From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Tue Mar 18 2003 - 18:01:26 MST
At 11:30 PM 3/18/03 +0100, Anders, sensible and insightful as ever, wrote:
>From my readings in the psychology of body dysmorphic disorder, I would
>say that quite a few people who are currently unhappy with their bodies
>would be just as unhappy if they got a Primo 3M. The problem isn't that
>there is anything wrong with the body, but the acceptance of it or the
>expectations of what a future body would mean to oneself.
>[...]the problem of not being good at accepting one's body is
>nontrivial even if you can switch bodies as easily as clothing.
An early, and at the time misunderstood, fictional example of this truth is
Samuel R. Delany's TRITON (1976). Bron is a profoundly fucked-up man in an
anarchist, non-sexist solar system culture. He falls madly in love with
(ahem) Spike, a beguiling woman performance artist. (Another woman is
Brian; it's that kind of world.) In an attempt to deal with his confusions,
he insists against advice on being gender-switched to female--and is then
exactly as confused and assholish as previously. Not more so, I think; just
as much. A book for transhumanists to savor, despite its various scientific
slips and dubious sociology.
Damien Broderick
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