Men's Health magazine has been in the news lately because of a contest in which people can vote on who will be on the magazine's cover. Currently leading in the voting is a transgender person who was assumed to be of female gender at birth, but has since transitioned and identifies as male. There is a picture circulating of this person without a shirt. The person looks very much like a (very muscular) man, even with facial hair. So my question is, would looking at this person's male-looking chest constitute viewing erva?
That is, for the purpose of technical prohibitions involved with observing erva, does this person's body count as a female erva or not? This is a particular detail of a more general question about how Jewish law views the gender of a transgender individual, and it may well be distinct from other considerations, since it specifically concerns the body itself and observation thereof by others.
As a tack-on to this question, would looking at the chest of a person who was formerly considered male but transitioned and is now considered female be considered viewing erva?
No comments:
Post a Comment