Ms. Quispe, an Ecuadorean immigrant who came to New York at age 9, was determined to get the curves that would make her look more feminine. But she lacked health insurance or the money to pay for surgical procedures that would provide them; they can cost as much as $70,000. So she tried something else: she went to a so-called pumper, a person who illegally injects silicone to modify the body.
For her first injections, she said, she went to the Upper East Side, to an apartment with a view of the East River. In a small room she lay down on a narrow massage table, having paid $1,200 to get four cups of silicone injected into her hips and buttocks — without anesthesia.
When she slid off the makeshift surgical table, she saw bright red drops of blood staining the white sheet. The pumper, she said, dabbed Krazy Glue over each puncture — there were six on each side — to stop the bleeding. Then the pumper covered them with gauze and wound plastic wrap over the wounds before telling Ms. Quispe to get dressed....
t the beginning of July, she was hospitalized for an infection. Her body has been left scarred and misshapen. The skin on her buttocks and legs is discolored, and a lump of hardened silicone the size of a golf ball hangs behind her left knee.
A completely sad event and one that was completely avoidable. This reminds me of an article I read some time ago about the prescription of medication to deal with depression. The author made the point that generally speaking the biochemical process of becoming depressed (and coming out of it) is normal. What is abnormal is the taking of brain altering drugs to "overcome" a natural process of grieving or whatever it is that triggers the episode. The author had a similar problem with the prescription of Ritalin to children who's brains are still developing. Again, the problem isn't really with the brain but with the environment. For example boys being naturally hyper are more likely to be drugged because parents and teachers simply don't want to deal with boys being, well, boys. Of course these drugs have side effects and therefore we have many cases of perfectly fine brains (or brains in development) that are being pathologized for the benefit of pharmacological pushing corporations. And now that the people are on drugs they NOW have actual physiological problems which they did not have before (ever read the warnings about suddenly stopping?).
So back to these "women". What this article fails to mention, and which is absent from the discussion of transgender persons is that there is nothing at all wrong with their bodies. They may think or feel that they inhabit the wrong body but there is, in fact, nothing wrong with these bodies (due exceptions for those born with both genitalia and had gender assignment surgery which is a 50-50% chance of being wrong. And due exception to those with actual chromosomal abnormalities but each of these cases are relatively rare and I mean RARE). The actual problem with these individuals is from the neck up, not from the neck down. Of course this is not a popular thing to say in many circles, but it is the truth. Fortunately at some point it will be possible to identify which gene is responsible for the brain failing to recognize what body it is inhabiting and correct that problem.
I suppose that until then we'll have to continue to point out the fallacy of celebrating a "pregnant" man and other such absurdities in the name of "tolerance". Me I'll just continue to call a spade a spade... or in this case a male a male.
