100% Able-Bodied Woman Claims She Is "Transabled" And Lives Her Life As A Disabled Person
Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) is a rare and complex disorder characterized usually by an otherwise physically healthy individual who desperately desires and identifies as someone who is without a limb or experiencing another significant disability like being blind or a paraplegic. While the disorder is still undergoing a lot of extensive research as people try to understand what leads an individual to this path, some suffering are trying to take things into their own hands.
While most people who are or have acted on their obsession put a lot of effort into remaining anonymous, 61-year-old chemist, Chloe Jennings-White from Salt Lake City, Utah has been very open with the media about her desires to be a paraplegic and live her life in a wheelchair.
Many of these individuals, Chloe included, are labelling themselves as "trans-abled," a term that attempts to establish a link similar to gender dysphoria. However, according to Baril, a scholar of feminist, gender and sexuality studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut who is both disabled and transgender, says that both communities have tried "to distance themselves,” because:
They tend to see transabled people as dishonest people, people who try to steal resources from the community, people who would be disrespectful by denying or fetishizing or romanticizing disability reality.Jennings-White told ABC4.com:
When I'min the wheelchair, I'm not even thinking about the wheelchair... it’s just normal for me, but anytime I’m walking it’s always in my mind, sometimes dominating my mind, that this is not the way it’s supposed to be.Chloe also says that she was only 4-years old when she first consciously decided that nature made a mistake by giving her working legs and she was a mere 9-years old when she first attempted to permanently injure herself by riding her bicycle off of a stage that she had set up in a park. Not only did the attempt not work, leaving her with nothing more than "scrapes and bruises," but Jennings-White realized that she could have ended up paralyzed from the neck down instead and she definitely did not want that.
Chloe Jennings-WhiteAs a serious, life-threatening self injury is unlikely, Jennings-White actually hopes to find a doctor who will sever her sciatic and femoral nerves but the only physician with low enough ethics is somewhere "overseas" and it would cost her a staggering $25,000, something she says she doesn't have. She refers to this surgery as a pipe dream. She told News.au.com:
I’ll never be able to afford it, but I know I won’t regret it if I ever can, and I don’t know why it upsets people. It’s the same as a transsexual man having his penis cut off. It’s never coming back, but they know it’s what they want.
TwitterWith some support from her wife, the Cambridge University graduate participates in risky outdoor activities, hoping for an accident:
I ski extremely fast, and aim for the most dangerous runs. Doing any activity that brings a chance of me becoming paraplegic gives me a sense of relief from the anxiety caused by the BIID.
Daily MailWhile Chloe used to live her fantasy out in private, when she learned about BIID she felt validated in her long-term feelings that her body was not as it was supposed to be and became more open:
The chair gives me psychological relief, instead of physical. I know it can be difficult for people without BIID to understand, but it's what we feel.
Daily Mail"Difficult to understand" is definitely an understatement. As people across the world discovered people like Chloe they were floored.
TwitterEspecially vocally outraged are those suffering legitimate disabilities.
TwitterOf course that's not all, some have been quick to point out how difficult "invisible" disablities like autoimmune diseases are to live with. Seeing people claim to be "trans-abled" and pretending to be disabled is like a slap in the face to people still struggling to deal with the stigmas of their every day, unavoidable issues.
TwitterMost people just do not get it.
TwitterSome people have even gone so far as to assert people like Chloe should be made an example of.
Twitter
On one hand, it's nice that the medical and psychological community is attempting to research BIID further.
On the other hand, it's hard not to wonder if people like Chloe are taking away from people who have no choice but to suffer and/or cope with a situation out of their control.
What do you think?
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