Teen pop star reveals secret sex-change surgery

Originally posted by VIKINGANT

I have a cousin that when she was born could have gone either way and her parents made the choice based on the apparent dominant features. They regretted it for a ling time and she has gone through hell with surgeries and other personal matters for years.

I think they obviously made a mistake in your cousins case. But that is because they assumed the "dominant physical features" were an accurate indication of how the brain would be "sexualized." More modern studies, such as the one I linked to, indicate that physical gender and gender identity, (brain gender) happen at different times for different reasons. Now days, a wise doctor would recommend waiting to see how the child perceived themself. Odds are, your cousin would have been equally happy to be a male who likes females as she is a female who likes females.

I am glad it worked out for her, and that she can accept being in a female body while holding a sexual preference for females, and generally being more male in mindset. However, had it been the opposite way around, my guess is that she would not be so happy.

Had she been born sexually ambiguous, and they decided to make her a male, and she had been "female" in her brain, sexually attracted to males, my guess is she would be incredibly unhappy. It is far, far less socially acceptable to be an effeminate gay male in our society, than to be a "gay" female. She would have had to deal with enormous negative social pressure. (Although in your cousins case I dont think "gay" is the right term. They botched her assignment at birth. Probably because it was easier for them to make the female bits out of what she was born with. She is a straight male trapped in a womans body at this point.)

Women can easily get by with wearing pants, liking sports, science, "guy" things, and society doesnt blink an eye. Tomboys are accepted as that, tomboys, and they are usually given lots of encouragement for it. No one has ever even questioned if I was gay, because there is no assumption that tomboys have to be, and in, fact I am not. Im just not a "girly girl."

But if a man is even the slightest bit "effeminate," he is automatically gay. Even if he isnt, he will be accused of it. And if he does happen to really be gay, he really gets it. A man who wears dresses, and likes girly things, now thats a huge problem for a lot of people. They suffer physical abuse, emotional abuse, job discrimination, rejection from their own families, and so on. I really feel for gay men. How anyone can assume some guy "chooses" to be a male homosexual and suffer that level of abuse is beyond me.

I think the more modern approach is a good one. They find out how the child identifies them self, delay puberty until a reasonable age to ensure they are certain, begin appropriate hormone therapy to ensure that their bodies develop in harmony with their gender identity, and then reassign their sex organs when they reach the age of 18 in most cases and sometimes younger if the case merits it, (as in Kim Petras case). Unfortunately, cases like your cousin are a large part of the reason they figured out that gender identity and anatomy are not always correlated.




[edit on 5-2-2009 by Illusionsaregrander]

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by asmeone2

 

By no means to i condemn her right to do so, i just think there should have been a little more time and tought put into this. I mean even for her career, how well will a transgender pop star do in Germany?

This is about this girl's happiness, now she may be fine now, but what if in 4 years she decides she was not happy, and should have remained the way she was. What she's doin is permanent.

ALL TG's usually must live the desired lifestyle 1 year minimum before you can start testosterone or get any sort of pre-op surgery. Now i'm assuming she hasn't been doing that since she was 14.

Why wouldn't a T-girl make succes? There are several successful Transsexuals in the World, and there is really no reason why she wouldn't be one of them.

And who knows when she started to take hormones? As I said in my earlier post, it is not too uncommon with pre-teen Transsexuals to start their own hormone-therapy, and some even start at age 11(Illegal, ofcourse).

Originally posted by asmeone2
reply to post by Illusionsaregrander

 

This may or may not be you but your post makes me think of it. I have notices something like a subculture of a subculture growing lately, of people who feel that they are either both sexes at ones or neither. That is mentally, not physically. This, I think, is how I would class myself.

What you are thinking of, are Intergenders; people that feel that they either are a gender of "their own", or even stand beoynd all gender-labels. Those people have allways existed, but it haven't been until recently that they have been able to classify themselves, so to speak.

Some groups, indeed make a sort of "trend" of it, and MAKE themselves Androgyne, although they maybe aren't in "reality". For example, people that label themselves as "Alternative".

But again: True Intergenderism exists.

I completely understand his, er, her plight.

I was a man trapped in a woman's body.

Then mom went into labor and pushed me out.

Originally posted by VIKINGANT

Originally posted by resistor
Being hermaphroditic does not necessarily mean you have to choose to have surgery Vik. My understanding is that it’s rather rare for them to have surgery.

This is very true, but it is a situation where the surgery would without hesitation be deemed warranted. As opposed to "I feel like I am living the wrong life"

Yes, I see what you mean. The physical is always more directly accessible and definable than the psychological. But as so many posts here make clear, it’s much more about the way an individual feels than it is how they look.

Originally posted by Nightchild

Originally posted by asmeone2
reply to post by Illusionsaregrander

 

This may or may not be you but your post makes me think of it. I have notices something like a subculture of a subculture growing lately, of people who feel that they are either both sexes at ones or neither. That is mentally, not physically. This, I think, is how I would class myself.

What you are thinking of, are Intergenders; people that feel that they either are a gender of "their own", or even stand beoynd all gender-labels. Those people have allways existed, but it haven't been until recently that they have been able to classify themselves, so to speak.

Some groups, indeed make a sort of "trend" of it, and MAKE themselves Androgyne, although they maybe aren't in "reality". For example, people that label themselves as "Alternative".

But again: True Intergenderism exists.

It's always been around, that is true. I could have worded that better: In our culture it is just now being recognized for what it is.

Starting hormone therapy before puberty should not be allowed. He should have had to go through puberty first to see if he still felt the same way; now he will never know. He does however make a very beautiful girl and maybe for him this is the best choice, but for others it may end up as a nightmare.

Just not comfortable with 12 year old children being given sex hormones.