"The reporter conjures outrage after outrage and then smuggles the reader’s sense of injustice to the wrong place, as if to say: Isn’t it a medical scandal how long the wait lists for these surgeries are?"
I think this 'industry' has been helped in no small part because of our general squeamishness and unwillingness to talk about things like this. It's hard enough to read about scrotoplasties and splayed penises, let alone talk about them, or raise questions like 'Does the phalloplasty get erect? Does it produce any fluid?' 'Can the person get an orgasm?'
Even typing these words seems rude and intrusive, and I can't imagine asking Ben about this, even if I was a close friend.
And so the juggernaut rolls on, without the necessary proper scrutiny.
I thought the subject’s interactions with other people as the surgeries progressed were pretty interesting - “you wanna see my dick?” when challenged in the bathroom; ostentatiously flirting with nurses, office staff, etc. It seemed like she started feeling pretty powerful.
But it’s also clear that she’ll be clocked anywhere she goes. She appears to assume she’ll be “most girls’ first experience having sex with a trans man” in her rural area - yet I can’t fathom any heterosexual woman wanting to be intimate with a 4’10 bearded woman. I don’t write that to be cruel - hetero women are attracted to men, and I am confident in thinking lesbian women aren’t interested in sex with anyone sporting a beard and a penis. So who’s left? Adult male fetishists looking for a bottom. And later as she’s older, other young vulnerable and disturbed girls who’ll be pressured into experimental sexual experiences because they feel like they’re being transphobic if they say no.
Good to have your analysis of the tone/emotional manipulation going on. What is shocking becomes "feel good". Not that we should always resist something that shocks but when you consider the harm, the vested interests involved and the refusal to look at the whole picture, especially on the part of medical and other organisations that should know better . . . it's shocking on a whole other level.
"What is the ethical thing for a doctor—presented with such a desperate patient—to do: proceed with a risky operation or address a mental health crisis without resorting to knives and sutures?"
Rather doubt that ethical considerations factor much into the choices that the "doctors" involved make. Technical wizardry - if we build ersatz penises and vaginas then they will come, so to speak - and financial rewards seem the bottom lines.
As for that "finish-line", it seems Ben and many of his cohort are less interested in actually changing sex - physically impossible for humans - than in simply looking as if they have done so. Maybe not substantially different from the many other plastic surgeries that many others subject themselves to.
As so many women struggle to get any doctor to take them seriously when they're suffering from actual, if "invisible" health issues like autoimmune diseases, endometriosis, and even cancer (missed and misdiagnosed heartbreakingly often) I cannot help but cringe when I think of the medical time and resources that go to indulging a mass delusion.
Would it not be a lot cheaper and anatomically accurate to fashion a penis from plasticine or another more flexible or floppy substance that could be inserted without much trauma into a vagina? Not being an owner of a vagina I do no know how such a prosthesis would affect a vagina in the long term, but it might be possible to use such a thing only when desired. It might even be possible to fashion erect versions that would by some clever design stimulate the right bits of the clitoris and vagina while simulating male sexual function at some level.
Maybe this is not plausible, but if it is, it would certainly be a lot cheaper than 200 big ones and preclude a lifetime of medicated existence.
"Is a person who would rather die than live without grafting a roll of flesh onto their pelvis capable of consenting to such a serious procedure? "
It's a serious question, and if we had serious medical professionals they would consider it. But the hippocratic oath is outdated. Surgical consent requires nothing more complicated than clicking on the EULA for new software. Expecting more than that is oppression. These are not patients, only customers.
We stare in horror at people like Michael Jackson who subject themselves to so many cosmetic procedures they end up looking like porcelain aliens. Yet we are supposed to celebrate an addiction to surgery when the root is "gender" dysphoria rather than generalised body or facial dysmorphia. WTAF.
Hi Eliza, thanks for your great writing on these topics. I want to share with you and others here a link to a comprehensive fact-filled source-linking report I've just posted on my (free) Substack: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Trans Galaxy. Why We Must Oppose Gender Identity Ideology.
Eliza's writing just gets better and better.
So many great insights and turns of phrase:
"The reporter conjures outrage after outrage and then smuggles the reader’s sense of injustice to the wrong place, as if to say: Isn’t it a medical scandal how long the wait lists for these surgeries are?"
I think this 'industry' has been helped in no small part because of our general squeamishness and unwillingness to talk about things like this. It's hard enough to read about scrotoplasties and splayed penises, let alone talk about them, or raise questions like 'Does the phalloplasty get erect? Does it produce any fluid?' 'Can the person get an orgasm?'
Even typing these words seems rude and intrusive, and I can't imagine asking Ben about this, even if I was a close friend.
And so the juggernaut rolls on, without the necessary proper scrutiny.
I thought the subject’s interactions with other people as the surgeries progressed were pretty interesting - “you wanna see my dick?” when challenged in the bathroom; ostentatiously flirting with nurses, office staff, etc. It seemed like she started feeling pretty powerful.
But it’s also clear that she’ll be clocked anywhere she goes. She appears to assume she’ll be “most girls’ first experience having sex with a trans man” in her rural area - yet I can’t fathom any heterosexual woman wanting to be intimate with a 4’10 bearded woman. I don’t write that to be cruel - hetero women are attracted to men, and I am confident in thinking lesbian women aren’t interested in sex with anyone sporting a beard and a penis. So who’s left? Adult male fetishists looking for a bottom. And later as she’s older, other young vulnerable and disturbed girls who’ll be pressured into experimental sexual experiences because they feel like they’re being transphobic if they say no.
Good to have your analysis of the tone/emotional manipulation going on. What is shocking becomes "feel good". Not that we should always resist something that shocks but when you consider the harm, the vested interests involved and the refusal to look at the whole picture, especially on the part of medical and other organisations that should know better . . . it's shocking on a whole other level.
I think taht you summed up the whole ..... issue . $200,000 for a penis. Who (W.H.O. ?) REALLY benefits ?
"What is the ethical thing for a doctor—presented with such a desperate patient—to do: proceed with a risky operation or address a mental health crisis without resorting to knives and sutures?"
Rather doubt that ethical considerations factor much into the choices that the "doctors" involved make. Technical wizardry - if we build ersatz penises and vaginas then they will come, so to speak - and financial rewards seem the bottom lines.
As for that "finish-line", it seems Ben and many of his cohort are less interested in actually changing sex - physically impossible for humans - than in simply looking as if they have done so. Maybe not substantially different from the many other plastic surgeries that many others subject themselves to.
As so many women struggle to get any doctor to take them seriously when they're suffering from actual, if "invisible" health issues like autoimmune diseases, endometriosis, and even cancer (missed and misdiagnosed heartbreakingly often) I cannot help but cringe when I think of the medical time and resources that go to indulging a mass delusion.
Would it not be a lot cheaper and anatomically accurate to fashion a penis from plasticine or another more flexible or floppy substance that could be inserted without much trauma into a vagina? Not being an owner of a vagina I do no know how such a prosthesis would affect a vagina in the long term, but it might be possible to use such a thing only when desired. It might even be possible to fashion erect versions that would by some clever design stimulate the right bits of the clitoris and vagina while simulating male sexual function at some level.
Maybe this is not plausible, but if it is, it would certainly be a lot cheaper than 200 big ones and preclude a lifetime of medicated existence.
There you go:
"Is a person who would rather die than live without grafting a roll of flesh onto their pelvis capable of consenting to such a serious procedure? "
It's a serious question, and if we had serious medical professionals they would consider it. But the hippocratic oath is outdated. Surgical consent requires nothing more complicated than clicking on the EULA for new software. Expecting more than that is oppression. These are not patients, only customers.
The author sure dismissed “ Ben’s” previous mental issues swiftly. Dropped out of college.
We stare in horror at people like Michael Jackson who subject themselves to so many cosmetic procedures they end up looking like porcelain aliens. Yet we are supposed to celebrate an addiction to surgery when the root is "gender" dysphoria rather than generalised body or facial dysmorphia. WTAF.
Hi Eliza, thanks for your great writing on these topics. I want to share with you and others here a link to a comprehensive fact-filled source-linking report I've just posted on my (free) Substack: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Trans Galaxy. Why We Must Oppose Gender Identity Ideology.
https://caroldansereau.substack.com/p/hitchhikers-guide-to-the-transgender
Please use it and share it with others.