“[Expletive]! I’m trans! I gotta go!”

May 10, 2022 1:21 PM

How Ben got his penis: Phalloplasty — the surgery to make a penis — has grown more popular among trans men. But with a steep rate of complications, it remains a controversial procedure. (nonpaywalled link)

"Surgeons at all four programs I spoke with confirmed that phalloplasty is on the rise. All claimed wait lists of over a year. This increase in surgery has set off a frenzied cycle: better access, new techniques and more doctors, but also an influx of less-experienced doctors and urgent calls for better analysis of outcomes to help bring down the complication rate."

posted by praemunire (5 comments total)

I have to pull some quotes:

“Shower was AWESOME!!!” he posted to Facebook. “I got to hold my dick a bunch of times.”

A few months later, in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a stranger wondered aloud if he was in the wrong bathroom. “I was like, ‘Want to see my dick, bro?’” The man apologized, and Ben relieved himself, relieved. By this measure alone, the surgery was a success.

By April, when we met again at N.Y.U. Langone, he was excited to get hard, but more excited to go soft. A month at half-staff had been somewhat awkward.

A few minutes later, Ben took out his phone and put on King Missile’s college-radio standard, “Detachable Penis,” which he said reminded him of his life before phalloplasty.

“I think about it all the time. Touch it all the time. Look at it all the time. It’s my favorite thing to do.”
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:12 PM on May 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Sorry, but is this a discussion mefi needs to have?

Phalloplasty is an extremely charged topic in transmasculine communities and I, for one, do not need to hear cis people's thoughts.
posted by hoyland at 3:13 PM on May 10, 2022 [6 favorites]

Also, in case this post stands, cis people, you need to understand that the sea change in surgery access (of any kind) for trans people in the US was the ACA and, in particular, the HHS rule that went into effect in 2017 reading trans exclusions as contrary to the sex non-discrimination provision. It wasn't "progress" or "acceptance" or whatever platitude, it was long, hard work put in in the hopes the government would one day give us some modicum of equality.
posted by hoyland at 3:20 PM on May 10, 2022 [5 favorites]

I'm really glad this article exists, if only because of the relatively nuanced description of the "protagonist's" process towards figuring out he's a trans man. So many depictions of trans people leave out that nuance in favor of a very simple "he knew he was born in the wrong body" narrative, which completely ignores how complicated the actual process can be for many people, and makes trans people feel illegitimate if they didn't know from an early age (and how could you know if you didn't even know being trans existed, or if you thought it only applied to people who fit that simple narrative?).

I imagine some cis people will read it for sensationalist factor, but the medicine in the cream cheese is the gender nuance.
posted by lunasol at 3:24 PM on May 10, 2022 [3 favorites]

still not as bad as those articles about how i do the dishes all wrong
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 3:30 PM on May 10, 2022