinks he's Big Bird)?
And since the media made such a huge deal out of Bruce Jenner's transformation into Caitlyn, it really wouldn't be fair not to follow that slippery slope all the way down to the bottom equally for everyone else, now would it? That wouldn't be the politically correct thing to do. If we have to respect and celebrate Caitlyn Jenner for who "she" really is, then logic does follow that we should also have to equally respect some guy who claims he feels handicapped even though he really isn't... right?
I guess in that case I'm transonepercenter. I feel I really should've been born the multi-millionaire that I really am inside... (Where's my check?)
I am not a doctor so I cannot comment on anyone's psychiatric health with any authority, but I cannot sign off on trans-ability as a legitimate thing. Trans-gendered make some kind of sense, especially now since medicine has made the transformation easier. I can buy trans-racial since "race" is an abstract concept IMHO. But I am from Prince George's County MD originally, where my pasty self was a minority. I seriously believed (from The Cosby Show) that African-Americans were all doctors and lawyers. I was very jealous and felt less-than. As I grew older I got over it and can accept myself just as I am, and 93% of the time others just as they are (when I can't I use the mantra that all people are people)
I have a son who was born prematurely, and as a result is legally blind. He has enough sight that he doesn't need a cane and can read moderately enlarged print just fine, but he would love more than anything to have better vision. He would love to be either a race car driver or an Air Force pilot. Until high functioning bionic eye implants are FDA approved he is going to have to settle for something else.
Looking at what we don't have fosters the illusion that things are better over there. Gratitude is a somewhat foreign concept in America from my experience. Those with more money have it better because they have more freedom, or those with special needs have it better because they have more privileges. Always with the more more more. Why can't I have that ______?
Final note, and I'll stop what feels like ranting. I was hit by a car crossing the street in 2011. I was in a coma for about a month and everything looked very bad. Shortcut to the end, I am pretty much back to normal, not counting the 6 metal plates in my head and the 9" rod in my leg. My disabilities are invisible, and I do not feel the need to wear a sign or proclaim loudly that I have them. I am grateful I survived and my son did not lose a parent.