Life in the Oligarchy
I’m scheduled for cataract surgery soon, and that now requires what once would have been pages and pages of forms. Today, of course, providing all that information is something that happens in that paperless and parallel universe of Cellphonia. Of course, the fact that my vision is declining complicates the process since it’s hard to see the tiny typeface, but no use complaining, such is the world of today. Things can get harder when they get easier.
Gender. Once upon a time, the questionnaire would have had a simple pair of boxes to check: M and F. Fortunately this one avoids the list of 72 genders, by simply asking what gender I was assigned by doctors at my birth. Frankly, I should think it would have been obvious to anyone in the room since like most other people I was born naked and somewhat afraid, but the oligarchy of political action groups had yet to be born. Today we can’t be allowed to make such assumptions, even about ourselves – only the doctors decide and then only temporarily.
Only after some years go by should the parent treat the child as someone in possession of gender and it is announced in some grand gender reveal ceremony, or so I was told in a recent Atlantic article. If I were a cynic, I would suggest a species reveal party to clarify that issue when someone is elected to Congress, but I digress.
It’s a good thing such interviews aren’t conducted in person, since my instantaneous response to the question in question would be “ask your mother what the hell gender she assigned me last night” and that might have left me seeking another surgeon.
I’m long since tired of all the tirades about wealthy oligarchs as though the term referred only to the very rich. Our American oligarchs are very political and ideological and being the rulers, the term suggests, are capable of telling us what we are and how we should talk about it – and almost anything. If I never had any doubt about my gender I have to play along and be quiet as though that were a rare condition, which it is not. Although surveys vary, about half of one percent of the American population at most is transgender. While I firmly believe all of us deserve equal respect and have equal rights, I also believe these distinctions are nobody’s business and don’t really matter. If we, as liberals support the right to privacy, shouldn’t we oppose pointless inquiries mostly designed to make us believe our identities are nebulous and transient when they rarely are? What I think we have is another “power to the party” declaration, which impedes our culture’s future.
[…] the requisite forms by cell phone, no mean trick for the eye impaired. Then he gets tripped up over gender assigned at birth. […]
I had the surgery in my right eye about 3 weeks ago, with my second eye set for May 20th, until a teenager called me and said I had to reschedule forcing me to have to do the prep AGAIN. She was unable to give me a valid explanation and I’m going to raise hell on Monday. After all I’m not an Oligarch 🙂
Getting old is a bummer. So is dealing with the medical establishment, but I’m hoping it will distract me from the constant stereophonic propaganda coming from both sides. Left or right, it’s all about more reasons to distrust and stereotype our fellow humans.