Acceptance Isn’t Meant To Be Unconditional

Arizona, 1985. Dennis Avner receives the first of several facial tattoos that will transform him into his alter ego, Stalking Cat. He also has his septum removed to make his nose flatter, gets transdermal implants in his brow and upper lip so he can attach whiskers, and has his ears and teeth sharpened into points. 

And predictably enough, the “normies” start whining about their “concerns.” Some, like Glenn McGee, director of the Center for Bioethics at Albany Medical College, even suggest that the surgeries are unethical:

Cosmetic surgery is a practice based on informed consent that needs to balance the risks with the benefits. It is possible to have a coherent view that is nonetheless detrimental to one's well-being. This is a patient who's being harmed by medicine in the interest of his tradition.

Luckily, all the cool, open-minded people respect his journey. They invite him onto talk shows, feature him on the cover of magazines and cheer his wacky antics. Right up until the moment he kills himself.

France, 1990. Ève Valois, better known as Lolo Ferrari, undergoes the first of twenty-two breast enlargement surgeries, expanding her bust from 37D to an estimated 36T. Her breasts are so big that she can't sleep on her stomach or her back as their weight interferes with her breathing. 

But after twenty-five additional surgeries on her lips, cheeks, nose, forehead, eyebrows and stomach, there are subtle signs that her repeated and drastic medical interventions are a symptom of a deeper problem:

All this stuff has been because I can't stand life. But it hasn't changed anything. There are moments when I disconnect totally from reality. Then I can do anything, absolutely anything. I swallow pills. I throw myself out of windows. Dying seems very easy then.

Luckily, Lolo’s cool, open-minded fans are more interested in her body than her mind. They delight as she parades herself on TV, support her fledgling porn career, and applaud her increasingly extreme behaviour. Right up until the moment she kills herself.

Guadalajara, 2014. Anthony Loffredo begins the Black Alien Project, the manifestation of his desire to "become less human.”

After tattooing his entire body black, getting subdermal implants in his head, and removing his ears, nostrils, lips and several of his fingers, Loffredo admits that he’s struggling to find work. But that doesn't stop his cool, open-minded followers from encouraging him to try even more extreme modifications like splitting his penis in two and amputating one of his legs. 

After all, it's not like he's going to do all that and then change his min...oh, wait, he did:

This project to which I gave everything, love, passion, determination, strength, has lost its meaning over the years [...] one thing is for sure I no longer want to touch my body or take anything off or put anything on, I am putting an end to the modification of my body for the moment I no longer like this world, I'm going to finish my full black all over the body and finish for the moment like this.

Well...at least he can just regrow his fingers and ears. 

We live in an age of radical acceptance. 

Are you a schizophrenic who doesn’t feel like taking your antipsychotics? Good for you! Unmedicated schizophrenia is just a “different way to be.” Are you a violent, mentally unstable man threatening to kill people on a subway? Live your truth! Only a racist would feel threatened by that behaviour. Do you think it should be illegal for human beings to have sex with animals? Bigot. “Who are any of us to say what they can do?” 

Political correctness really did go mad. Only instead of “mad,” you have to say “surprising” or “wild” in case you “trivialise the experiences of people living with mental health problems.”

But what does it mean to trivialise mental health problems?