A friend of mine went under the knife one month ago today for sex reassignment surgery.
Since then she's been spouting off lately about how it really hasn't changed anything; how she's still disgusted with her own body. She's extremely worried about body hair, her height (6'1"), and her breast size (an AA cup), so she obsesses about them to anyone who'll listen.
What bugs me about this is that she's fallen into the trap of believing the same things about beauty as any given advertising agency, that you have to look like Laetitia Casta or Estella Warren to be considered beautiful. I find it difficult to understand why she's chosen to believe these things, because after all, a month ago she got what she most wanted in life (her own vagina), and with or without that, she's still a beautiful person when she's not whining. If I were her, I'd be happy as a clam right now. (Pun most definitely intended.) Watching/listening to her be so self-depricating lends an air of uncertainty to the other trannies she knows (like me); what if I end up like that? What if I end up suicidal and mentally broken after SRS? What if everyone thinks I'm disgustingly ugly and wouldn't touch me with a stolen dildo/dick? (Dildo for me -- I'm of the Lesbians! Monkeys! Soy! school of sexual orientation. The lesbian part, anyway.) She doesn't seem to have any desire to live at all anymore, not for herself or for anyone else, due to her preoccupation with finding a man that would find her attractive.
What's the point of taking estrogen and testosterone suppressors for years, of spending $26,000 (USD) on SRS if it's only going to make you feel worse?
Come again?
Working out why she feels so disgusting just flies straight over my head like a beer can thrown from a redneck's pickup truck. One of the most important aspects of internal gender issues is to be happy with what you're becoming, right from the start; otherwise you'll never succeed in becoming what you want to become. Yes, I still look and talk like a boy, so what? My hair and breasts are steadily growing, my skin is softer than ever before, and I already act like a girl most of the time. Gender transitioning is a joyous, if stressful, ride; Why let it end in misery?