I was reading this Sullivan post in which he references the transgendered — and one transgendered “fellow” in particular who’s an academic. I don’t have much to say about Sullivan’s point, but it reminded me of something that I’ve noticed before. It seems like a disproportionate number of the people who undergo sexual reassignment are academics. I have no idea if this is objectively true or simply a result of media coverage. But it strikes me as interesting nonetheless. If it’s objectively true — that professorial types are overrepresented in the ranks of the sexually reassigned — then that might tell us something about the underlying, overly intellectualized, impulses driving the decision. If, on the other hand, the media has simply chosen academics to be the poster-persons for this practice, that would be interesting too. My guess is it’s a mixture of both. Academic communities in America today would logically be the most supportive of such undertakings. College towns, moreover, are almost unique in America for their ability to blur the distinctions between work and community, making the transition — and talking to the media — that much easier. Professors can articulate their decisions and desires better than your average person.

One of the more interesting parts of the equation is money. These surgeries are really expensive. Are academics over-represented in this category because university health plans are willing to pick up the tab? If that’s not the case, you’d think academics wouldn’t be over-represented since they don’t make that much money. And if the desire to switch teams were uniform across the society, you would think business professionals would be over-represented since they have greater financial resources. Anyway, there’s much I don’t know here. But I think it’s interesting.