Vinny Ohh, a
22-year-old make-up artist from Los Angeles, has spent about $50,000 on plastic
surgery to become a “genderless extra-terrestrial.”
“According to the Toronto Sun, Vinny
said, “I want to be a sexless alien being, I want my outside to reflect how I
feel on the inside.”
He was also quoted saying, “When
people ask me how I’d label myself, I tell them an ‘extra-terrestrial, hot
mess, self-obsessed,’ it’s becoming my slogan.”
© Caters News Agency (Vinny Ohh)
Vinny shared how the idea fro his
transformation stemmed from his feeling like an outcast in society while
growing up. He is now an LGBT+ activist.
“I do it to inspire the world in a
certain way,” he said. “I want people to stop labelling others or putting them
in boxes.”
“I’m trying to wake people up to
show them that gender roles in society do not matter and show them that we need
to be better human beings and nicer to one another.”
“I am used to not fitting in.”
Vinny received varying reactions
from the public. Some adore his unusual appearance and boldness, while others
scream insults.
Today, I will be raising many
questions. It may seem like a rant, but I encourage you to separate each
question for consideration. The fundamental question we are centering around
here is: “How should we, as followers of Christ, respond to something like
this?”
Vinny is one in millions of people
who grew up feeling different and still do, except that he is also one of the
few who celebrate that feeling in such extravagant ways. How should we respond
to someone like Vinny who identifies as a human being and yet rejects the body
of one? How should we respond to a person who views gender and sexuality not as
a gift but as a restriction? Better yet, to what extent can we righteously
celebrate our differences?
Which kinds of people admire his
actions? Which ones despise him? Between these two extreme reactions, where do
you and I stand? Should we be standing anywhere on that spectrum at all, given
that the middle ground would be indifference? If his appearance is meant to
reflect how he feels on the inside, then he has given us an opportunity to look
into his heart. So what do you and I see? A rebel? A derelict? An alien?
What is he searching for? According
to interviews, it seems that he is striving to be understood and to help others
like him to be understood as well. I, for one, understand how it feels to be
different and have that sense of alienation screaming at you in the face, and
feeling that no one else knows about it. However, is it possible that Vinny’s
physical transformation is also a retaliation? Isn’t retaliation just another
reaction? How does the number of people in this world who react compare to the
number of people who respond? Question: who can best understand people like him
who feels this way? And if we know the Person who understands, who are we in
relation to Him? What does it mean to be the body of Christ, His physical
presence?
We have the same
problems as everyone else; we struggle with the same feelings and retaliation
to those feelings. But we have something else too, don’t we? What do we have
that the world doesn’t? What do you and I have that Vinny doesn’t seem to have?
What do you and I have that the boy or girl next door doesn’t have?
In a world of
reactions, how should we respond?
How would Christ
respond?
Blessings,
Nathanael Chong