AMERICA THE BOOTYFUL (Obesity Version)

America the Bootyful

Oh beautiful for spacious thighs

For ample belly gains

For purple mounds of flesh to be

Tucked miserably in Hanes.

America, America,

God shed his grease on thee, 

And crown thy good

With blubberhood,

From knee to bulging knee.

Transgenderism Is Natural: Get Over It.

Yuval Harari, in his book Sapiens, makes this irrefutable observation about the “nature” of nature: “Whatever is possible,” he writes, “is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behavior, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition.”

In short, what is “natural” is, in its mere existence, physically true, but morally neutral—neither good nor bad. Rather, it is humans who assign morality to natural phenomena—and we do so (or should do so) based upon the effect—positive, negative, or zilch—they have on our species’ well-being. It is humans who decide if a particular “possible” behavior is good for humans (useful to humanity at the present time), bad for humans (harmful to humanity at the present time), or tolerable for humans (of no particular consequence to humanity at the present time). 

 Nothing could be more dishonest or irresponsible, therefore, than for individual humans to conjure up some supposedly objective and eternal “nature” that they fancy accords transcendant moral value to their own subjective and time-constrained prejudices. Let us rein in our hubris! Human beings themselves have only existed (and thus participated in nature’s possibilities) for about 200,000 years or so. A mere flicker of time: other “possibilities” will undoubtedly arise to follow us. But let us nonetheless endeavor to delay that replacement as long as possible—by making sound judgments now about how to play the hand nature has dealt us.

As an admittedly modest step toward realizing this goal, I’d like to propose that we acknowledge transgenderism/transsexuality as a very real possibility that does indeed exist at the present time and that is therefore entirely natural. As for its “morality,” i.e., its relative value for homo sapiens, I also propose that we accept it as—at the very least—tolerable (inoffensive) for humanity in general and, moreover, clearly good for those individuals for whom it is not just a possibility, but an incontrovertible fact.

In short, let’s stop fussing about this particular natural phenomenon. It’s here, it’s true, it’s OK. Let’s move on, humanity.We have many other, much more genuinely dangerous, “natural” behaviors to declare immoral and, for our common good—perhaps even salvation—regulate. Racism? War? Gun love? Misogyny? Child abuse? 

It’s time to be more sapiens, people.