French judiciary makes transgender boob
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A peculiar obsession with breast size as the test of true womanhood popped up in a French court last week, as the Chief Prosecutor in Nancy ruled that a transgendered woman couldn’t possibly be a woman unless her breasts measured up to size.
Argument is raging over the case of Delphine Ravisé-Giard, who first transitioned back in 2007. She is a long-term and serving member of the French Air Force – and the French Military had no problem recognising her new gender, in accordance with her own self-identification.
But she suffered a setback last year, when a civil court refused to accept that she could possibly change gender unless she undertook permanent and irreversible surgery.
There was better news in March of this year, when the Justice Minister rowed back from the previous requirement that an individual should actually have undergone reassignment surgery in order to gain recognition for their new gender. Rather, according to the Minister: “The principle of respect for private life requires that the state recognise gender according to a person’s appearance”.
He clarified this by adding that so long as an individual was en route to their chosen gender, via hormone therapy or other means (including cosmetic surgery), that should suffice. This brought France into line with the views of the European Commission on Human Rights for the recognition and treatment of transgendered individuals.
All should have been plain sailing, then: but the legal authorities in Nancy are making things difficult. The chief prosecutor simply moved the goalposts, acknowledging that the Justice Minister has spoken but now demanding proof of some permanent enhancement, such as breast augmentation or cosmetic surgery.
Ms Ravisé-Giard is predictably unimpressed. She told us: "If the state applied the same test to cis women [women born biologically female], it would have to redefine the gender of many French women. But of course, this would never happen."
She added: "What size breasts are required for a change in civil status? Will that breast size be established nationally by the Minister of Justice or will it be up to the personal tastes of individual attorneys?"
The case is likely to return to the French courts in the autumn.
The boob-kerfuffle français follows recent moves in Australia to ban pornographic material featuring small-breasted women, on the grounds that women in such pictures might not look like "proper women", and that therefore the pictures might encourage paedophiles – and similar moves in Germany to block publication of Hustler’s Barely Legal magazine on much the same grounds. ®
COMMENTS
Xs and Ys
I kinda expected this story would bring out the uninformed in their droves.
Wouldn't life be perfect if we were all born with either a manly set of XY chromosomes, a brain with gender dimorphic regions in male mode and fully functional bloke private parts. Or a cute little set of XX chromosomes, a lovely gender dimorphic female brain full of pretty flowers and such and a pretty set of girl parts.
Trouble is, life's not like that. It's like a fruit machine, you put your sixpence in and it's a total gamble what you get out. Mostly you get the two above, but for some of us you get a mixture from the above two parts bins. XXY, XXXY, mosaic, XY androgen insensitive, bloke with girl brain, girl with bloke brain, the variations are numerous and surprisingly common. Look around you, you almost certainly know someone who's gender variant, even if you don't know it.
Would you know if the woman standing next to you was XXXY or XY androgen insensitive? No. Not even most doctors could tell from the outside. Hell, she probably won't know herself until puberty or she finds herself to be infertile. If you're a heterosexual bloke you'd probably fancy her rotten. But in G E's little world she'd have to use the gents. Nice.
And we get some of the tired old comments about genitals defining gender. From the obsession some people have with genitals you'd think their interest went beyond the scientific. If this isn't TMI, a pre-op transsexual on hormones may have such equipment but the hormones ensure that it's about as functional as an analogue cellphone, it's still there but the supporting infrastructure has departed. She's more harmless in the ladies loo than most genetic girls, sorry to disappoint.
So all I would like to say to Adam 10 and Cameron Colley is this: be *very* glad that you have not been touched by the wild and crazy hand of gender variance. Trust me on this one, it's a royal PITA. Or maybe you have and are deep in the closet and denying it to all and sundry. Come on out sisters, it's OK to be trans nowadays!
Simple test
Because this is what she wants, and who are we to deny her it?
There's a simple test for this. Everyone should have the right to do exactly as they wish, in complete freedom, until the moment that freedom impinges on someone else's rights.
By giving her this freedom, what right are we denying from another person?
Big fat fail..
..sorry Jennyalto, but you are clearly using common sense, logic and empathy in your post. I must insist you cut that out right now and post a knee-jerk, badly thought out response right this second.
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