Cosmetic or required?
As you know, transgender people often use various cosmetic surgeries. I say cosmetic because they are considered as such by a large majority of the population. Everyone knows that many rock star and movie stars have used rinhoplastie, the breast implants or face lift. They use these surgeries only to improve their image. They want to match the idealized image of the body of their gender. Every women want look like what they believe to be the ideal woman. That’s why I say cosmetic surgery.
But what about those who might really need these surgeries? Let’s try to find a few cases. First, I believe that people who had an accident really need these surgeries. In their cases, interventions are known as reconstructive and not cosmetic. It is often the same surgery or a very similar technique for cosmetic or reconstructive. There are also people who were born with malformations. The fact that they are different makes their life more difficult and they are victims of prejudice. They may also have a hard time to find a job. Those we need these surgeries to help them to function better socially.
There are also those who are suffering psychologically from their physical appearance. Beware, I am talking about heavy cases. I’m talking about people who are completely unable to leave their homes. Those who when someone looks at them, they automatically drop in anxiety crisis. Those also have a real need for these surgeries. We can say that the line is thinning between people who undergo these surgeries to improve their look and those with heavy psychological suffering. For both cases, it is a matter of acceptance of their difference. We must not forget that it was a time when these people did not had these surgical remedy to their psychological distress. We all already heard about the village fool. These people had no choice but to accept their social role of “fool” and not to expect in a better life. This is where the concept of suffering degree, associated with their position, start. It is therefore important to explain this difference.
It is necessary to identify the motivation of each one towards surgery. It is this motivation which changes the cosmetic surgery in an surgery that improves life quality of patients. It is really difficult to judge their motivation. In the case who someone is rebuilding his nose because he does not love his nose, the motivation is cosmetic suffering. This suffering may have different degree. For some, it’s simply that they wants improve their look and suffering just their own vision for themselves. Others imagine what others think them. This vision is distorted and they believe that the others just watch their nose. Personally, I think these first two cases need to work on themselves or receive psychotherapy.
In another way, there are people who are looking differently and actually live a traumatic experience every time they leave home. I resume my example of the village fool who can not hope better that the rank of fool because of his different body. Today we have surgeries and people who are really suffering of their differences, have a solution. It’s because they experience traumatic experiences often, that they eventually want these surgeries. It is because they are in contact with others that they start to suffer of their difference. The eyes of others and the comments they makes. Le village fool wasn’t born fool, he became fool because others said that he has fool.
The same applies to transsexuals. They may have their differences. Take the case of a transsexual woman with very masculine facial features. It is impossible that people will not look at her? Even she looks as normal as possible, peoples will always looking at her. From that day when she decided to live as a woman, psychological distress related to their physical difference is about to begin. Like the village fool, this person will suffer of unsightly look and comments of the people around him.
There is nothing wrong to be different but in the social context in which we live, it’s hard to live this discrimination. Peoples should be able to accept differences of others but that day has not arrived. Meanwhile, people who are different have two choices: continue to live their difference or expect to have access to surgery, which could make their appearance more in line with social norms in which we live.
I believe that in the context where people are having trouble being accepted socially and it was identified that the suffering is heavy and it is caused by the eyes of others, body modification surgeries should be accessible to all. In a context of public health services, the cost of surgeries needed to transform the body of transsexual patients, should be covered by the public system. The same goes for private systems, where insurance companies should cover such cases.
