I have great news for you. Many of you have been under the false impression that I am a 56 year old Scottish minister with not much hair. This is just not true and I feel I should sue you for hate crime. I am in fact 36 with a full head of hair and I would like to identify as Chinese. I know you think this is a joke – but in a world where we can identify as whatever we want – in a world where a man who is born with XY chromosomes, has male genitalia and a male body can simply say he is a woman – against all the evidence (according to the UK and Scottish Governments)…why shouldn’t someone be allowed to identify as whatever age they like?
We’ve had people who want to identify as animals, or a different race so why not a different age? Step up Emile Ratelband who is suing a Dutch court to be allowed to do precisely that. According to the BBC report:
A Dutch “positivity trainer” has launched a legal battle to change his age and boost his dating prospects.
Emile Ratelband, 69, wants to shift his birthday from 11 March 1949 to 11 March 1969, comparing the change to identifying as being transgender.
“We live in a time when you can change your name and change your gender. Why can’t I decide my own age?” he said.
A local court in the eastern city of Arnhem is expected to rule on the case within four weeks.
“When I’m on Tinder and it says I’m 69, I don’t get an answer. When I’m 49, with the face I have, I will be in a luxurious position.”
Mr Ratelband further argued that according to his doctors he has the body of a 45-year-old, and described himself as a “young god”.
He went on Facebook last year to describe how he had made the decision one day standing in front of a mirror, not because he feared getting old but because he wanted to make the most of life for as long as possible.
He also said he would renounce his pension if he switched his birth date.
Mr Ratelband, a media personality and motivational guru, converted to Buddhism earlier this year and is a trainer in neurolinguistic programming.
Rip Van Winkle eat your heart out….!
In the Second World War Arnhem was a bridge too far…..will this be a self-identity too far for our politicians and cultural elites? How will they answer Mr Ratelband?
I really hope he gets his wish.
It will expose the whole sordid “identity” business as the sham it is!
I hadn’t heard of this until today when two different people in different places brought it up and said how daft it was. Also Mr Anthony Ekundayo Lennon who is white but identifies as black. Interesting to hear how people shy away from the obvious conclusion you can no more change your sex than your race or your age. They don’t say that trans is a different things altogether, they notably say nothing. I also saw, on what could be called a rad-fem site, an article that this trans militancy was the fault of the trans activists, the LGB section never did anything like that, erasing biological concepts into meaninglessness…. Stephen Fry is bemoaning the current culture wars, even though he arguably played a role. It’s as though so many people are waking up to the mess we’re in and trying to convince everyone – and themselves – it wasn’t anything to do with them.
As soon as I read this guy was Dutch, the phrase “Doe normaal!” came to mind!
Ive self identified as a giraffe with a hankering for tall trees but oddly no-one believes me. (Do I really have to post thatI’m kidding in case there are a few other giraffes out there?)
It’s a Mad , Mad, Mad Mad World , a film produced by Stanley Kramer was a comedy . If only all Madness produced , was funny !
Ever since I read about it in the press, I have been self-identifying as that Persimmon director, who was awarded the £69m bonus. How come it’s taking so long to get my money? The NHS are performing gender re-assignment surgeries in a fraction of the time. I am beginning to wonder if my human rights have been breached…
Hi Kevin, since I live in Spokane, Washington, USA, I don’t know how much money L69m (sorry, no symbol for pounds on my keyboard) but it must be a lot of persimmons. I applied for gender re-assignment surgery last week but my testosterone levels melted the instruments….ah well, you know how american males are (not to imply carnal knowing, rather by reputation. Hey, this replying to strangers across the pond is fun.
I should be allowed to identify as Mohammed. If one is allowed to change species, sex and age, why not century as well ? Being a victorious warlord with a harem & a prophet whose least action is treated as an infallible oracle by my hundreds of millions of devoted followers, has a lot to be said for it.
Better still, be Captain Jean-Luc Picard. All that tech on the Enterprise would come in handy. If I want to live in the 2300s, who’s to say I’m not allowed to ? It’s my life and my body, not the Government’s; so I can jolly well be Captain Picard if I want to be. And my truth is, that I am Captain Picard. So there. And in the 24th century there are no taxes, because the Federation of United Planets does not need them. So Starfleet does not need it. If Sturgeon and Co. want money from me, they can jolly well replicate it, or win it from the Ferengi.
In a really diverse society, existing would not be necessary for having rights. Existism is discrimination !
You may get away with identifying as said prophet, aren’t there are few references to Biblical persons in the Quran where they aren’t even in the right time period?
James, I hope this link takes you to Monty Python’s “Spot the Loony” sketch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Nq3xuHkgE&t=71s
If not, just go to youtube and search for it. Very topical, what? Since I live in Spokane, Washington, USA, I’m not familiar with Scottish slang, but I just want to say about your hilarious ramblings, Yer bum’s oot the windae ( You’re talking rubbish). Not really, just having fun with a stranger across the pond.
Yep, we have crossed the rubicon. As you sow, so shall you reap!!!!
All people everywhere, Turn back to God through Jesus Christ before it’s too late !!!!!!
His patience with this generations wickedness, won’t tarry for ever.
Turn back, before it’s to late!!!
The man has too much time on his hands but he can’t fool God and he can’t even fool himself as he KNOWS it. I say it again – he hasn’t enough to do with himself,the poor little man.
Why not intellectual ability? As well as changing my age a good fifty years I would like to self-identify as an intellectual genius and be admitted to a prestigious university, If anyone questions my self-identity I will immediately notify the police of a hate incident. I will also, of course, complain of bullying and state that the bullies in question are ruining my mental health. In addition I would also like to self-identify as a musical genius and demand that top orchestras play all of my works. When they dare to suggest that I have yet to compse a single work I will again raise the issue of my mental health, not to suggest that I am totally bonkers but that their refusal to play my non-existent works is causing me serious depression. And next time you meet me I will be seriously offended if you don’t tell me that you greatly admire my paintings on display in the most prestigious art galleries. If anybody has the audacity to question any of my abilities in any of these matters I will have to remind the said (sad?) people that intellectual and artistic abilities are merely social constructs.
There is a difference though between birthday and gender and I think it’s a bit silly to conflate the two, both for this gentleman who thinks he can change his birthday and for yourself who thinks one man in seven billion trying to change his birthday represents a ‘sign of the times’.
For the rest of your commenters mocking what is actually a fairly traumatic and life-altering decision for most people, a decision that will increase their risk of rejection, bullying and violence, by saying things like ‘I’d like to identify as a giraffe’, to call themselves Christ-followers I would say is equally absurd. I can understand a rational argument against legal self-identification, but the lack of compassion and empathy evident in this debate from those who claim to be Christians is surely a much bigger crisis for a society claiming to be built in the Word of God.
What represents a ‘sign of the times’ is that identity is something we can just make up – despite biology. It is indeed traumatic and life-altering – which is why we should discourage it.
There is also the element of inconsistency in all of this. David rightly pointed out that the police have an inconsistent attitude to reporting hate incidents. For some it is merely a matter of their own perception. Nothing objective is required. But when David reports what he sees as a hate incident the police tell him a different version. There is no consistency. Same with sex. The point being made is that the powers-that-be currently (and who knows what they will decree in the future) say that if you have all the anatomical features of a man you can nevertheless demand that, if you so wish, everybody else regards you as a woman. Now, if the powers-that-be decree that to be the case then to be consistent these powers-that-be should also allow any other group to self-identify, whatever the biological facts determine. If they don’t allow people to self-identify in these other ways they need to give a reason. But they can’t of course. Or, if they try to it just proves their inconsistency. So self-identification has its limits. And it is the powers-that-be who determine what these limits are. But in doing so they are acting purely arbitrarily. Just like the police. And talking about the future, the powers-that-be currently say that any two people who are in love should be able to get married. And then rule out siblings or parents/children. Purely arbitrarily. But who knows what these people will determine in the future. Same with polygamy. Currently ruled out – but for how much longer?
Oh, and Frederick has it completely wrong. It is not the people who self-identify who are being ridiculed. If there is any ridiculing going on it is the powers-that-be who are being ridiculed for their policy. Their policy is both arbitrary and inconsistent and arbitrariness and inconsistency deserve to be ridiculed.