Gender affirmation surgery…and all that Jazz

The failure of physical mutilation to provide meaningful mental meliorism

I just want to feel like myself - Jazz Jennings

Transgenderism seems all the rage these days, sometimes inspiring and inciting literal rage both among proponents and protestors. What once was seen as a mental malady that affected a fraction of one percent of the population is now a fad, complete with a bright and shining badge of honor adorned by multitudes claiming to not be that which they were born or donned by those who support them. Celebrities like Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade crow about their confused kids, while parents who refuse to indulge the delusion are ridiculed and threatened with legal action.

This condition, formerly called gender dysphoria (now gender incongruence) is akin to anorexia nervosa, a disorder where the mind struggles to accept the reality of the body in which it resides. Encouragement does not heal people of anorexia, nor can it help those who are (or claim to be) transgender. Though true help for these issues is found in the form of proper psychological (and perhaps spiritual) counseling, many instead propose that the condition should be “affirmed,” verbally (by the sufferer openly embracing the condition, and by others using the sufferer’s “preferred pronouns”), pharmaceutically (through hormone treatments), and physically (through surgery). Can you imagine telling a 5’4” 70-pound anorexic girl, “you’re right, you’re fat; you should stop eating”? Alas, for those who have been consumed with the falsehood that there are more than two genders, such accession to the fantasy is the only socially acceptable approach.

Rather than find help that is actually helpful, educators exploit, counselors cajole, and politicians pontificate about how those suffering gender dysphoria should be true to themselves, be the person they believe they were intended to be, to not be limited by the body they possess. After all, according to these, “gender” is just a social construct. At a recent meeting of the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs, in response to arguments put forth by Dr. Steven Hotze against hormone treatments and gender surgeries for children, Senator José Menéndez stated, “This is, they’re living their true selves.” 

The problem with the idea of “living their true selves,” is that truth isn’t based on feelings - truth is truth; and the truth is, those who claim to be transgender are living in denial about their true selves. They do not do so intentionally, they are afflicted. Whether something isn’t wired quite right, hormones are out of balance or not properly produced, or they have succumbed to peer pressure, social media seduction, or parental prodding, they are incapable of accepting their “true selves.” Most of those who believe transgenderism is natural and should be affirmed are also the ones who, throughout the Covid crisis, lambasted anyone who refused to “follow The Science™.” These same people refuse to pick up a basic biology book that will inform them that “gender” is not a matter of feeling, but being. There is male and there is female (and in extremely rare cases those who are both or neither), man and woman, and neither can become the other. This is wisdom understood even by kindergartners, as exhibited in the movie Kindergarten Cop, when Joseph exclaims to Mr. Kimble, “Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina.”

But what does the Senator mean when he speaks of “living their true selves?” In the Senator’s terminology, the underlying idea is “transitioning.” This is an argument in favor of sex change surgery (which was changed to “gender reassignment surgery,” and is now called “gender affirmation surgery”) for kids. The idea that “gender affirmation surgery” can “transition” a boy to a girl (or a girl to a boy) is diametrically opposed to basic biology. While a doctor may be able to disfigure a child to appear like one of the opposite sex, it does not make that child the opposite sex. In fact, the phrase “gender affirmation surgery” is, perhaps, the most impressive example of an oxymoron in human history, requiring an olympic level of mental gymnastics. Consider that those who advocate for affirming the gender dysphoric will argue to the death that genitals do not determine gender. Then ruminate on the idea that those same people insist that surgery to change a person’s genitals will “reassign” or “affirm” that person’s gender. Not to mention, if gender is a social construct, how can it be altered by going under the knife? The entire syllogism is devoid of logic. This is the pinnacle of cognitive dissonance, the apex of Orwellian doublethink. 

Jazz Jennings of the TLC reality show I Am Jazz, one of the most highly publicized people to transition, puts a fine point on the problem. When Jared (his given name) was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at the tender and innocent age of five, his manipulative mother began “transitioning” him. He has since struggled in many ways. He was put on hormones to prevent puberty, and later, at 17 (while still a minor), underwent several surgeries to modify his genitalia. The reason it took several surgeries is that the process was botched due to his penis being under-developed as a result of the puberty blockers. Since, Jazz has struggled with physical pain, infections, reflux, anxiety, and a host of other issues including rapid weight gain. Being aired on TLC for the past nine years, anyone who has cared to watch this tragedy has witnessed Jazz’s dilemma. When the second episode of the eighth season, appropriately titled Mommy Dearest, aired on January 31, 2023, Jazz finally broke down:

You know I can’t get out of my head…It just doesn’t stop…No, it still doesn’t stop now, and I’m already going back to negative…I feel kind of all over the place, and like my mind is cluttered and not clear, and I really wanna have that clarity. I really wanna understand myself and be able to read my own soul and what I want and <sniffles> It’s just very challenging, and I think I’m kinda breaking down a little bit and spiraling into negativity…I just want to feel like myself. Like that’s it. I don’t care. All I want is to be happy and feel like me, and I don’t feel like me, ever.

Even dating is psychologically tortuous for Jazz. In a recent Instagram post, Jazz wrote:

Dating as a transgender woman can be so challenging. I wish people could be like, “You know what? I don’t care that you’re transgender. You’re just a woman to me. You’re beautiful. And I see that in you.” Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case, and many people don’t realize that being a transgender woman doesn’t solely define me — it’s only one part of me.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoGcHQmj4Wj/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=60dc3ad4-da14-4470-8d36-dcaec347f25b

Of course, the reason people don’t simply say, “you’re just a woman to me,” is because he is not a woman. He is a young man who has had surgery to make him look like a woman - that does not make him a woman. This commiserable young man, who at the age of 22 now has an awkwardly outward appearance of being a girl, is struggling with his identity. He is struggling to “live his true self” because for years, he has been told by an abuser (yes, I’m calling his mother an abuser), that his true self is not who he was. As if to show the level of insincerity, during that breakdown, Jazz’s mother says to him, “It’s ok. I know what you’re going through. I’ve been there before.” Really? She has had a parent who encouraged her to consider that her body was not what it ought to be? She struggled with the cognitive difficulty of someone dealing with dysphoria? Could it be possible for her to be more disingenuous? I would not be surprised to find this mother suffers from Munchausen Syndrome (also known as Munchausen By Proxy); or maybe just strong desire for a daughter, having birthed three sons, was enough to drive her to torture her youngest. While she claims they use a pseudonym (Jennings is not their real last name) for protection, she traded her son’s well-being for fame and fortune, proudly parading his disability on-screen for millions to see. How sad is it to see this young man suffer the way he does because his parents profiteered off his problems rather than seeking meaningful help to enable him to accept his “true self”. Sadly, Jazz will now never be able to “live his true self.” Because of a parent’s projection, his life is permanently altered. This is child abuse of a criminal nature, and TLC, the producers of the show, and the parents are all culpable.

The dilemma we now face is that Jazz is not an isolated case. Adults across the country (and elsewhere) have had their minds so mangled as to believe encouraging children to transgenderism and transitioning is a net positive. This is, however, nothing less than exploitation and sexualization of our youth. Pedophiles prey on them, parents prostitute them for pride and profit, and doctors see them as dollar signs. It has become a multi-million dollar industry between TV shows, “family-friendly” drag shows, and hospital operating rooms all lusting after our children. It is a travesty of the worst kind, and it is being fomented by adults. This is not something that children initiate, because, unless first corrupted in some way by knowledge or experience from an adult, as with Joseph in Kindergarten Cop, children are not thinking about sex or sexuality, nor are they thinking about being trapped in the wrong body (which is a nonsensical concept). They see the people around them the same way that a biology text would explain them - boys and girls, men and women. It is not about what one thinks or feels, it is simply what one is. That reality, no matter how skilled a surgeon may be, cannot be changed.

Consider the following analogy. If you were to take a bull, cut off its horns, invert its penis to make a vagina, and then give it udders, it might look like a cow; however, no matter how hard you try, pulling on those udders will not fill a bucket with milk, neither will another bull mounting it produce calves. It is simply not possible. Likewise, if one was to remove a cow’s udders, sew on a prosthethic penis, and glue on some horns, that cow might appear to be a bull. That cow, however, will never mount another cow and produce offspring. It is simply not possible. Further, in the case of the bull, it will never again be able to sire offspring. In the same way, the cow will no longer have udders with which to nourish its offspring, if it is still able to bear such. In each instance, the bovine has been robbed of fulfilling the purpose for which it was created, or of “living its true self.” This is what happens when someone suffering psychological symptoms seeks a solution involving a scalpel - that person can no longer fulfill the purpose for which he or she was created.

Stories now abound of adults who have “transitioned” and have major regrets, or want to “detransition,” because the surgeries did not bring the healing for which they hoped, but they did cause irreversible damage. What then are we to do with pre-pubescents put on hormones to block puberty? Will they, once hormonal treatments have ceased, go through a late puberty? Or will it be too late? As seen with Jazz, the genitalia are affected by hormone treatments, so even if (and that is a big unknown IF) a late stage puberty transpires, the effects of the regimen may be insurmountable. In addition, if adults are regretting their surgeries, where is the justification for permitting operations on minors who are not even permitted by law to decide to get something as simple as a tattoo, which likewise (until recent years) was pretty much permanent and irreversible? There is none. Neither is there rationale for encouraging a child to seek to live life as something he or she is not. Just like tattoos only change the appearance of the skin, sex change operations, now called gender affirmation surgery, only modify the appearance of genitalia; though unlike tattoos, these surgeries also destroy function. For parents, or any other adult, to push such meaningless mutilation upon a child is absolutely heinous. To do so should carry the weightiest of consequences for all involved, except those precious victims - the children.