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from the does-the-pensioner-want-to-repay-his-benefits-and-go-back-to-work,-too? dept.
In the quixotic battle against old age, some people use skin care and spin class.
That’s not enough for Emile Ratelband, a 69-year-old who feels like he’s in his 40s. The Dutch pensioner is asking a court in his hometown of Arnhem, southeast of Amsterdam, to change his birth certificate so that it says he took his first breath on March 11, 1969, rather than on March 11, 1949. The judges heard his case Monday and promised they would render a verdict in the next several weeks.
Ratelband sees his request as no different from a petition to change his name or the gender he was assigned at birth — and isn’t bothered that this comparison might offend transgender people, whose medical needs have been recognized by the American Medical Association. It comes down to free will, he maintains.
I want to be recognized as an alien trapped in an Earthling's body.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday November 09 2018, @01:22PM (3 children)
Oh, as a final note -- I'd just like to remind everyone that we used to have more confidence in age fluidity in terms of social roles than we do today. Teenagers used to be called to rule countries (with aides of course). Younger teens who wanted to get married were often allowed to. Children were assumed to be able to work when their bodies were able -- and in agrarian societies, that often meant starting help with chores at a young age. "Childhood" was invented in the 1700s, and "adolescence" as a period without responsibility was basically an invention of the 20th century.
Older people worked until they were able. Older people (and particularly older men) often continued to have relationships and have children as they were able. "Retirement" was also invented in the 20th century as a common experience, partly due to increased life expectancy. But age 65 was adopted as an age for "Social Security" effectively as insurance -- the word "insurance" appears in the original act -- that is, insurance against living longer than the expected life. Most people were still expected to work basically until they died. Now they often "retire" earlier.
I'm not saying it's all a bad thing (which it isn't), but we have many issues of age stratification and expectations that are effectively recent social inventions.
IQ also stands for "Intelligence Quotient," back in the time when it was thought proper to divide one's "Mental age" by one's "Physical age." Nowadays that idea is deprecated by psychologists, who apparently want us all to be properly segregated educationally and socially to develop at the "proper" rate.
A lot of it is based on BS. Again, that doesn't mean I think this guy should get to change his birthdate. But perhaps we should seriously consider why we place so much emphasis on it in the first place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @02:04PM (1 child)
he wants to lie.
it is a fact that he was born in 1949, and he wants to say otherwise.
he can already do that. go to a bar, meet a woman, lie about his age. then, as the relationship progresses and the woman decides she wants to have children with him, he can always tell the truth (at that point the woman should be somewhat pissed off, but able to get over it). or he can keep lying until he's caught, I don't care.
the LGBT people say "I don't feel like a man even though I have a penis and testicles. I feel like a woman, and I want to be treated like a woman". This is not about facts, it's about how the person feels, and how the person wants other to act towards them. They want to have an official acknowledgment of how they feel.
if you really insist on making the comparison to "non-standard sexual orientatiton people", you should be comparing this guy to someone saying "you think you see a penis and testicles, I know you see a penis and testicles, but I want everyone to say that it's in fact a vagina, and act accordingly".
(Score: 4, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday November 09 2018, @02:42PM
I'm pretty sure I repeatedly said I don't necessarily agree with this guy's lawsuit. I just think it raises questions about the importance we give to a birthdate and how it is pervasively used in records of people, often to their detriment.
Actually, no. He wants to change what's on his birth certificate. I don't know what the laws are in his country, but I assume it may be similar to the laws used in most states in the U.S. that now allow transgender people to change their sex on their birth certificate [wikipedia.org]. (Some don't even require evidence of sex reassignment surgery to do so.)
It is a fact that many transgender people were born with certain genitals and certain chromosomes. They are now able to change their birth certificates to state that something different happened. Again, I think this guy's claims are questionable, but your analogy is not quite on point given the ability of transgender folks to alter records.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday November 10 2018, @05:04PM
> we used to have more confidence in age fluidity in terms of social roles than we do today. Teenagers used to be called to rule countries (with aides of course). Younger teens who wanted to get married were often allowed to.
David Farragut, midshipman at 9, commanded ship at 12, comes to mind.
OTOH those were not teens who spent their years with TV and tablets munching on MSG food and drinking basically sugar. These kids have trouble with shoelaces.
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