Sculpting trans bodies
A constant note of the human experience is that we all have bodily autonomy to do with our bodies as we wish within the bounds of the law. This is as subjective as the societies we live in, with notions of bodily autonomy ranging from abortion to euthanasia, with things like tattoos, piercings, body mods, and plastic surgery falling into a spectrum ranging from small through to extreme. Our bodies are not the prisons of our mind, and bodily autonomy as a fundamental right of the human condition is always in tension with wider society, especially when it comes to how we medically intervene with ourselves. Trans bodies have long been sites of medical intervention based the idea that alleviating gender dysphoria through medicine is a holistic good. However, while sculpting bodies through scalpel and medication provides lifelong relief, it also opens up questions of how ethical it is to assume that the medicalisation of trans bodies is the dominant solution for gender dysphoria.
As someone who has sculpted their body to affirm my gender identity it is easy for me to say that medicalised intervention is laudable and worthy. I have been on hormones since 2000, had gender confirmation surgery in 2008, and then a tracheotomy in 2009. Hormones have given me curves and a traditionally assumed female bone structure. Yet, none of this alone has affirmed my gender, it is the holistic approach to moving through the…
