Posted on 08/25/2013 1:04:46 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Consider a polarizing political and cultural figure who is seen by many people as a hero and by others as a traitor – and who has a powerful symbolic importance to members of a persecuted minority. This person adopts a new name and a new identity, which transforms his or her relationship to mainstream culture and confuses both the media and many members of the public. Many people refuse to accept the new name and identity, or treat it as a nickname or a passing fad. At age 25, this person is prosecuted for an act of conscience-driven defiance against America’s war machine, one that arguably serves as a political turning point but also strikes many people as an unpatriotic or treasonous betrayal.
Obviously I’m talking about Chelsea Manning, at least in part. The Army leaker and whistle-blower, who was recently convicted on 17 charges of espionage and theft, declared this week that she identifies as female and no longer wants to be known as Bradley. It’s an event that feels, at this early stage, like a cultural touchstone of our young century. Among other things, as my colleagues Katie McDonough and Mary Elizabeth Williams have addressed, Manning’s “Today” show statement opened up an epistemological and taxonomical can of worms in the mainstream media, which seemed startlingly unprepared to deal with the identity preference of a high-profile transgender person.
For members of the general public to feel confused about the identity issues raised by Manning’s case, and to struggle with the question of how we decide what gender someone is – is it a matter of self-definition, of a legal piece of paper, of genetics or of physical anatomy? – is not especially surprising. That kind of confusion might even be productive, were it dealt with honestly and without hateful....
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
So Mohammed Ali was a transexual?
I did not know that.
Is it just me or does Bradley Manning in drag look like Tonya Harding ?
He actually looked like the killer in the Movie Dressed To Kill. Michael Caine played the cross dressing killer doctor and Angie Dickenson was his victim.
I am not confused at all. Bradley Manning is the one who is confused.
Tonya Harding just called and she’s PISSED!
Manning seems to have been quite gifted in science and computers. It's an interesting fact that many M2F trans people are gifted in computer science. For instance, Sophie Wilson, formerly Roger Wilson, is the designer of the ARM processor. The ARM RISC processor powers nearly all tablet computers and Cell phones.
The inventor of the ARM and Firepath processors has been nominated for a lifetime achievement award.
Hide the tire on irons!
Salon is like the Moonbat shuttle control.
Mobile device autocorrect: messing things up because it can.
I've always considered "gender" a grammatical term, specifically referring to nouns in languages other than English. Put Chelsea in the "neuter" column.
I don’t care how a mentally ill man feels about his “gender identity”. I don’t care what kind of gender mood a mentally ill man feels on a particular day. A person with XY chromosomes will be he/him and a person with XX chromosomes will be she/her. The rare hermaphrodite and the rare XXY are special cases, but gender identity confusion does not justify spreading the confusion to language.
I think it’s just you, LOL.
He/she should have been executed for treason but the liberal mindset victimization and he/she also being on the governments list of the persecuted because of his gender gives him a pass
I meant when she was younger. When I first saw the drag pic of Manning, I thought it was Harding.
He just didn’t want to serve his country. He should have married Hanoi Jane.
I don’t care what he calls himself as long as my tax dollars aren’t used to pay for his freakazoid medical treatment.
He's just a psychotic little man with serious mental problems.
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