Oli London is on This Morning now

[StrawberryLipstickStateOfMind]

Is anyone else watching?

Hopefully this is just more sunlight on the ridiculousness of everything right now. Discussing the criticism Oli has received for identifying as Korean and Oli compared it to trans.

Oli London needs an intervention, poor lad.

Missed this but saw a YouTube video earlier and the creator (and commenters) argued that ethnicity is hereditary and fixed so you can't change it. But somehow trans is personal to you and internal, so you can do what you like or something.

I have yet to hear a cogent argument for why trans is ok for sex/gender but not for anything else...

Agree with both of those comments.

I feel for Oli, he must be getting a lot of abuse right now which no one deserves.

I would have thought that the opposite of what the TRAs are saying is true: that a term like "Korean" (or "British" or "German") is vaguer and more malleable than a term like "female" or "male".
For a start there are at least two different ways of conceiving Koreanness: (a) legal nationality/citizenship, (b) ethnicity/descent, each of which could exist without the other, and which are very different. I think there are other definitions that could reasonably be added: what if someone was brought into the country illegally at the age of 1 and wholly raised and socialised as a Korean - might they not reasonably consider themselves a Korean despite neither having legal status nor having Korean ancestry?

One doesn't have to sympathise with Oli's claim to see that there is legitimate room for debate about what a Korean is and it's potentially quite an elastic concept.
By contrast until the last few decade or two there has never been much doubt about what a female or a male is.

@transdimensional you've raised some good points there.

I can't speak for anyone else but imagine for people with parents from two different countries etc, they feel a link to different nationalities and cultures, even perhaps without spending time in one or even both of the countries. Or someone who has lived a long time in a country different from their birth country. Nationality seems to have more possibilities.

Male and female just don't.

@FlyPassed

Missed this but saw a YouTube video earlier and the creator (and commenters) argued that ethnicity is hereditary and fixed so you can't change it. But somehow trans is personal to you and internal, so you can do what you like or something.

I have yet to hear a cogent argument for why trans is ok for sex/gender but not for anything else...

Sex is hereditary too, except it always comes from the Prostate Haver Penis Bearer Father.

I watched and it was Interesting to hear his narrative and the reaction to it.
I did t like his use of “play the race card “

As JKR said, call yourself what you like, wear what you like - who cares? It matters when you try and claim access to services, positions, language or spaces that belong only to that group based solely on your inner identity. As Rachel dozeal (sp?) did when she claimed a position designated for a woc. And as, oh I don't know, some people might do in other situations...

@Rummikub

I watched and it was Interesting to hear his narrative and the reaction to it. I did t like his use of “play the race card “

I picked up on him saying that and flinched!

Gosh he was very open about none of it leading to happiness and the happy feeling being only temporary.

@AdjustableAssholeSettings we all know that, but for some reason gender identity theorists don't!

That twit isn't Korean. Silly boy.

These kids on the other hand...

Phil quoted Sandra Song who wrote

As someone who actually has Korean DNA though, I can say that some white fetishist — as proven by those 18 surgeries to look like Jimin — suddenly deeming themself "Korean" is incredibly offensive, especially since it effectively trivializes our identities because they're suddenly "trendy.

Would that statement be acceptable if 'Korean' were replaced by 'female'?

I thought the exact same thing @Thingybob.

Exactly what I was thinking

He should offer to swap places with someone from North Korea. Anything to help him live his authentic life.

I mean, he's not just identifying as Korean, but South Korean, and the kind of South Korean who would get into a boy band. We seem to have a generation of young people who think that the life you want can be surgically created.

His mental illness is being exploited for clicks and ratings.

I mean, he's not just identifying as Korean, but South Korean, and the kind of South Korean who would get into a boy band. We seem to have a generation of young people who think that the life you want can be surgically created.

Because they exist in a virtual world and it's easy to change your avatar, why not your real life identity.

@Thingybob

Phil quoted Sandra Song who wrote

As someone who actually has Korean DNA though, I can say that some white fetishist — as proven by those 18 surgeries to look like Jimin — suddenly deeming themself "Korean" is incredibly offensive, especially since it effectively trivializes our identities because they're suddenly "trendy.

Would that statement be acceptable if 'Korean' were replaced by 'female'?

Damn right it's acceptable.