Transgender Surgery or Female Genital Mutilation – Are They Different? By Eileen F. Toplansky
In 2012, The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution urging countries to ban the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), calling it an “irreparable and irreversible abuse.” The resolution was considered a major step forward in protecting women and girls. FGM has been recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. Sweden was the first Western country to outlaw FGM, followed in 1985 by the UK. In the United States it became illegal in 1997, and in the same year the WHO issued a joint statement with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) against the practice. Moreover, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation called for abolishing the practice.
Fast forward and it would appear that the new wave of transgenderism among youth is reminiscent of FGM practices. But while the leftwing establishment rightly condemns female genital mutilation, it praises transgenderism as “gender-affirming” and an act of courage.
Some key facts about female genital mutilation include:
- The partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
- The practice has no health benefits for girls and women.
- FGM is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15.
- FGM is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
- There is evidence suggesting greater involvement of health care providers in the practice. This is known as medicalization.
Yet, creating a transgender individual includes the following:
Female-to-male surgery is a type of sex reassignment surgery, which is also called gender affirmation surgery or gender-affirming surgery. This can take different forms, including the removal of breasts — a mastectomy — and the altering of the genital region, known as ‘bottom’ surgery” (i.e., removal of the uterus; removal of the vagina; and the construction of a penis using grafted skin). In addition, before having female-to-male gender-affirming surgery, a person will receive testosterone replacement therapy.
Unlike FGM, these are medical choices that a patient allegedly decides upon.
Yet, as is common with leftwing/Marxist ideology, words are massaged resulting in great vagueness.
Murat Altinay, M.D. writes:
When we look at the transgender brain, we see that the brain resembles the gender that the person identifies as. For example, a person who is born with a penis but ends up identifying as a female often actually has some of the structural characteristics of a ‘female’ brain.
Moreover, “people who are genderfluid may find that their gender identity changes rather than remaining fixed.”
Genderfluid people may move between different genders throughout their life. Their gender may shift over a day, a week, months, or years. Because gender identity is very personal and specific to each individual, people may see and use the term ‘genderfluid’ differently. There is no standard definition for genderfluidity. A person’s gender identity may be the same as their sex assigned at birth, or it may differ.
According to Gender Spectrum, gender expression is how people present their gender to themselves and the world. People may wish to express their gender through their clothes, makeup, hairstyles, voice, pronouns, body language, and more.
For example, genderfluid people might present themselves as feminine, masculine, neutral, androgynous, and more. Genderfluid people may also change their gender expression however much they please.
Robyn Ryle a professor of sociology and gender studies and the author of “Throw Like a Girl, Cheer Like a Boy: The Evolution of Gender, Race, and Identity in Sports” and “She/He/They/Me: For the Sisters, Misters and Binary Resisters” asserts that “the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group—a new collection of scholars and elite athletes absent of transgender members—presented a controversial plan that would allow transgender women to compete as women only if they take hormones or medically transition, a policy which poses problems for intersex women as well as transgender women who do not take hormones or pursue medical transition.”
Even to those who want to show empathy, this is all rather confusing to say the least.
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People who have transitioned include Alex, age 20 (gender: male/orientation bisexual) who believes that “finding feminism” made him realize that his voice mattered.
Max, age 30 (gender: male/orientation straight-ish) states that his “eating disorder history was, in many ways, rooted to gender dysphoria. While transitioning was hands down the right choice in the long run, the rapid physical changes when I started hormones triggered the anorexic part of my brain. It took me a long time to understand that my breasts don’t make me any less male. I am male, period.”
Maeve, age 36 (gender: female/orientation lesbian) states “To my sisters just starting HRT, when people warn about how your nipples will get sensitive, they’ll likely forget to mention that this isn’t limited to just painful sensitivity. You should also be aware that the more you’re read as feminine, the more your words will fall on deaf ears. Misogyny is exceptionally rampant and ingrained in society. Don’t be afraid to cut ties with friends or family if they are not supportive.”
Finally, Steph, age mid-40s (gender: nonbinary femme/orientation queer admits “just how awful [testosterone suppressants] are. They have diuretic effects and the frequent and urgent need to pee is true. The worst thing is when I wake up in the middle of the night wanting to scream because of extremely painful leg cramps—a side effect of the hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy with the results of what is happening, but the process of re-emerging from this chrysalis is a painful one.”
With the explosion of young people claiming to be transgender, it is noteworthy that there are those who have undergone surgery and hormone replacement who deeply regret their decisions.
Walt Heyer knows firsthand what it’s like to undergo sex change surgery and then regret it. After living as a woman for nearly a decade, he decided to accept his biological sex and de-transition back to male. He had eagerly taken the bait of politicized medical practitioners, who hurried him along in the transition.
He not only regretted what he had done to his body, he also grieved over the estrangement from his wife and children caused by his drastic change in identity. Heyer’s . . . newest book, “Trans Life Survivors,” is . . . a compilation of the stories of many others caught up in today’s ‘transmania.’ Some are nudged into transgenderism by social pressures and emotional manipulation. Many are hastily sent into surgery without adequate counseling (or any counseling at all) or are misdiagnosed. Some of those regret their decision very shortly after having irreversible surgery.
Heyer asserts that “true compassion is shown by raising factual issues, based on scientific research, and having the best minds follow the evidence to provide the best care for this segment of our society that is suffering.”
Packaging the issue in the wrapper of political correctness or withholding the negative findings is not compassion. Political correctness hinders research and treatment of the medical conditions and muzzles a media that’s willing to participate in a false narrative [.]
Yet, it would appear that the transgender movement is, in fact, a new type of genital female as well as male mutilation.
Moreover, the transgender movement is the latest weapon in the leftist lawfare arsenal. No matter the venue, be it business or school, legal issues are now front and center concerning transgender accommodations, i.e., transgender non-conforming students allowed to use restrooms in accordance with their gender identity; schools forcing biological female students to live with biological men who identify as women and vice versa.
Most young susceptible people have little to no genuine idea of what is entailed as they embark on these surgeries and hormone replacements. How can a six-year old make this sort of decision? True informed consent is erased when politics rather than scientific fact-finding reigns supreme.
Why is America not demanding better evidence for the consequences of irreversible youth gender transition? As a society, it is critical to work toward a humane solution with clear guidelines but ultimately, what is the fine line between allegedly aiding a person and mutilating a human being?
Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.
Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
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