A 69-year-old Dutch man is going to court to try and get his legal age changed in order to make him 49, because he doesn’t feel ‘comfortable’ with his actual date of birth. And he compared it to being transgender, because of course he did.
Emile Ratelband has made headlines around the world after launching a legal battle to change his birthdate from 11 March 1949, to 11 March 1969. He’s said that his age does not reflect his emotional state, and that when he’s honest about his age on Tinder, he doesn’t get any responses.
According to The Guardian, Ratelband said:
“When I’m 69, I am limited. If I’m 49, then I can buy a new house, drive a different car. I can take up more work. When I’m on Tinder and it says I’m 69, I don’t get an answer. When I’m 49, with the face I have, I will be in a luxurious position.”
How do you do, fellow kids?
For evidence, he’s said that doctors have told him he has the body of a 45-year-old man. I feel like the doctors weren’t factoring in his grey hair, beard, and wrinkled forehead when they said that. Despite all of this, he describes himself as a ‘young god’. I guess he is young compared to Jesus.
If his goal was to fly under the radar à la Liza from Younger, he’s kind of shot himself in the foot by taking the issue to court and letting the media get ahold of the story. Now every potential Tinder date will be able to Google him, and many will recognise him right off the bat. This was not a well-thought-out plan.
Speaking to the court, he said, “We live in a time when you can change your name and change your gender. Why can’t I decide my own age?”
I don’t have any desire to explain to this guy how age and gender are different, but they are (the short version is that gender is performative – how we present ourselves to the world – and time isn’t).
I feel for him that it’s difficult to find work as a man of his age – I know other people in their 60s who are having the same problem. But that’s something that needs to be addressed on a systemic level, not on a case-by-case basis that involves everyone over the age of 45 using the courts for their own ends; employers need to be held accountable if they discriminate against someone based on age.
The local court in the Dutch city of Arnhem is expected to rule on the case within the next month.