Comment on Has anyone here watched Conclave? How was it?
Microw@lemm.ee 4 weeks agoYeah the person was predictable based on the narrative structure.
Regarding the final twist
Iirc Lawrence gets tipped off at some point about Benitez’ secretive, papal-approved medical treatment that he then cancelled instead of going through with it. I kept thinking about what it could be, and while I didn’t predict the twist completely my mind did wander into that direction. Mainly because it became quite clear to me that this story would pull every possible scenario that a conclave could have.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 weeks ago
Ah interesting. I noticed those hints, but thought they were going in a different direction.
Spoilers
Given all the talk about other bishop’s illicit personal relationships, I was wondering if he had gotten a woman pregnant and she then got an abortion. But I agree with you strongly re trans vs intersex. It would have been much less believable for the Catholic Church to embrace, even unknowingly, an AFAB trans man as pope than AMAB intersex. I’d push back a bit at your characterisation of him as “not biological male” though. Intersex people like Benitez do a good job of demonstrating why exactly the position held by some people (especially transphobes trying to make a biological deterministic argument) that even if gender might be complicated, sex is a binary, is untrue. Between chromosomes, gonads, genitals, gametes produced, hormones produced, hormone receptors, and secondary sexual characteristics, it’s pretty clear that sex is too complicated to accurately talk about whether someone actually “is” or is not male. We know explicitly that he had female gonads, male genitals, and male secondary sexual characteristics. Which certainly implies a more male-like hormone production and/or reception. Personally I wouldn’t say that Benitez “is a biological male”, but nor would I confidently assert that he “isn’t a biological male”.
Microw@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
spoiler
Absolutely, my phrasing in calling him “not biologically male” was due to me not speaking English as a first language and not being sure how to phrase it correctly