How Ben Got His Penis (New York Times)

Edited

There are so many troublesome things in this article, it's hard to even begin.

In the spring of 2015, Ben got happy hour drinks with two friends at a Midtown barbecue spot....That night, he began the bureaucratic work of transition:

First time she realizes she's trans, she's also drunk.

That night, drunk at home, he ran a search for “FTM bottom surgery” and spent all night reading up on phalloplasty.

Maybe even more drunk?

He decided his next goals were penetrative sex and aesthetics, in part because he would be in a rural dating pool and would probably be the first trans guy most women had been with. At 4-foot-10 and 97 pounds, he felt he had certain disadvantages. “Women don’t like short men,” he said

Cool that she buys into gender stereotypes here.

On one hand, there’s the call to expand and improve care that has historically been denied; on the other, most of us are not blind to the fact that our bodies make good business in a for-profit system. “We’re salaried,” Bluebond-Langner said, by way of explaining that she doesn’t get more money for more patients. “Though they do incentivize us a little bit. They’ll give us more resources.”

In a roundabout way, explicitly stating that doctors are rewarded monetarily for jumping on the trans-surgery bandwagon.

And this:

Even as the frequency of surgery increases, the patient pool is not yet large enough to know empirically what cuts down on complications or leads to satisfaction in the course of an entire life.

Right before its contradictory counterpart:

In this case, she says, the risks are justified only by the overwhelming impact on quality of life. “People understand the trade-off,” she said. “But we wouldn’t accept this rate of complication necessarily in other procedures.”

How do you understand the tradeoff if there are no reliable longitudinal studies yet?

And I'm not a psychologist, but this seems like an immediate and unsustainable reaction to the whole thing...

I wondered aloud if the point of the surgery was to grant him the freedom to stop thinking about his penis.

“No,” Ben said, correcting me. “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.”

There is no doubt in my mind that "Ben" is going to be suing someone in less than 10 years.

There are so many troublesome things in this article, it's hard to even begin. >In the spring of 2015, Ben got happy hour drinks with two friends at a Midtown barbecue spot....That night, he began the bureaucratic work of transition: First time she realizes she's trans, she's also drunk. >That night, drunk at home, he ran a search for “FTM bottom surgery” and spent all night reading up on phalloplasty. Maybe even more drunk? >He decided his next goals were penetrative sex and aesthetics, in part because he would be in a rural dating pool and would probably be the first trans guy most women had been with. At 4-foot-10 and 97 pounds, he felt he had certain disadvantages. “Women don’t like short men,” he said Cool that she buys into gender stereotypes here. >On one hand, there’s the call to expand and improve care that has historically been denied; on the other, most of us are not blind to the fact that our bodies make good business in a for-profit system. “We’re salaried,” Bluebond-Langner said, by way of explaining that she doesn’t get more money for more patients. “Though they do incentivize us a little bit. They’ll give us more resources.” In a roundabout way, explicitly stating that doctors are rewarded monetarily for jumping on the trans-surgery bandwagon. And this: >Even as the frequency of surgery increases, **the patient pool is not yet large enough to know empirically what cuts down on complications or leads to satisfaction in the course of an entire life**. Right before its contradictory counterpart: >In this case, she says, the risks are **justified only by the overwhelming impact on quality of life. “People understand the trade-off,” she said.** “But we wouldn’t accept this rate of complication necessarily in other procedures.” **How do you understand the tradeoff if there are no reliable longitudinal studies yet?** And I'm not a psychologist, but this seems like an immediate and unsustainable reaction to the whole thing... > I wondered aloud if the point of the surgery was to grant him the freedom to stop thinking about his penis. >“No,” Ben said, correcting me. “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.” There is no doubt in my mind that "Ben" is going to be suing someone in less than 10 years.

[–] NoDayForADo 11 points

Yeah I've made some bad internet purchases while drunk (looking at the drum set in my living room) but at least I have never signed on for a penis.

[–] YoureNotaClownfish 1 points

Oh wow, do you play them now?

News How Ben Got His Penis (New York Times)

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