If you had a choice...

[Hardball (imported)]

"Me thinkest thou seekest cures for maladies that doesets fail to be," bard Johnny Inkslinger said.

[magusuk89 (imported)]

Your connection of gender and sexuality to disability is an interesting one. I have two congenital conditions (Crohn's Disease and the testicular deformity) that are baked into my genes and cannot be wished away. In both cases it would be foolish to suggest I could be at peace with the pain, let alone enjoy it. But the question of whether I'd change it if I had a choice is a difficult one.

At this stage of life I would not be the same person had I not had the experiences and identity-work I have. At a deeper level, someone with a tweaked genome would not be the same organism in a profound way. Thus, I must accept that the material world is a traitorous thing. For me, harmony comes from my Neoplatonism. I look to the World of the Forms. In the World of the Forms, the pain and imperfection of the material world is important, but ultimately discard-able and breakable, like an eggshell, or the mould of a bronze statue.

So really, what are you incubating, or what statue are you casting?

I refer the honourable member to my previous answer. To be more specific, yes indeed it may come to pass that there are many more available ways to change one's material load-out. I welcome this... but do not think it trivialises or redefines what has gone before. Orphans of the storm can only be understood in the context of the storm. Courtesy and respect demand sensitivity to context.

A good example of this sensitivity is Brenner and Touati (ed.), Leprosy and Identity in the Middle Ages, Social Histories of Medicine, ed. Cantor, Leong and Waddington (Manchester, 2021). Hanson's Disease and other conditions wrapped up in the social diagnosis of medieval leprosy have been cured/eradicated. But respect for the reality of lives, adaptations, suffering, cultural distinctiveness and so forth is nevertheless the mark of a humane historiography. The end of rich social customs because of scientific advancement can be a painful thing. The contributors note how many civic authorities retained aspects of festival and custom-based charitable fundraising and socialised medicine long after the end of leprosy in an area, for example.

This complex history, full of pathos, may reflect the experiences of rich cultures connected with hearing and sight loss today.

I disagree, however, with the extent of an identification with gender, genital preference and sexuality communities. Given all available choices I would still choose to be gay. My identity work and philosophy draw on de virginitate by St Aldhelm of Malmesbury, patron saint of the dignity of childless people; upon the passionate intellectual and carnal love of St Alcuin; upon the artistic visions of utopian homosocial creatives such as Bruce Weber. As for the question of whether I -- a clearly medical case with regard to testicular problems and castration candidacy -- would welcome endless choices to regrow testes... I welcome the relief it would bring some (many cis and trans men) to get closer to their perfect body. I consider my perfect body to be different, so pay me the courtesy of respecting my self actualisation too. You may wonder if a 'cure' for my torsions young enough would have given me a different preference, but I say to you this:

I would not open windows into men's souls. (Attrib. Elizabeth I, attrib. Nic. Bacon).

[Valery_V (imported)]

"Me thinkest thou seekest cures for maladies that doesets fail to be," bard Johnny Inkslinger said.

I have to agree...

See also thread "Gay History in Human History"

http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php ... an-History

http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php ... tory/page2