Expensive whimsy
Talk about rubbing salt into the wound…
A divorcee has been forced by a judge to pay half for her ex-husband’s trans surgery.
The mother argued that it was unfair that she had to stump up £80,000 for the procedure when the decision to transition had led to the breakdown of her marriage.
But in what is believed to be the first case of its kind, the judge said that the surgery was a “need”, not a “whim”, and therefore it was “reasonable” for the cost to be met out of their joint funds.
But the relevant antonym here is not “whim” but “delusion.” It’s a delusion that surgery can change people’s sex, so it seems absurd as well as unfair to tell a dissenting spouse to pony up for half the cost.
The husband, 58, had said that the argument was “like saying someone who had cancer should not have the surgery” during the hearing at Brighton Family Court.
Yeah well people who believe in magic gender will say any old shit. Of course it’s not like that. Wanting to be the opposite sex is not like cancer. Trying to change sex is not like medical treatment for cancer. The simile is not a simile.
But the husband, who says his wife always knew he was trans, said that it should be “treated in the way of any other medical costs which would ordinarily be met from the joint assets”.
No, because it’s not comparable to “any other medical costs” because it’s not medical. A mistaken warped fashionable stupid idea about the self is not a medical issue.
[The judge] said he was satisfied the “surgery was meeting a genuine and deep-felt medical/psychological need”.
“This cannot be, and has not been, said to have been carried out as a whim when all of the effort and time that the respondent has invested in the process is considered,” the judge noted.
Deep felt, maybe, but genuine, of course not. Dude wanting to play-act being a woooman is not a medical need no matter how “deep-felt” it is. That’s an argument from early childhood. “I neeeeeeed the toy or I will die!!!!” sobs child in the toy store, but child is wrong about that.
It’s disturbing when even judges believe the lies.
Appears to me to be a bit steep, for what amounts to non-functional and purely cosmetic surgery, that will be most likely hidden under clothing 24/7. In any case, the local veterinarian would be the one for the husband to go to have his testicles lopped off: more experienced than the local quack.
24/7? No. Beware tidy labels that don’t fit.
The judge is wrong. If the surgery is a ‘need’, i.e. necessary, he could be treated by the NHS at no cost to himself. Alternatively, if he has private medical insurance and his treatment is deemed necessary then it should be covered by his insurer. The fact that he is having to pay out of pocket is proof enough that it is not necessary but is instead a choice, no different from any other ‘vanity’ cosmetic surgery. It isn’t a need, it’s a want.
OB: I maintain that 24/7 is probably right.. While I am not privy to the poor bastard’s thoughts, it is IMHO quite likely that he wears female night attire to bed, and does everything else possible to convince himself that he is not of his birth sex. It is a charade, but he is likely stuck with having to act it out, and pretending it is not what it is. I do not think it likely that he switches it on and off according to the time of day.
Whether or not his divorced wife should be forced to pick up however much of the tab is a question of law, not of justice, because the latter would indicate that he should pay the lot.
Delusional. Indeed! Or as the kids are apparently saying these days “delulu”. (I’m not sure what advantages it has over the traditional form apart from saving a few characters, but it’s heartening to know that people are feeling a need for an easy way to refer to this sort of nonsense. It also has satisfying echoes of ‘doolally’ for those of us old enough to remmeber that term.)
Oh I think that’s a nice poeticalish word. I wasn’t aware of it. Wordplay is a good luxury.
I don’t know. I love wordplay, but a lot of these ‘easy’ ways of saying things sound so childish, I can’t bring myself to use them. I wouldn’t have said them at any age after about six. It seems like just another way we are sinking into infantilism.
In this analogy, the man likens the ordinary and healthy characteristics of his sex to tumours. Delusive is right, this is way off the deep end of rationality.
But “delulu” is word play rather than easy. It’s a mashup of delusional and loopy and lulu. It’s witty rather than lazy.