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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers
Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78146] Thu, 30 September 2021 03:24 Go to next message
Pedro

Toe is in the water

Registered: March 2014
Messages: 94



[font-size=120%]They say life imititates art.
My story for Timmy's 'Books and Covers' challenge, 'Statements' featured a girl raised as a boy.

The news feed on my iPad showed me this report from Birmingham Live, the on line face of the Birmingham Mail. (Brum UK that is.) dated 27 Sept.:


Mum who wanted daughter raised son as a girl for seven years
The Reddit user shared how his mum had always wanted a daughter - and so raised him as one for two thirds of a DECADE
By James Rodger
Reddit users have been left floored after a user reevaled they had been raised as a girl for the first seven years of their life - despite being a boy. The Reddit user shared how his mum had always wanted a daughter - and so raised him as one for two thirds of a DECADE.
The Redditor wrote: "Everyone around me already knows that I was brought up by foster families because I had a s*** early childhood. I deliberately keep it vague and say stuff like "I'd rather not go into it" so that people will just assume I was abused in some way and they'll stop asking about it." 
They added: "The truth is that for the first 7 years of my life, I was brought up as a girl by my pshyco birth mother who really really really wanted a daughter and didn't let the snag of giving birth to a boy stop her from trying to raise one."She was a pretty successful professional in a legal field (not entirely sure what) and had me via anonymous sperm donor from a fertility clinic. She found out i was a boy at a late ultrasound and then moved across the country."Gave birth to me at home and continued to move about until I was 5 or so. It was just the two of us all my life, we had contact with other people, of course, but they rarely got very close. I had lots of friends, but was always supervised."
He added: "I found out way way after that my mother's strong puritanical christianity was a lie she used to explain why she was so strict about me being 'private' and never letting anyone see me get changed or anything.

i just acccepted all of this as fact, having never been told anything different."I was sent to a religious school for girls and had a really great childhood. i was a bit of a tomboy, and played with lego and toy animals, rather than dolls and stuff, but that's not unusual and no one ever questioned i was a girl - even me."I knew about men and women, but had never really seen much of naked people. my mother never ever spoke to me about it, but i kinda had the impression that when i grew up and got boobs and stuff, my d*** would kinda fall off or something and i would be a woman, and other kids would keep their dicks and they'd be men. I dunno, to be honest, i never really thought about it."
They added: "Anyway, I carried on with my happy girlhood and had a bunch of friends and everything was great until I was seven and a teacher accidentally spilt a cup of hot coffee over me at school. The liquid soaked through my clothes and was scalding me so the staff immediately stripped me out of my dress and underwear to get the hot coffee away from my skin. And then they found out."
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/mum-who- wanted-daughter-raised-21703501

[Updated on: Thu, 30 September 2021 03:27]




Pedro
Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78147 is a reply to message #78146] Thu, 30 September 2021 06:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Guest
You need to show the child's birth certificate or passport when placing your child in school at the age of five.
Is this story real or fabricated? Real news, fake news, or sensational journalism, as in "two thirds" of a decade?
You have to question this kind of story not simply accept it and pass it on so it becomes in some way real by repetition.
The UK newspapers are full of sensational crap!
Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78148 is a reply to message #78146] Thu, 30 September 2021 08:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Pedro

Toe is in the water

Registered: March 2014
Messages: 94



Well...

Since the Birmingham Mail is part of the Trinity Mirror group...
The jounalist has supposedly quoted a Reddit post...
The Reddit post quotes no names of people or places (although the language of the post suggests USA to me)...
 and the 'two thirds of a decade'...

it should obviously be taken with one seven thousandth of a pound of sodium chloride.

I just thought it a mildy amusing juxtaposition coming so soon after the challenge that it lightened my day. Maybe I have a warped sense of the amusing and the absurd.



Pedro
Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78149 is a reply to message #78147] Thu, 30 September 2021 09:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
NW is currently offline  NW

On fire!
Location: Worcester, England
Registered: January 2005
Messages: 1560



"James K wrote on Thu, 30 September 2021 07:46"
You need to show the child's birth certificate or passport when placing your child in school at the age of five.



--
I don't remember any kind of formal check on the sex of a baby when I went with Maurice to register his daughter's birth some five years ago (which was a home birth), so I suppose a fraudulent birth certificate is possible. But the story still doesn't ring true, to me.



"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78150 is a reply to message #78149] Thu, 30 September 2021 18:57 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Guest
@Pedro, I think you've opened an interesting topic.
New York City 1 January 2019 -  https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/my-baby/gender-prediction/ what-happens-when-you-choose-gender-neutral-on-your-childs-b irth-certificate/

Parents can now select an "X" gender marker on birth certificates. Experts explain how this can help parents raise gender-neutral children, but there are still a lot of unknowns for what the "X" means as these kids grow up.


Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78151 is a reply to message #78150] Fri, 01 October 2021 01:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Teddy is currently offline  Teddy

Really getting into it
Location: USA
Registered: October 2006
Messages: 484



I see no trougling issues in the idea of not being declaritive on a birth certificate. It's only an "x" on a piece of paper. The potential problem, of course, is in how adults handle it, which could blow back negatively on the child or teen. Adults do some really stupid stuff in bringing up their children. But gender neutral documentation itself? No big deal. A kid is going to be attracted to what he's going to be attracted to irrespective of what box is ticked on his birth certificate. 



“There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.” - Terry Pratchett
Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78152 is a reply to message #78150] Fri, 01 October 2021 07:37 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Pedro

Toe is in the water

Registered: March 2014
Messages: 94



James
Reading the piece you linked prompted the question 'what are birth certificates for?'

One answer would be to say it is to show the person is a unique individual registered with and therefore recognised by the state.

Clearly this thread could drift in all sorts of directions most of which would be better suited to the General Interest section of the forum. However let me posit the following for the speculative /science fiction writers and readers amongst us:

The most unique thing about a person is their DNA sequence. The state requires that sequence (and the date) to be registered at birth. Each individual effectively becomes their own identity document. Assuming a sufficiently rapid way of reading DNA is available, how might society develop?





Pedro
Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78154 is a reply to message #78152] Sat, 02 October 2021 01:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cole parker is currently offline  cole parker

Toe is in the water
Location: California
Registered: July 2018
Messages: 39



As this is Pedro's topic, and as he stated, "C[/font-size]learly this thread could drift in all sorts of directions,"  I think it only fair and proper that I drift.  Uh, that the topic be drifted.  Drifted?  Odd looking word. Anyway.

He, Pedro, started this thread writing about Books and Covers. That's where I want this to drift.  Any objections?  No?  Then I'll continue.

It was clearly stated that this challenge would end on the 30th of last month.  So I diligently went to work and wrote a wonderful story (poetic license is allowed here, right?) and submitted it before the deadline.  Now, due to some flimsy and very dubious excuse concerning computer problems--we've all heard that one before, right?--it seems the deadline is being extended to allow others to participate in this challege.

Unfair, I shout.  Mine was the only entry upload by the 30th.  That means I win, by default.  I don't see how anyone can challenge this statement.  Now, Pedro seems to be trying to slip in fraudently by saying he's written something for the challenge, trying a bit desparately it seems to me to make us think he beat the deadline.  Uh, no.  The story was supposed to be done by the 30th and uploaded.  It wasn't.  Late comers top the party are excluded! Better luck next time, old chap, and here here.

So I win.  I think everyone here can accept that.  Fair's fair.

C[/font-size]
 

[Updated on: Sat, 02 October 2021 01:34]

Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78155 is a reply to message #78154] Sat, 02 October 2021 06:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Pedro

Toe is in the water

Registered: March 2014
Messages: 94



Ha!

So Cole has revealed himself to be the class swot, who submitted a story almost before the ink was dry on Timmy's post announcing the current challenge -A Walk in the Country.

He is also playing a game of Aunt Sally, as the thread topic relates to the previous challenge. 

And you can't win, Cole, cos it's not a competition. So there! Nah nah nan nah na!
 
....
Aunt Sally is a competition though: 
https://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Aunt-Sally.htm
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J0OIdpflVdk




Pedro
icon6.gif Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78156 is a reply to message #78154] Sat, 02 October 2021 09:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ivor slipper is currently offline  ivor slipper

Likes it here

Registered: September 2013
Messages: 128



Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was e;
But then he had doubts, and lt oheut a howl
As a fiddle he thought he could see.
The contest was fixed,
And his entry was nixed!
The merriment went, because it was bent,
So a message of protest he sent.

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

[Updated on: Sat, 02 October 2021 09:42]

Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78157 is a reply to message #78156] Sat, 02 October 2021 13:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
joecasey is currently offline  joecasey

Toe is in the water
Location: American Midwest
Registered: December 2017
Messages: 44



Well, heck ... if there are prizes involved in these contests, I'm definitely interested.

Even outside of a migration to a new server (never easy), hasn't Timmy extended story challenge deadlines in the past, especially if there's only one entrant by the cut-off date?
Re: Life as strange as fiction : Books and Covers  [message #78158 is a reply to message #78157] Sat, 02 October 2021 14:12 Go to previous message
Mark

Likes it here
Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 279



"joecasey wrote on Sat, 02 October 2021 07:36"
Even outside of a migration to a new server (never easy), hasn't Timmy extended story challenge deadlines in the past, especially if there's only one entrant by the cut-off date?


--

As my aging memory serves me, that has indeed happened on occasion in the past.
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