Yes. Of course, Elliot Page will have regrets. Everyone has regrets.
No one really reaches old age without any regrets, it’s just not a thing that
happens. One day you’re seventy, or eighty, and you think of how quickly time has
gone by. All the things you did and didn’t do. You feel sad. Amazed. Blessed.
You feel a multitude of things. We all do.
So when actress Ellen Page decided to become
actor Elliot Page? Yeah, that was wild. But in the grand scheme of things, who
really cares? People do all sorts of things, for all sorts of reasons. In the
end, whatever feels right, is right, as long as it does not harm other people.
And if one day our decisions come to haunt us, and we regret them, that’s on
each and every one of us. We bear that responsibility.
You’re asking if Elliot Page will regret identifying as a man. And having
surgery. And taking hormones. Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe rain, maybe snow. But
regrets, in a more general sense? Definitely.
What People
Say:
Eliot Sorde
I think trans
people are generally less confused
about gender. I’m a man. I have no idea whether I really “feel like a man” deep
down inside or whether I just go along with it because people have always told
me “You have a penis, you’re a man” and I’d be equally fine being a woman. Trans
people, on the other hand, generally have a strong internal sense of what
gender they really are,
even if it doesn’t match their body. You may not want to be trans yourself (I
don’t) but describing it as “confusion” seems inaccurate.
Saul Martino
Well, a
discussion on semantics is fine. In defense of my use of the word, confusion is that clearly, a trans person is in the body of sex they don’t
feel fits their mental self-image. Now the fact is they are not physically
the opposite sex but somehow they are certain that this other sex is what they
were meant to be. They reject the physical reality of their biology in
favour of what they PERCEIVE to be the other sex. Frankly they do not know
what a man feels like having a penis and being manly. They simply feel their
current body is wrong and they any what they see in the opposite sex. As a man, I am often told I cannot know what it feels like to be a woman but now when the
shoe is on the other foot suddenly they know better than me what being a man feels like.
Like without them ever having been a man or a teenage boy. What THEY know
better than me is how it feels to be in a self-perceived wrong body and have an
overwhelming desire to be the sexual identity they also perceive to be correct (without
having truly known what it feels. Like it’s intuition and instinct, not real
experience). I think this is within the bounds of confusion. It’s not
meant to be dismissive of their self-beliefs or tenacity but it’s the word I
use. It’s challenging in concept and execution I would say too. I am open
to discussing the accuracy of the word but I don’t feel it is insulting or wildly inaccurate. I
am not that invested in this entire concept but somehow it’s gone down a rabbit
hole of hypersensitive zealots taking offense no matter how you phrase
it. I think my statements are factually correct without demeaning the
sensitivities of the people who are trans.
Ewe Yu Yie
Most transgender
I know live in a “in-between” place. Most are stuck there because they don’t have
the means to jump to the other side while some tough it out and become who they
are with what they are physically born with. Elliot/ Ellen Page has the means
to jump to the other side and become who he/she think and wanted to be.
Regrets? I think not. Many people like her think about what they want to do
million times in their heads before making the leap…they know what they are
getting themselves into.
