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Armageddon Coming

No, not really. Well, possibly. Eventually. How would I know? I do know that times are rapidly changing and my source for that piece of information is the Daily Mail's content. The newspaper which once ran a write-in competition on the question 'How Much Do You Admire Mr Hitler?', and which is a by-word for conservatism has come over all funny. It has run a moving article about a six-foot, 220 pound paratrooper who has transformed into a shapely size 12 woman.

I'm not kidding. These sorts of stories, given modern technology, are becoming more and more common and they strike at the heart of our notions of gender and sex. I have to say that I'm in two minds about such transformations myself. The glib thing to do would be to associate with Germaine Greer (or Camille Paglia, one of my favourite egotistical maniacs I suspect) and note that 'a mutilated man is not a woman'. However, a little imaginative sympathy--and some admiration for Jan Morris's work--and that position can't be sustained.

All our lives, our brains are bathed in a hormonal soup, having grown according to a genetic code. I believe that our minds and souls are different, but I wouldn't be so silly as to say that testosterone and other things in my bloodstream have never changed my mood. What's in your bloodstream might change your mind too. It may not matter if the substances come from within or without. Different drinks have as peculiar an effect on me as on anyone else, for instance.

So I'm not prepared to dismiss Ian--now Jan--Hamilton's argument that she always knew that she was a she. I'm genuinely intrigued by this combination of personal freedom, biological determinism, and cognitive obsession that she depicts. What if her brain always was female, in ways we do not fully understand, whilst the mix of her hormones was male? What would that do to a person?

We have our lives to lead and I wish her well, but the human spirit constantly amazes me. This is the sort of story to challenge anger and fear and, good god, I find myself thanking the Daily Mail for it.

So now I know it's the end of the world as we know it.

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