१७ एप्रिल, २०२२

"What happened next is that, once I figured out I was a male, I also realized I had always had a certain idea of what masculinity is."

"I thought that to be a man is to be a certain way. Now what I think about is different. What I ask myself all the time is, 'What is a man?'"

Said Edoardo Beniamin, quoted in "In Venice, a Young Boatman Steers a Course of His Own/'What I ask myself all the time is, "What is a man?"' says Edoardo Beniamin, a trans man training to join his father’s profession as a gondolier" (NYT). 

Singing and talking a lot is a job requirement. Beniamin's  speech therapist Eleonora Magnelli said he was "bothered" by his "very metallic" voice. You can't just rely on testosterone to lower the voice, she explained, because "pitch is not the only parameter." She notes that this speech therapy is different from other speech therapy, because they are dealing with speech that is "not affected by any pathology." They are changing a client's voice to help with "affirming their identity."

Beniamin says: “What brings me euphoria is feeling people see me as I see me.” 

And here's a quote from Dr. Giulia Lo Russo, "an aesthetic surgeon with a subspecialty in performing chest masculinization": "The point is not just to remove the breasts and reduce a female torso... You have to make a male torso.... My psychologist asked me why I do these surgeries... Why me? I’m not L.G.B.T.Q. But I am deeply anti-conformist. I have had three children with three different men."

Here's the highest rated comment at the NYT: "What a beautiful story to read this Easter morning. It's a kind of resurrection of identity that inspires me greatly."

४४ टिप्पण्या:

David Begley म्हणाले...

What is a man?

A man is not XX. A man is not born with a vagina. Can I be on the Supreme Court now?

Michael K म्हणाले...

Of course Dr Lo Russo is donating his services. Right ? Right?

Browndog म्हणाले...

This is the new thing I've been seeing a lot of in the past few days. At least, I think it's new:

Puberty blockers (temporary, reversible) are more benign than going through a puberty that can’t be undone.

If you can’t see that, then you really need to reflect on your biases and whether you consider #trans people *at all* when you form your opinions.


-Jack Turban, MD
Child Psychiatry Fellow Stanford Medical

Allowing children to go through puberty is irresponsible and dangerous...seems to be where this is heading.

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

Michael K beat me to it- you can be sure Lo Russo does it for the money.

Ice Nine म्हणाले...

>>What I ask myself all the time is, 'What is a man?'"Said Edoardo Beniamin, quoted in "In Venice,<<

What, Venice has no biologists who could help her with this question?

n.n म्हणाले...

Transgender spectrum (HBTQ) experiments through surgical, medical, psychiatric, and social corruption.

M म्हणाले...

Three children with three different men and now she has decided she is a man and needs to mutilate her body and force others to support her delusion. Not mentally ill at all. Sarc/.

The NYT poster who likens this to the Resurrection of Christ is just sick and hateful.

hawkeyedjb म्हणाले...

What a beautiful story to read this Easter morning, about mental illness gone amuck, being celebrated.

Jamie म्हणाले...

Puberty blockers (temporary, reversible) are more benign than going through a puberty that can’t be undone.

Perhaps temporary, sometimes reversible. And until we have some accurate numbers on how many preadolescents who are considered candidates for puberty blockers later change their minds and return to thinking of themselves as "in the correct body," regardless of sexual orientation, I'd question whether it is actually more benign to interrupt puberty (and the growth, physical, mental, and emotional, that accompany it and in significant ways can't be caught up) than to exercise watchful waiting.

Those numbers cannot be forthcoming because we can't run experiments on kids. Except that we are.

I don't know why this subject has such a strong resonance for me; it doesn't directly affect anyone very close to me - just one child of sort of distant friends. But something about it... I just can't let it go.

Robert Marshall म्हणाले...

The notion that puberty blockers are 'reversible' is deluded. Being twenty years old and having the penis of a ten year old is reversible? And where are the brain-development studies that show puberty blockers, which block the brain changes associated with puberty, can be reversed, brain-wise, once the person is past the normal age range of natural puberty?

Sorry, Dr. Jack Durban (and others), I'm not buying that.

These people make Dr. Frankenstein look like a conventional doctor!

Amadeus 48 म्हणाले...

Thank heavens none of this came from David Mamet.

Larry J म्हणाले...

From the Mayo Clinic website: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gender-dysphoria/in-depth/pubertal-blockers/art-20459075

What are the possible side effects and complications?
It's important for your child to stay on schedule with all related medical appointments. Contact your child's doctor if any changes cause you or your child concern.

Possible side effects of GnRH analogue treatment include:
- Injection site swelling
- Weight gain
- Hot flashes
- Headaches

Use of GnRH analogues might also have long-term effects on:
- Growth spurts
- Bone growth and density
- Future fertility — depending on when pubertal blockers are started

Children may have their height checked every three months. Bone density is also checked periodically. If bone growth or density is a concern, your child's health care provider might prescribe a different medication, stop treatment with GnRH analogues or recommend the best time to start cross-hormone therapy.

If children with male genitalia begin using GnRH analogues early in puberty, they might not develop enough penile and scrotal skin for certain gender affirming genital surgical procedures, such as penile inversion vaginoplasty. Alternative techniques, however, are available.

In addition, delaying puberty beyond one's peers can be stressful. Your child might experience lower self-esteem.

Milo Minderbinder म्हणाले...

Justice Jackson would understand....

Josephbleau म्हणाले...

I understand that the male brain is not fully developed and integrated until age 25. I wonder how much cognitive development will suffer for these people. I guess the best example would be the old castrati singers who were de nutted to prevent voice changes. A good experiment would be to go back and do case studies on their mental development. They were usually celebrities of some sort and many may have good biographies. As I recall they were usually overweight as a result.

Mike of Snoqualmie म्हणाले...

Be a female gondola-man. When clients do a double-take, just say "Deal with it. I love rowing the gondolas around Venice. Who says you have to be a man to do it?" There's no need to mutilate your body.

Laurel म्हणाले...

The same readers of the NYT who cannot be more viscerally hateful towards all-things Christian, as a representation of Christ, whom they hate - “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first” (John 15:18) - profaning the Resurrection to applaud a defiant corruption of His creation.

They “suppress the truth by their wickedness”. Romans 1:18

Every act is further degradation of humanity into animal.

Browndog म्हणाले...

Between this and covid, I'm shocked and appalled by the medical community.

Not sure why I thought the marxists would leave any nobble institution untouched without co-opting and destroying it.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne म्हणाले...

Robert Marshall said...

And where are the brain-development studies that show puberty blockers, which block the brain changes associated with puberty, can be reversed, brain-wise, once the person is past the normal age range of natural puberty?

I'm pretty sure having a permanently pre-pubescent brain is a feature to these folks, not a bug.

Patrick Henry was right! म्हणाले...

Identity obsession disorder. The world does not exist just for you.

Jupiter म्हणाले...

"My psychologist asked me why I do these surgeries... Why me? I’m not L.G.B.T.Q. But I am deeply anti-conformist. I have had three children with three different men."

What does your psychologist ask you about?

mikee म्हणाले...

Now that we've gotten to the trans-celebration requirement of PC woke progressive cultural reformation, how long before the pedophiles' demand for the same tolerance/acceptance/celebration/participation is insisted upon? Same for coprophiles, necrophiles, bestials. It isn't a slippery slope we've experienced over the past few decades, it is a race to leap off a cliff. Or perhaps a race to be pushed off a cliff.

todd galle म्हणाले...

My Easter experience was slightly different. At kirk with friends and family, three or so masks amongst the congregation of a hundred or so, plenty of handshakes though. Nothing in the service mentioned issues regarding genetalia. I do sometimes despair, although I know I shouldn't.

Quayle म्हणाले...

1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?
2 Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
3 All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far.
4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.
5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

"What happened next is that, once I figured out I was a male, I also realized I had always had a certain idea of what masculinity is."

Newsflash: You're not a male.

You need a psychiatrist, not an MD.

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"What I ask myself all the time is, 'What is a man?'"

Which no actual man does. Thus proving his manhood is fabrication. Is there a more dreary way to live than to think about this question all the time?

"But I am deeply anti-conformist. I have had three children with three different men."

Transdom is just the latest left subversion of "conformity." From miniskirts at school to chest mutilation women, in a few easy decades.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

There must be a 'long, hard pole' joke in here somewhere...

Two-eyed Jack म्हणाले...

"What a beautiful story to read this Easter morning."

I enjoyed the story about racoons ripping the heads off penguins more.

Anyhoo, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Rollo म्हणाले...

There's some strange nihilism in the media and in society that assumes that only stories that deal with transsexual or non-binary people are of interest. The modern West hates itself, or at least is terribly bored with itself. Where do we go when we burn through these stories in the way that we burned through ethnic and racial minorities, women and gays?

Geoff Matthews म्हणाले...

“What brings me euphoria is feeling people see me as I see me.”

A mix of narcissism and insecurities. This can’t turn out well.

ALP म्हणाले...

Rollo said: Where do we go when we burn through these stories in the way that we burned through ethnic and racial minorities, women and gays?
*****
Disclosure: my mind has been marinating in science fiction for years. Answering your question, I believe this phase of humans transitioning from M-F or F-M is just the beginning of human beings altering themselves in radical ways. Our species pushes the envelope consistently - and we'll push this one way beyond where it is now. Someday we'll be saying: "I yearn for the days when people just changed their gender instead of adding another set of arms (to be able to work faster), replacing their human legs with cheetah legs (to run faster) or implanting microchips in their brains (to run Netflix shows in your own head)."

Mea Sententia म्हणाले...

To thine own self be true. I hope he finds happiness as a man. As to what is a man or a woman, I doubt that question has ever been simple to answer.

MadTownGuy म्हणाले...

Dysphoria euphoria.

Jim म्हणाले...

You can get a fiberglass body to put on a VW beetle that makes the VW look like a Porsche 356. It’s still not a Porsche; never will be. Just like a trans person who thinks they are the other sex. No amount of body work will change the XX and XY.

n.n म्हणाले...

Johns Hopkins performed transgender conversion therapy, in the mid to late 20th century, through surgical, medical, and psychiatric corruption, and, unlike trans/homosexuality et al, the product of their experiments, in the majority, was progressive and nonviable (e.g. self-abortive). Today, we pursue the same line of Mengele mandates for social, redistributive, clinical, and fair weather causes. One step forward, two steps backward.

Clyde म्हणाले...

He's still going to need a pap smear.

Howard म्हणाले...

It's called a pap schmeer. Like around the hole of a bagel.

Assistant Village Idiot म्हणाले...

No child at an age to first realise he is a male has the level of abstraction to raise those questions. That comes a decade later, and even then, I would doubt the person who claimed they were thinking such things before, what 16?

This never happened. It is trying to enter into such discussions with people who are either lying or deluded that make debate impossible.

Lurker21 म्हणाले...



Was this a case of "Poppa always wanted a boy and never really loved me and now I can be that boy and he will love me"? Or was it "Momma never thought I was feminine enough so I hated myself and now I can be the boy she always made me feel that I was?" Or maybe, "Momma despised me because I was awkward and unattractive and despised Poppa because he was a mere gondolier, but now I will be a gondolier like Poppa and he and I will finally be happy?" What if it was just "I want this because I want it," or "I want to do it because I can?"

Maybe the big story is that in spite of all the therapy people are having, depth psychology and Freudianism are finally dead. Sex changes and gender fluidity have come to seem more like consumer choices or lifestyle choices than signs of mental instability. I can't say where our gender confusion will end up, but talking about transgenders as crazy or depraved is starting to seem like bringing anal sex into discussions of gay marriage. It's not a winning strategy or something that will convince people.

It's also curious how gender stereotypes have gotten weaker but also gotten stronger. If you were a self-respecting man of the GI or Silent generation you probably wouldn't be much like today's sensitive males, but you might love and go in for painting or poetry or classical music. You might pursue your vocation or craft in a very masculine, analytical, aggressive way, and that could be why so many of our professors and so many mid-century writers or artists were jerks.

Today, the assumption that the arts are somehow effeminate is still around. They're also "feminate" or woman-dominated to an a degree that they weren't before. If you go in for the arts or the humanities and are male, you will be or become one of today's sensitive males, so the aggressive, analytical types and other guys tend more and more to stay away, and the idea that math, technology, and the hard sciences are for guys and the softer subjects aren't grows and spreads. Just a thought on a quiet Sunday.

Michael K म्हणाले...

You need a psychiatrist, not an MD.

Most psychiatrists are MDs but it can be hard to tell.

Bunkypotatohead म्हणाले...

Everyone in that article is a nut job.

SteveGW म्हणाले...

What makes a man, Mr Lebowski?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz-wXYE8bkw

Caligula म्हणाले...

"What happened next is that, once I figured out I was a male, I also realized I had always had a certain idea of what masculinity is."

But did you also consider that you might be wrong, that perhaps you really were not a male after all? And then think through the consequences that might follow if, in fact, you were wrong?

M Jordan म्हणाले...

The trans fad will devolve into the outsiders bitter boyz club. These things have a moment, a window when it seems they control the zeitgeist. But then it sags like a week-old helium party balloon. The election in November will throw the final shovelfuls of dirt on this sad moment.

farmgirl म्हणाले...

Lurker21. It could be the overall acceptance of delusion and the cult of Relativism. These people get upset beyond belief about “dead naming”. I find that so pathetically sad. Control much? You’ll hurt them deeply if you don’t obey- but the pain of a mother who’s child mutilates their being to carve a new beginning- they cut her heart out along with/their dying identity. It’s dead, alright. Because it will ever ever go back to the way it was originally.