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• Saturday, December 10, 2005 07:16 AM

  Monty Python already covered this

  When I read Conley's original op-ed piece, this scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian immediately popped into my head. Conley's argument doesn't advance the one proposed by "Loretta" thousands of years ago.

  FRANCIS: Why are you always on about women, Stan?

  STAN: I want to be one.

  REG: What?

  STAN: I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me 'Loretta'.

  REG: What?!

  LORETTA: It's my right as a man.

  JUDITH: Well, why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?

  LORETTA: I want to have babies.

  REG: You want to have babies?!

  LORETTA: It's every man's right to have babies if he wants them.

  REG: But... you can't have babies.

  LORETTA: Don't you oppress me.

  REG: I'm not oppressing you, Stan. You haven't got a womb! Where's the foetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?!

  LORETTA: [crying]

  JUDITH: Here! I-- I've got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can't actually have babies, not having a womb, which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans', but that he can have the right to have babies.

  FRANCIS: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother. Sister. Sorry.

  REG: What's the point?

  FRANCIS: What?

  REG: What's the point of fighting for his right to have babies when he can't have babies?!

  FRANCIS: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.

  REG: Symbolic of his struggle against reality.

  —my3sons Read my3sons's other letters
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