Elliot Page undergoes “lifesaving” “top surgery”

[OnWednesdaysWeWearMink]

BBC R1 news beat has just reported that Elliot page has undergone “life saving” “top surgery”.

Here is the related web article: www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-57239448

This reporting perpetuates the narrative that people will commit suicide if they don’t get the right sort of treatment. I find it deeply irresponsible. Does anyone know if Samaritans are tackling this sort of coverage in their media guidelines? I’d hope work is going on behind the scenes as they are a fantastic charity. (I assume they are not captured?)

A double mastectomy is usually lifesaving when it comes to breast cancer... so I find calling an elective cosmetic procedure lifesaving pretty insulting. But that’s just me being petty and not the main point.

You mean it's one of the only few places that isn't an echo chamber, and other voices and opinions are allowed however much people wish they weren't?

Of course. Absolutely. I welcome their facts and reason. As I said. Brings sunlight to the situation. It's great. ☺️

This narrative is always so bizarre - sounds exactly the same as conspiracy theories do

You may think so. I wonder how many women here have been booted off of twitter for simply stating biological facts. There's women losing their jobs. Court cases against them. Arrested in front of their children. Law being misrepresented by stealth and deceit. It sounds like a conspiracy theory doesn't it. But it's the world we're living in right now. Hence Mumsnet being the only place where biological reality can be discussed freely.

@Wannabangbang

It is lifesaving for a trans person. Only on Mn do transphobic people come out for all to see. See. It frequently on these boards.

Not necessarily, trans are an increased suicide risk after surgery as well as before.

Something has just occured to me.

I used to know a young man who was a goth, pretty well.
He said to me once that I was missing the point about goths.
That it wasnt about the clothes, being a goth was telling the world that that person was in pain.

Is trans the new goth?

If being trans isn't a medical condition, why does it require "lifesaving surgery"?

Is trans the new goth?

I would suspect for some, yes.

@KFleming I wonder what social media guidelines are for someone biologically female who identifies as male who has not had a mastectomy - can they show their nipples now? Or in sports like swimming? Surely it's 'transphobic' to make them cover up like women have to!

He said it was "lifesaving" - those were his words. No one "perpetuating a narrative", they're telling a specific story of one specific person using the words that that specific person used to tell their own story. Stop trying so hard to be offended.

I'm new here, but have been trying to support a friend with a daughter who has decided they want to be male.

I can see that looking at this article would make it seem like a great plan to have surgery, with all the positive comments from celebs etc

Not very balanced reporting from the BBC. And unsure about the 'lifesaving' narrative.

@ItsAllGoingToBeFine

If being trans isn't a medical condition, why does it require "lifesaving surgery"?

Body dysmorphia is a medical condition

How is it lifesaving exactly? Surely if someone is suicidal they need psychiatric help not surgery?Please explain

What the surgery does is temporarily displace some intense and dysphoric feelings. This is not the end of the journey, though. The negative feelings that found a focus on the breasts, will now find another outlet. The surgery offers temporary relief from suffering only. And to say it is 'life saving' is hyperbolic, and demeans the phrase.

Also such public celebration and exposure, in itself, cannot be healthy.
It is like watching a young person unravel in full public view. This is what social media and celebrity culture has brought us to.

Well, this is scraping the barrel of "trans things to complain about".

Jesus.

@lightand

Something has just occured to me.

I used to know a young man who was a goth, pretty well.
He said to me once that I was missing the point about goths.
That it wasnt about the clothes, being a goth was telling the world that that person was in pain.

Is trans the new goth?

Punk, goth, emo, trans. To me they're all about feeling misunderstood, feeling like you don't fit in or you're somehow different or 'wrong', being in pain or causing yourself pain, physical or emotional. This is also why so many children with asd are trans because that narrative generally fits their life.

Body dysmorphia is a medical condition

Correct. The recommended treatment is therapy/support groups etc and possibly anti depressants. No mention of surgery or other means of altering the body.

I'm sure this thread won't last too long as it's about an individual in the public eye.

Has Elliott explained why being male requires having a certain type of body? I do feel for them if they have body dysmorphia on top of being transgender but I think it's a bit transphobic to deliberatelyd conflate the two.

You can be a trans man with a "feminine" body and I worry that this is setting some sort of line that there is some sort of matching of gender and bodies that needs to take place. When many trans people have argued the opposite - that any body can have any gender.

Body dysmorphia is a medical condition

What sort of medical condition do you think it is? It's not a physical condition. And we can't call it a psychiatric condition anymore.

@Wannabangbang

It is lifesaving for a trans person. Only on Mn do transphobic people come out for all to see. See. It frequently on these boards.

IT isn't though. That's literally the point. You can't just keep repeating it to make it true.

but I think it's a bit transphobic to deliberatelyd conflate the two.

Why?

In a previous job my boss was allowed time off for a boob job. She was a male to female trans person. All fine.

BUT IT WAS TEACHING! She was allowed time off during the exam term which would have been utterly unthinkable for anybody else. If anybody in that school had asked for time off for a boob job there is absolutely no way it would have happened.

Every time anybody covered her lessons for those six weeks there was rage.

It's insulting to call this surgery lifesaving. Ridiculous and untrue, as well.

@Wannabangbang

It is lifesaving for a trans person. Only on Mn do transphobic people come out for all to see. See. It frequently on these boards.

This is spot on. Why should Elliot Page having elective surgery generate such a response on this site? There are 3 responses people seem to have:

1. Don't care - irrelevant to my life.
2. Very happy for them.
3. This is an outrage. Where's my keyboard?

Transphobes choose only one of these.

@Pandoraslastchance

How is it lifesaving?

I had a single mastecomy due to breast cancer and wasn't suitable for immediate reconstruction so I asked for them to do a double mastecomy. Got told no as they won't remove healthy tissue. So I spent 2.5 years with one tit. That played a right fucking number on my mental health I can tell ya.

It's a cosmetic surgery. I'm sick of the suicide baiting that takes place at the moment. If I don't get what I want immediately then I will throw a strop and threaten suicide to get it!! Blackmail anyone?

A while back a MNer who was offered reconstructive surgery post bc surgery turned it down for a year and was then ready to consider it. When she enquired about it her CCG no longer funded it for people like her.

I, too, would benefit from the upcoming distinction between what makes it cosmetic and life-saving for some groups. Especially if some groups would be able to declare an uncontested need for referral (a logical outcome of some organisations' 'vision for the imagined future in which we should all live').

EP is free to have any surgery available. It doesn't affect me, so I don't care one way or the other. But that doesn't change the fact that it's not a "lifesaving" surgery.

@Erikrie

but I think it's a bit transphobic to deliberatelyd conflate the two.

Why?

Being transgender is about your inner gender identity. To say that certain genders need to have bodies that appear in a certain way is quite exclusionary. Body dysmorphia is a separate condition that doesn't require any existence of or change to any gender identity.