Trans racial person having surgery to be Korean

He seemed genuinely very lovely in a TV programme that I happened to catch.

But I think he's kidding himself and he needs MH support not surgery.

I used to share a clinic with a place that did fillers and Botox. I was very pleased wants to overhear them turning down a young woman from having more minor surgery who looked about 18 and was obsessing about very little lines on her face. Body dysmorphia is Horrible.

Fascinating where the interviewer asks "Couldn't you just be you, couldn't you be happy like that?" (or words to that effect) and Oli straight up says no, I'm not happy as me, low self-esteem, never been happy etc.

That is absolutely key to this and the whole identity bandwagon in all its forms.

If it's not mentally ill to inflict so much unnecessary surgery on a healthy body for aesthetic reasons then what is?

He does not have the look! He doesn't look remotely ethnically Korean! Not that that's the main point, at all, but it's what struck me.

Also there's some confusion over being "Korean" - you could work towards getting Korean nationality presumably, just as people of any ethnicity can be or become British.

That's different from imagining that you are ethnically Korean and having surgery to try to imitate it, which is a lost cause. But he could still be Korean in the first way without an issue.

OhHolyJesus I like that interviewer, some very good questions and really got to the bottom of it, without being insensitive or cruel.

I don’t think he’s necessarily mentally ill. If I was younger and had tons of money, I would probably ‘identify’ as someone better looking and throw enough money at it to make it so.

At least he’s not trying to take things away from Korean people. And he’s not making death threats at Korean people. You just cannot draw a parallel with TRAs. There is no comparison.

It's peculiar that when there are press articles about ean, they don't use kor's preferred pronouns that kor has chosen for eanself.

I hope kor doesn't find it too distressing when the press doesn't respect ean enough to use kors choice. It must be so invalidating for ean.

Looks as Korean as my backside.

London has said that he deep-down recognises that he isn't actually Korean, he admits to some degree that it is a pretend as a result of a strong interest, maybe even may I say, an unhealthy obsession, with a Korean pop band and the Korean culture (though, like Rachael Dolezal, I suspect there is more to it than that).

I can understand why people find this offensive, (I find it offensive in a cultural appropriation kind of way, mostly I find it disturbing that he is lying to himself so effectively and others are enabling his delusions) though I don't think anyone should receive death threats, he does show some kind of understanding of reality, he has just chosen not to live in it.

Is he moving there so to fully engage in the culture or just having surgery?

I think surgeons have a lot to answer for in enabling/encouraging people with this kind of mental illness.

Whatever happened to “do no harm” for the medical profession.

He clearly struggles with his mental health and I don't think all this surgery is doing him any good. It's sad.

That said, it's very interesting to watch the TRAs and 'be kind!' types on Twitter insist that Oli claiming to be neither a man or a woman is real and true and valid, and you're a transphobe if you question it - but his claiming to be Korean is clearly culturally appropriative if not racist, and not true at all.

I'm sure both facets of 'identity' are believed equally strongly. So what's the difference? They never can answer.

I wonder if he can speak Korean?

"The thing is, when I do surgery, I'm happy for like two months, and then I want more."

Mmmm.... Yeah..... Kind of a big clue right there, pal.

Seems like he's got quite a severe mental health issue plus loads of money to burn - I imagine there's lots of unscrupulous surgeons in countries like Turkey and Thailand which is why it's easier and cheaper to get these kinds of things done there. Really sad to see it unfold.

He's mentally unwell but having watched him talk he's also quite sweet and self aware.
I hope he find happiness in a cruel world.

Good grief.

I'd like to think no surgeon would touch this but that's probably not the case.