As someone who is very genderqueer, but looks an awful lot like a female, I agree with trinityva that surgery under these conditions is usually really complicated. In my case, I don't identify as a man any more than as a woman--I'm some kind of gendered or genderless other--but I look like a woman and people regard me as a woman, and I find myself increasingly in a situation where my body is just a pain in the ass with too much extra stuff. The root cause of this is the fact that I have very large breasts. We're talking so large that when I try to do drag, wrapping reduces them to a B cup. I have seriously considered (am still considering, actually) getting a breast reduction, because I don't like having them be so large that I don't have the option of looking more male. I don't like having something that makes me have to look so much like a woman when I feel so other.
The desire to look more androgynous is also what is currently motivating my desire for weight loss, because I'd like to be just a little less curvy.
And I'm not saying that these concerns are completely removed from and independent of societal beauty standards. They're not. I'm human and I've lived in this culture for 21 years, and I've internalized my fair share of bullshit regarding weight and breast size. But, if I identified as a woman, I would never consider surgery, because my body looks like that of a woman, and I could learn to love it. I really think I could.
But I don't. And it's very important to me that I be able to look the way I feel, to be able to dress in such a way that people will wonder what sex/gender I am, to bust up people's conception of me and my gender. And yes, if we lived in a society where no one made gender assumptions, I might not feel the need to do this--because if no one made any assumptions about my identity or anyone else's, those of us who are transgendered/genderqueer might not feel the need to assert our gender identity (or lack thereof) as we do. But we still might want these things just to feel comfortable as ourselves--to feel comfortable in our skins (obviously I can speak only for myself).
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Date: 2004-12-15 08:01 pm (UTC)The desire to look more androgynous is also what is currently motivating my desire for weight loss, because I'd like to be just a little less curvy.
And I'm not saying that these concerns are completely removed from and independent of societal beauty standards. They're not. I'm human and I've lived in this culture for 21 years, and I've internalized my fair share of bullshit regarding weight and breast size. But, if I identified as a woman, I would never consider surgery, because my body looks like that of a woman, and I could learn to love it. I really think I could.
But I don't. And it's very important to me that I be able to look the way I feel, to be able to dress in such a way that people will wonder what sex/gender I am, to bust up people's conception of me and my gender. And yes, if we lived in a society where no one made gender assumptions, I might not feel the need to do this--because if no one made any assumptions about my identity or anyone else's, those of us who are transgendered/genderqueer might not feel the need to assert our gender identity (or lack thereof) as we do. But we still might want these things just to feel comfortable as ourselves--to feel comfortable in our skins (obviously I can speak only for myself).