TranSage

 

This is Marianna. Marianna is TranSage. Marianna was born in 1964, but she doesn’t feel 54. She’s always hung out with people younger than herself, using the same slang phrases and jargon as people half her age. Marianna knows all about the latest up-to-date technology and social media. Her clothes are the latest fashions. In fact, Marianna feels uncomfortable and awkward around people who were born around the same time as her. They seem boring, staid and she doesn’t share their interests and goals.

Marianna works out and is careful what she eats. She buys a lot of expensive body lotions and uses hair colourants to cover up her spattering of grey. She has good genes too. Marianna’s skin is great. People often think her 37 year old stalker is her older sister. Marianna can dance half the night without getting tired and run for the bus without getting out of breath. She listens to Radio X. Marianna can drink five bottles of WKD and snort a line of coke and go to work the next day without a hangover. Her doctor says she has the liver of someone half her age.

Marianna wants to get her passport changed to say she was born in 1971. Why shouldn’t she? She identifies and presents as someone much younger than herself. Why should society’s narrow view of what a 47 year old should be restrict her like this? People’s refusal to tell Marianna that she actually really is 47 really upsets her and she has become depressed recently. She knows how she feels. Marianna says that society’s refusal to let her change her age is oppressive and cruel.

Should we all be obliged to tell Marianna she is 47?
If not, why not?