I still don't get it.

[zianuray]

From the outside -- as an observer, a neighbor, a friend -- why should someone choosing to have GRS be a bigger deal than someone having a facelift or rhinoplasty or "boob job"?  "My body/face don't match what I feel like, so I'm getting that corrected."  I do understand (believe me!) that to a spouse or other life partner GRS is a huge deal, or to a parent or an adult child (though I understand that less), but as the next-door neighbor or a co-worker or someone passing by on the street, why should I feel threatened, get all judgemental, etc.?  As someone whom a particular situation does not affect, how do I even have a right to make my opinion known if I dissent, much less thrash a stranger in a restaurant?  

Granted, my early training was in a particular Christian sect which was fairly judgemental, but even at that I tended to keep my yap shut and be polite to people and just pray for them afterward.  

Comments

[rebeccafiddler.livejournal.com]

In general, people tend to be very uncomfortable with situations about which they have no knowledge or background information. For some people, that can stimulate curiosity, but for others, that translates into either fear or hatred.

Because this particular topic involves a subject that is still often labeled as 'taboo', the latter reaction tends to be more common and much stronger as a response. There is very little one can do to mitigate it; the only way that I can think to avoid it would be to move to another part of the country/world, where one's previous 'life' is unknown and no one is likely to be comparing the before and after.

[reynai.livejournal.com]

Surgery to intentionally change a feature is still looked down upon by mainstream America, as far as I am aware. Prosthetic plastic surgery is vanity. Vanity isn't good, but is understandable.

GRS has to do with sex more explicitly. And sex is always worse. Always.

[akaemilyrose.livejournal.com]

She (Zia) doesn't 'get it'.

Any further questions why I love this woman so much?

[alrescate.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard about that attack. Horrifying.

[anabeladb.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of it is due to the transformation process. People who have cosmetic surgery do not have to pretend their breasts, nose, buttocks are smaller or bigger to see if this is what they want to do. (And maybe they should, but that is another conversation.) Someone who is having plastic surgery can show up around their friends as if nothing happened. Those familiar, no matter how familiar they may be with the individual, might see something different, but can't put their finger on what it is.

A person who is going through GRS does not have the opportunity to to just wake up, come out of the hospital after a 1-2 hour procedure and pretend like nothing happened.

We will never be able to change the stupid. However, I wonder if doctors will change the procedure to better serve their patients so they may not have to suffer at the hands of those who choose violence.