Xie Xiaoxing won "Best Camera Image" in the Fujian regional heat for Miss China contest. The contest organizers thought that Xie was a woman - but it turned out that he was a man ... on his way to become a woman!
The organisers assumed he was female - but he had only had the first phase of surgery to turn him into a woman.
Mr Xie says the Fashion Beauty Plastic Surgery Hospital in Fuzhou city had offered him a full sex change in exchange for him advertising its services.
"After the first phase of surgery, I stopped for a while to deal with some personal issues, and when I came back last autumn they'd gone bankrupt," he said.
Mr Xie says he isn't sure now whether he's a man or a woman and can't even get a job because he can't confirm his gender.
I can surgically alter a dog to look like a pig, but in the end, it's still a dog.
Anybody with me?
Seriously though, she's pretty. Sad that happened to her though (yes, her), but Thailand is pretty close; that could be another option.
Gender is wired into the brain, biology isn't perfect. Of course not everyone gets the matching body. A little empathy?
On that note, why does this article repeatedly refer to someone who has declared themselves a woman as 'he'?
Because HE has a Y chromosome. Unless HE can afford some kind of revolutionary gene therapy, HE will always be male.
Changing a dog into a pig isn't an apt analogy, since those are two different animals entirely. You can neuter your boy dog, but that doesn't make him a girl dog.
I'm not against him changing his body if he can afford to; I just find the reasoning a little specious. You don't need to justify it with "gender is wired in the brain; biology isn't perfect". That just makes it somehow sadder.
A. No you can't.
B. And if you could it would be a much happier dog - providing it was the dog's choice to live as a pig.
C. Analogies are stupid and a total waste. One thing is never like another. Ever. And in this case simply not even close enough to bother with.
"Sex" refers to male/female genitalia; "gender" refers to the social function of a sex. Those who undergo a sex change often feel they are a gender opposite to their sex and that the operation is simply setting things right, giving them an outward physical nature to match the inner.
I'd say biology is more rigid about male/female, except that it really isn't; gender even less so. If you disagree with the dissociation between biology and mental/hormonal conditioning, then you are welcome to challenge the anthropological and sociological fields with your well-researched treatise on the nature of sexuality as it relates to gender.
@Naysayers: Heres a question for you; would you hit it? (granted the full surgery was performed) If not, why? Because he used to be a man? He's a woman now though!? If you would hit it, well, you win.
SEX refers to the biological make-up, ie: boy/girl sex organs, chromosomes; GENDER refers to the socially constructed identity in which you recognize yourself. it's different with humans because we have a free will, whereas DOGS do not. it's inaccurate to compare this to a dog changing to a pig; those are two different species. only 1% of the US population is born with ambiguous sex organs, and if it seems as though one might be more prevelant than the other, doctors will go ahead and "correct" it by removing the lesser of the two. just imagine-- you're born with both sex organs and they "correct" you to be a girl. what if later in life you found out about this and your entire perspective is turned upside down because you could have been someone else? everyone in your life has known you as a girl, but now you feel like you've been denied a certain truth. just imagine the mental anquish you put yourself through.. the pressures of becoming a teenager ON TOP of not even feeling how you're "supposed" to. imagine telling your friends and family that you no longer identify yourself as a woman, rather, a man who unfortunately now LOOKS like a woman? what if your parents are die-hard Christians and don't support your decision because that's not what "God" wants? And then the story changes if you're still attracted to men then you'll be a GAY transsexual. then you'll be cast out by your parents, men and women alike, AND the gay community. wow, what a predicament. many people in this situation end up committing suicide. many other people stay in the closet and live a lie, completely tearing their insides apart and denying their own free will to appease societal standards set by people who say "if you're born a man, you will remain a man."
i'm sorry, but society sucks. people are ridiculed for being BORN a certain way. they're discriminated against and brought down to a "tolerable" level, and we wonder why minorities commit more crimes. just think about what you say before you say it, know who you're talking to, and don't make assumptions that Xie Xiaoxing wants to be called "he" just because he was born that way.
What are you when you find have to out that you are not or no longer be able to procreate due to some erectile dysfunction which about every 4th American is suffering from some times during his livetime? What will you be? Only the twit?
And at least as interesting: How will you decide on the chromosomes of the lovely girl you met, when she has the right "plumbing" down there ((Plastic surgery is offering stunning possibilities..) and she doesn't tell you? How can you be sure, that all girls you ever hitted or will hit are absolut xx without any gender/chromosome anomalities eventuelly not even known to themselves?
@Bean
What's a person with klinefelder syndrome who has albeit the female xx as also the male xy chromosome as they often have some XXY? Mal? Female?
A woman with AIS (Androgene Insensitive Syndrome), who is a complete woman on the outside with female sex organs etc, where it's often only found out by chance later in live that she has a xy chromosome. What is she? A man although made a woman by nature from the first day in the womb?
But back to Xie Xiaoxing ... what the heck is the "first phase of surgery".. making half of a vagina or what???
And the "isn’t sure now whether he’s a man or a woman" and "can't confirm gender" ... what??? He/She doesn't know it him-/herself? And is definig him-/herself by what's (or not is) there now between her/his legs?
And a chinese employers want to have a look at body cavings and doesn't decide on the gender by the passport/papers or as he/she is presenting him-/herself? Strange and weird story!
Notice the woman in the picture is quite comfortable identifying as a woman. Those of you who protest "BUT HE'S A MAN" are the ones with the problem.
My point was you don't need to justify your sex change to the world by saying "I was born wrong."
If this guy's comfortable living his life as a woman, he doesn't need to justify it to us.
I certainly have no problem with him doing it, as I said, if he can afford to. But simply removing your sex organs does not make you any less a man than one who, say, lost his genitals in a war.
Maybe one day they will have a treatment that will change people completely. If so, more power to those who would make such a choice.
I have to want to "hit it" for her to be a woman? That's rich. Explain why I feel like hitting you right now then.
heh. kidding. couldn't resist.
But it'll do.
Apparently this person satisfies some of you by simply declaring that he is a woman. Or are there other requirements? Do you have to dress like a woman, wear make-up, have plastic surgery, have hormone therapy? No, he only has to "identify" as a woman.
If a man thinks he is a woman, he probably needs psychiatric help, not surgery. We wouldn't have this argument if the guy thought he was Santa Claus; why does it apply when he thinks he's female? He can put on a red suit, implant rosy cheeks, and take hormones to make him "jolly", but he ain't Santa, and he ain't a girl. Now I will wait to be called a hateful bigot.
That is just a question of how advanced medical technology is.
Actually, I was just trying to correcting your vocabulary. If you're going to make an accurate argument about gender identity, you should use the correct words.
And she does need to justify herself if people refuse to refer to her as female. People can be very ignorant about a lot of things; perhaps informing/correcting them could (ha) make a dent in their ignorance.
Would anyone refuse to call someone by a nickname, because their birth certificate says something else and even if they're trying to present their name as something other, they're still really that original name? Even if they legally changed their name to the nickname-- hey, after all, that's not the name they were given at birth. Same idea, different scale; both tie into a person's identity. One just requires a more dramatic alteration.
Yes, I got you didn't care what he did under the knife to be a she. I am amused, though, by the thought that this wouldn't even cross most people's minds if they walked past her on the street, and even the naysayers calling her a him, had they no other knowledge, would title her a Miss and might make passes at her without a second thought. Unless you've been in someone's pants, you don't really know what's there. =p So, for the casual observer, her identity is as good as 100% female, and should be addressed as such.
I'm not trying to make an accurate argument about gender identity - I'm giving my opinion on a subject.
As for calling him a her, I wasn't uptight about that, either. Just pointed out what the article says: he's kinda stuck as neither.
Anyway, I didn't really mean to pick on you in particular, since I did actually notice you took a moderate view of the matter, so I apologize for that. I went from addressing you to the "room" in general in a few places. Sorry for blurring the lines between the two.
The official recommendations from PSA re: gender dysmorphia are that once you have established by certain stringent tests, and therapy sessions, that a person's gender (psychological/internal male/femaleness and social constructs of masculinity/femininity) is different from their sex (physical male/femaleness), the treatment will seek to reconcile this difference by changing SEX and thus treatment should continue as that person wishes, including and up to the point of 'sex reassignment surgery'. So the way to 'do [something] about [it]' is to reassign sex, so that sex and gender will match. This is not *at all* criminal in most first-world countries.
The surgeries do not change the gender as this is psychological; it is arguable that they change sex as certain characteristics will remain. What is important is how the person can get by in society and how they feel they fit in. Even if you still feel they are their original sex, what does it matter? Are they hurting you?
No, she is a woman who has lost her ovaries. (i knew this would be the first response)
"I have to want to “hit it” for her to be a woman? That’s rich. Explain why I feel like hitting you right now then."
As in; get freaky. And no, I was just stating that if these people really recognise Mr Xie as a woman, they wouldn't have a problem with it.
The "hit it" thing was a joke btw.
At best I would say he's a dude who believes he's (should be?) woman, trapped in a "woman's" body.
I would like to put forward a question: What makes a human, human? Do you have to have a way to reproduce to be human? Do you have to have two hands? two feet? two eyes? Do you have to look like a human to be human? Do you have to think that you are human to be human?