Weird twin stories

A very young American woman called Nadya Suleman, with a pretty face and lips full of Botox (I'm sure her idea was to look like Angelina Jolie), gave birth to eight babies on January 2009. All of them survived. Normally, most of the "members" of a set of octuplets or nonuplets do not survive for more than a few days or even die during birth. A week after birth, the Suleman set became the longest-living octuplets in known history.
But the American society couldn't deal with the fact that Nadya was a single mother, without a stable employment and with already 6 children at home! There was no forgiveness for her. America hated her. In the media it was calculated how much her 14 children would cost her in the future and what amount of money she would receive from the government to support her children. The average US citizen was upset about the fact that he/she had to support this irresponsible girl's huge family with his/her taxes. For Nadya, what was most important, was that she'd be able to provide her litter with love, love and love.




In 2006, twin brothers Alexander and Nicholas Grunke were "arrested in Wisconsin, USA, after they tried to dig up a girls' corpse and have sex with it" (or her?).

Photo by Grant County Jail via AP

Nicholas had seen a photo of a girl of his age who had been killed in a motocycle crash. He got sexually excited by her beauty and by the fact that she was just there, in the cemetery, and still fresh and untouched by worms and other necro-bugs. What is funny about twins is that he had no problem at all to convince his twin brother (plus another friend) to immediately drive to the graveyard and start to dig the girl up for the purpose of having sex with her lifeless body. On the way, they stopped at Wal-Mart to buy condoms (can you understand now why there is a page called www.peopleofwalmart.com?).
Lucky them, necrophilia is not illegal in Wisconsin. I'm sure the guys would have had a great time in jail after trying to rape fresh corpse...
Read more about the case

It seems like in Bali, when twins of different gender (kembar buntijing) are born, they are forced to marry. Normally, incest isn't ok, but if destiny brings together a male and a female human being in one single womb - it's just a match made in heaven and has to be respected! The marriage brings prosperity. This only happens in high caste families. In the rest of society, the birth of mixed twins is considered a bad omen for the family, and the whole village becomes "unclean" from that moment on. It is blamed on the father who has to spend a lot of money (even selling his land or becoming a slave) to pay for a very expensive purification ceremony.

At "Weird America" I found this funny vintage-style video on the Poubelle Twins - two weird female wrestlers. A lot of twins have chosen to become successful in the world of entertainment.




In December 2005, a Romanian woman of 33 years, Maricica Tescu, pregnant with twins, gave birth to only one, premature baby. His twin brother preferred to stay in his cozy cave until two months later, already in 2006. This was possible because of a rare congenital condition: Maricica had two uteruses, and one baby in each.

Another story about one twin brother leading astray the other....
We have two 26-years-old very hot mulato twins. And they know how hot they are. As teenagers, they were quite different. One of them, Keyon, was effeminate, gay and looking for a career as a model. His brother Taleon was always in trouble and hadn't decided what to do in life.
At the age of about 25, the gay one, Keyon, was offered a "role" in a gay porn movie. When the producer heard he had a twin brother, he wanted both of them. Incredible, but true: he convinced Taleon, who was not gay, to make porn together in a threesome with another man (with whom the poor hetero twin ended up having sex, while his brother was assisting).
It was just for money. Just one job. They thought. But being handsome black identical twins opened them the doors to success in the porn industry. But they could be too easily recognized...
Now it was Taleon's turn to convince Keyon to join his games. Taleon, who wasn't eager to end up being a gay porn star, but needed money urgently, planned to rob a business together with his brother. At the end, Taleon was caught and Keyon escaped, now trying to restart his modeling career.
Two identical twins with different characters. Both have tasted a sample of their other half's life - temporarily. More

In November 2008, a woman in Ohio gave birth to her own, triplet, granddaughters.
Her daughter Kim, married to her second husband, had already two children from her first marriage and couldn't carry a child anymore. As adoption was difficult, 56-years-old Jaci Dalenberg offered herself as surrogate mom. After the third try to transfer eggs, the grandmother got pregnant and managed to give birth to three premature female babies: a set of twins and a singleton. CBS News

The Siamese twins Abby & Brittany turn 20 this year. Normally we always get to see images of Siamese baby twins, but what happens in adolescence? How do they dress, what happens if they have a crush on someone at college? How do they coordinate their arms? What about passing an exam without cheating?
This video was made when they turned 16.







Last year, 20 year-old Mia Washington gave birth to two twin boys in Dallas, Texas. When the boys were almost one year old, she realized that they looked very different. So she decided to get the paternity test. And - surprise, surprise - the twin boys have different fathers!
How the hell is this possible???
To make this possible, Mia had to
1. Produce multiple eggs while ovulating
2. have (you know what I mean) first with one man (her partner) and then, within not more than 48 hours, with another one
And the semen of both sexual partners had to fertilize one of Mia's eggs.
Funny coincidence, but quite embarrassing for her...

This last video is the sad story of five girl born in 1934. At that time, the Dionne quintuplets. At this time, they were considered nothing but a kind of circus attraction and were exploited by the local authorities. Their image was used to promote a wide range of commercial products and until they were nine they weren't allowed to live with their parents.

Gender Identity

Most of us are lucky. Most of us have "chosen" to be the gender that matches our bodies' sex. We are born as girls or as boys and feel as such. Pink or blue.
But, due to physiological or psychological reasons, some are yellow. As there is grey between black and white, yellow can be found between the gender extremes painted in pink or blue.

Thomas Beatie, the "pregnant man" is one of the best examples. Just listen to the charming lady who interviews him at the beginning of the video. She clearly shows the intolerance of these people's environment. It's not just about being pregnant while living as a man. It's also about much simpler, everyday issues, such as a woman having to show an ID with a male name, or the last facial hair on the chin of a young transgender childminder...



Intersex

How can we tell that somebody is a man or a woman? Some men can perfectly disguise as and behave as women and are still physically male, so how do we know?
If we look at our chromosomes, a typical woman should have 2 X chromosomes and an average man an X and a Y chromosome. That means, that genetically, a standard woman has a so-called “46XX” karyotype and a standard man a 46XY karyotype.
But gender is not only defined by chromosomes, but only by hormones and, as we will see later, by the brain.


An intersex condition is present if the karyotype is neither XX nor XY or if the chromosomes are normal male or female but the individual hasn't been exposed to the correct hormones during the fetal development, producing genitals belonging to the opposite sex or any kind of mixture of male and female characteristics.
These latter would be called true hermaphrodites. Many people have an additional sex chromosome but still have a well defined gender. XYY men, for example, usually don't even know about their condition. It is said that these men are more violent and have stronger masculine traits than other, but there is no evidence. XXY males instead are almost always infertile and can have a range of learning and functional deficits. This is called the Klinefelter's Syndrome (in the photo) and does not occurr in all XXY males. Some of them may also turn out to be transgenders.

Normally, if a baby is diagnosed to be intersex, the big problem is to assign one of the two (accepted) genders. Nowadays, doctors are recommended that babies with ambiguous genitals should not be given "corrective" surgery (to turn a hermaphrodite into a man or woman) and should be left to decide their own gender during their childhood. However, most of the intersex people are raised as girls or boys from the very beginning on and also perfectly identify themselves as such.

In the case of Adele, the decision taken by the doctors and the parents was wrong. When she was born with ambiguous genitals, it was decided to turn her into a boy. The decision was maybe right from the physical point of view, but with time, it became evident that Adele felt as a girl. In the future, she would like to be able to choose an intersex gender, the third gender.



The person in the video is one of the few people that are real "in-betweens". If you look at her (the name is Kelly), she may look like a transgender man at first sight, but if you observe her gestures, you will realize that there's just both - female and male.



Transgenders

Some people are biologically male or female but feel belonging to the opposite sex almost from the very beginning on. They are called transgenders.

Sometimes, when intersex children are born, the more convenient of the two gender options is chosen (corrective surgery), and if the wrong decision is taken, the children have to live their lives as transgenders, trapped in a body of the wrong sex.
It was long believed that gender identity is only a question of environment. If a child is raised as a girl, it will be a girl. The case shown in the video is quite dramatic: two twin babies undergo circumcision and one loses his penis due to an accident during the surgery. The doctors encourage the parents to raise the child as a girl...




Nowadays, there are medical protocols to diagnose the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and to help children find the gender that fits them. Sometimes, the disorder becomes evident at an age as early as two years. Parents are encouraged not to force their children to live their biological gender if they don't feel so. Before puberty, many doctors choose the option of a hormonal treatment to delay the physiological changes that turn a child into an adult - an adult of the wrong gender. At the age o 16, if the patient hasn't changed his/her mind, female or male hormones can be prescribed. The last step is sex reassignment surgery, which in serious cases is financed by the public health system (in Europe).


It is often said that transgender children commonly turn homosexuals in adulthood. I consider this a completely false approach. If a child born as a boy but feeling as a girl grows up, it is just natural that she feels attracted to men. Because in my opinion, our gender identity is in our head, so a transgender boy cannot be considered gay at all, because at the end of the day, he's soul is female and he's done everything to turn his body female, too.

From the news:
In March 2010, Italy will open the World's first jail for transgendered prisoners (read more)

Transsexuals

Of course there are what we commonly know as crossdressers or transsexuals, most of them working in the entertainment sector. Most of them are not real transgenders. They have been (homosexual) boys / men during a great part of their life and feel attracted by dressing as a woman. Some of them would have preferred to be born as a girl, others not.

Thailand

Talking about entertainment. One of the countries were transgenders are most accepted and integrated in society is Thailand. Recently, a school announced that from now on, it will offer toilets for transexuals. There is a complete industry to turn effeminate boys into kathoeys, or ladyboys. Even though the fate of most of them is to sell their body for money, some manage to gain fame as exotic dancers or beauty queens. Many families try to raise their boys as girls, as prostitution in Thailand is one of the most lucrative businesses.
The video shows a collection of sexy Thai kathoeys. I just can't believe how beautiful and perfectly female some of them look. Some may consider them "improved women" - the delightful and stimulating appearance of a goddess combined with the right tool to satisfy the client's or partner's sexual needs. And a lot of them have natural breasts due to hormone intake since their puberty.




From the news:
An English grandmother claims she was bound, beaten and robbed by a gang of ladyboys while on holiday in Thailand (read more)

Links

Transgendered children's bill of human rights
Intersex Society of North America
A true hermaphrodite over the years (in pictures)
Transsexuals, transgendered and crossdressers dating
Ladyboy beauty contest (video)

Weird career opportunities

Odor judger

Odor judges are employed in research labs: basically, they have to smell things and judge the smells. Guess what these lucky employees have to smell when it's a new deodorant that is being tested ...
Or when it comes to test analyze other odor-reducing products such as mouthwash or chewing-gums: there is always somebody who has to confirm the improvement of the stinky morning breath after using the product. Even the dog food industry needs good noses. To test the effect of an animal's diet on its teeth, nothing more effective and simple than smelling the pet's breath.
And of course farts can tell a lot about the interior "life" of a person: Gastroenterologist Michael Levitt's "assistants" tested the farts of 16 volunteers after eating pinto beans. The farts were "trapped" in a container and the odor judges had to rate each sample (of about a 100) before they were chemically analyzed. Myum!


Crime-scene cleanup

Working in Grisham's CSI team is glamorous: a lot of state-of-the-art tech-toys to play with, cool sunglasses, handsome colleagues. But once the cool guys leave, the poor boys of the cleaning service have to deal with the left-overs: not only blood, but also pieces of flesh, brain, teeth, hair or body liquids have to be removed. Wearing a disposable safety jumpsuit, they are the ones to leave no evidence of a suicide, a drive-by or a train accident.




Nun importer: In Europe, the church has a great need of young nuns to fill its convents. Once I talked to a guy who traveled to South America several times a year to recruit candidates and export them overseas. To be a pet detective or an ostrich babysitter sounds actually quite curious, as well.

Bolivian female wrestler

Bolivian indigenous women, the cholitas, are very picturesque, with their multi-layered skirts, colorful scarfs and bowler hats. But they also lead a hard life in poverty, taking care of their many children, and often sharing their lives with violent husbands.
But there are exceptions: some of these women are strong, impulsive and sometimes even aggressive (watch this video of the TV-show "Laura in America to see what I mean).
Organizers of Bolivian wrestling of El Alto (near La Paz) have introduced the innovation of fighting cholitas. Ms Choque (34, 150 pounds) or Marta (167 pounds) are some of the stars. Besides keeping the household and caring for their children and husband, they support a tough training regimen in cold gyms and a weekly hike up a 15-000-foot peak.
They can't make a living wrestling, so most of them have a second job or are supported by their husbands. But it's definitively a good extra income and it hopefully helps them control their aggressions in daily life.

• Short doc "The fighting cholitas" (2006, Mariam Jobrani)

Animal masturbator

This is actually a quite common task for vets. When it comes to breeding of big animals, reproduction is usually assisted or in vitro. That means that semen has to be collected from the males. The human technique of masturbation is not very efficient in bulls, so the alternative is to stimulate a zone similar to a woman's G point. This is done by introducing an electric probe or simply the vet's fist into the animal's rectum until it eyaculates. A more entertaining technique is to use a semen collector disguised as a cow: the bull believes he's actually copulating and introduces his penis into a hole. It's now the vet (or usually his assistant)'s turn to provide the bull with a traditional masturbation and collect the semen.




Other interesting career opportunities may be found in the food and cosmetic industry. What about becoming a dog food tester or, even better, a tampon tester? And I could think of a lot of other products that have to be tested before they leave the factory...
A very uncommon professional is the snake "milker": I've seen that once, definitively an interesting experience. For the production of antidotes, a snake's venom is extracted every few weeks. The poison is lethal (if an anti-venom is not injected immediately) and many of the biologists or vets working with these Ophidia have lost some of their fingers after being biten.


Sewage diver

To dive in shit. These brave people are in charge of fixing or cleaning anything situated inside a pit of sewage. Only the best and bravest professional divers can be hired for this job. Sewage (water-carried wastes: the shit you flush down the toilet) can be quite dense and often divers actually walk rather than swim through a completely opaque mud. They can stay under sewage for up to four hours. Of course no smells can reach them inside their astronaut-like suits, but claustrophoby can be a serious problem. Regarding the odor, the hardest job is the people who have to wash them down and clean them up after diving in liquid poo for hours.
The worst thing that can happen is the suit being torn and flooded - that would be extremely dangerous due to the numerous diseases floating in the waste soup.