Our society dictates that beauty is a commodity and pain is its currency. When we feel compelled to shave the hair off our bodies or to wear only what we believe we can pull off, we participate in a culture of self-modification, driven toward pleasing others rather than improving ourselves. Often our first impressions are based on the exterior. We are visual creatures, so anyone who appears to be different draws our attention. A person of transgender experience must adapt to the typical conventions of social acceptance—dressing a particular way, maintaining a certain weight—but they must also bridge the disparity between how others see them and how they identify internally. This divide invites curious glances that can escalate to hateful glares and acts of violence.
Image Source: Guido Mieth
61% of transgender individuals are victims of physical assault, and 64% have experienced sexual violence. Although transgender individuals comprise an estimated 0.3% of the US population, 41% have attempted suicide. In addition to the burden of living in bodies inconsistent with their identities, trans individuals cope with a greater likelihood of discrimination, harassment, assault, police violence, and homicide. Those without the financial means to alter their appearance to align with their gender may even resort to procedures provided by so-called “pumpers,” people who administer hormones or silicone injections without a medical license. Hormones and injections are one possible step in the transition process, but they may help trans women appear more feminine, a change that can hold more significance than genital reconstruction. In theory, these pumpers would be delivering a remedy that trans people could not access otherwise. In practice, the business has dangerous consequences, perpetuated by the inaccessibility of gender confirmation surgery.
While price is a barrier to those who are uninsured, back-alley procedures endure as a cheap alternative. But in many cases, such unsanctioned treatment can cost patients their health and even their lives. Rajee Narinesingh, a woman of transgender experience who sought facial modifications in 2005, went to an unlicensed practitioner nicknamed The Duchess. The Duchess injected Rajee’s cheeks, lips, and jawline with a “medical-grade silicone” that actually contained tire sealant and cement. The procedure was excruciating, but Rajee gained the feminine features she had wanted. She enjoyed positive attention for a year, until she woke up with enlarged boils on her face, painful and eventually bursting with bloody pus. The dangerous injections further emphasized Rajee’s “otherness,” and years of plastic surgery were needed to remedy the effects of the illegal procedure. This is just one instance of an under-the-table practice gone wrong. Transgender victims of botched procedures cannot detach themselves from the same labels they sought to escape.
Beauty may involve pain, but obtaining it should not require sacrificing safety. There are sound medical procedures available, yet most who seek gender realignment cannot access them. Transgender individuals are already at risk of violence in the community; they should not have to worry about danger in healthcare.
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