Anger and the authentic transsexual
May 28, 2008During my Hellenistic philosophy class, discussion turned to the topic of authenticity. Prompted by a transsexual student, the professor spoke about how this was an ancient concept, often understood in the light of what was considered natural. The cliched “live in tune and in accordance with yourself” type of stuff.
He then went into a diatribe against the San Diego Reader, a free local news-magazine, which in each issue devotes NUMEROUS pages towards liposuction, breast augmentation, teeth whitening and other “self-improvement” ads. His point was to contrast the unauthentic and self-undermining message of the ads.
As the professor was speaking however, I was looking at him-becoming-a-her, to gauge her reaction. She was smiling, and I thought that surreal.
Here was someone changing his body to become a female, someone who had initiated a discussion about authenticity, yet was affirmatively encouraging a rant against artificially changing the body.
Someone is weird in this story, is it me, the professor, or him-becoming-a her?
It’s one thing to change your body to meet other people’s expectations of what they desire and quite another to change your body to express your vision of what is inside. The first is chasing some kind of external validation, while the second is making a kind of art from what you know to be “authentic.”
The key question about trans is always: Do you think trans people are trying to lie about their sex or trying to tell the truth about who they know themselves to be? Is trans about concealing or revealing?
And then, how does living in a heterosexist world where people assume a fixed binary between humans affect how transsexuals need to present themselves in the world? If they don’t work to conceal their birth sex, will people see their gender expression?
In other words, if people can’t hear the call of a soul over the noise of birth genitals, then how can transsexuals ever express their authentic nature?
I’m running on two hours of sleep, so I just want to confirm that your professor is a transexual, right?
I suppose one can argue that both fit the same category. But why do people augment their breasts or inject botox? Our culture’s perception of beauty changes. Plenty of women claim they do it solely for themselves, but would have they desired larger breasts if they never heard of the procedure or a men’s preference? They do it to be accepted by society, which doesn’t fit your professor’s situation because sex change operations are still taboo.
No the professor isn’t a transsexual.
Also I also don’t think we should fall into the error of only ascribing “pure” motives to transsexual transformations, while assigning crass motives to heterosexuals who wish to undergo various, so-called self improvement procedures. I believe both comments above imply this distinction.
We should rather get out of the motivation-guessing game, and at least to my way of thinking, we should look at the end of the decision. And is the end of that decision natural or unnatural?
First, I think there is some misunderstanding. First, the author is speaking of a “transsexual” student, not that the professor is a transsexual. Second, being born with transsexualism has NOTHING to do with being heterosexual or homosexual.
I am a woman who had my male primary and secondary sexual characteristics corrected 20+ years ago. I will preface my post with the disclaimer that I am speaking for myself only but, over the years I have found several other women who all are in agreement with me though you will never “see” or “hear” them simply because they are women living their lives like other women.
Obviously I do not know the student to whom you refer. I do not know if this person is some variation of Transgender or a person born with HBS (Harry Benjamin Syndrome, FKA Transsexualism). Since you mention “body modification”, for the sake of this discussion, I will assume they are Transsexual. If so, this is NOT a choice.
We are born with a birth defect or anomaly. During fetal development many things have to occur with the right timing and in the correct sequence. All babies start out female, no matter what the chromosome count is. A hormonal “wash” occurs and biologically the fetus either develops female organs or male organs. There are many things that can go wrong with the process and the sequence. When this occurs babies sometimes are born with a condition known as Intersexed (FKA Hermaphrodite). This can present as malformed or unformed genitalia, either singularly male or female or a combination of both. Which hormone-producing glands are dominate will determine how the secondary sex characteristics will development throughout puberty. If estrogen is produced the child will develop breasts, and other feminine body characteristics, including facial structure and fatty tissue distribution. If testosterone is the dominate hormone, then the developing body will develop facial hair, larger hands and feet, more masculine facial structure and more muscle development. (These are obviously generalizations since there is an overlap in body features deemed “feminine” and “masculine”.
In the person born with HBS, the same anomaly causes the brain to develop as the opposite of the body. The primary sex organs create hormone secretion, usually starting at the end of the prepubescent period. That means the child could have developed a female brain (one’s “sense of self”) but, due to the anomaly, the dominate hormone-producing glands produce testosterone, allowing the child to develop a “masculine” body. In a percentage of cases the child born with HBS can also have some physical incongruencies, the same as an intersexed child.
You could equate the “transitioning” of a person born with transsexualism with a person being born with any other birth defect, where something went terribly wrong in fetal development. If a baby was born without a face and the medical technology was available to construct a new face, would anyone fault that child or their parents with having surgery to have a new face?
The biggest difference is that one is obvious, the other isn’t. I pray that enough research will be done to be able to find the “medical indicators” early enough to spare the child born with HBS (Transsexualism) what can become a very conflicted, tortured and generally tragic life while trying to be something they are not.