Will Minors Be Medicalized for Non-Standard Body Modifications?
NEWS COMMENTARY
A recent story in the Dailystar features two non-binary-identified biological females who have just had top surgery. There has recently been an increase in females who want to bind their breasts or remove them altogether. Ash Hardell is a very popular YouTube celebrity who documented the breast removal process on YouTube. Soon after her partner got top surgery and did the same.
The type of top surgery these two had involves removing the nipples as well.
Nipple dysphoria isn’t something that has been highlighted as it realties to gender dysphoria in previous research. Currently there isn’t really proof that this is true “gender dysphoria” for all of these individuals. It may be some other type of body dysmorphic condition. There is some evidence non-binary-identified individuals have more mental health problems than binary trans people. The worse mental health of the individuals in some of these studies is attributed to some worse form of oppression and lack of understanding they receive from society. The possibility they could have other deep rooted issues is often unexplored by these professional psychologists for some reason.
Non-binary identifying treatment seeking transgender youth are at increased risk of developing anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem compared to binary transgender youth. This may reflect the even greater barriers and feelings of discrimination that may be faced by those whose identity does not fit the notion of binary gender that is pervasive in how society views both cis- and transgender populations.
There are more people modifying their bodies for “nullo” identities as well. Some information on this subject on this website may be found here. A surgeon who performs these surgeries can be found here.
Another quote about non-traditional medical treatments under the umbrella of “non-binary” or “no-gender”:
“People from the 'nullo' community don't want to have body parts like nipples, a belly button or genitals which determine if you're a man or a woman," explains Archaniol.
And:
Nullo is a subculture within the extreme body modification community where men with phalluses surgically remove their genitals. Being nullo is not comparable to being transgender and having sexual reassignment surgery, as nullos desire being completely gender neutral and without genitals. There have been instances of women within the nullo community, in which a female will have her clitoris removed and her labia stitched up.
These individuals are adults, over the age of 25, who have body autonomy (“my body my choice). Whether insurance and public health care systems should cover “nipple dysphoria” or nullo surgeries is another question. And surgical body modifications on minors who are not cognitively mature is also another question.
Given that there is current positive support from affirmative model advocates to medically transition “non-binary” minors, it is worth asking if minors will be able to request medical techniques for more unusual body modification requests like nipple removal or clitoral amputation for nullo identities. Since these are all basically “non-binary” identities and non-binary identities have support for medical transition from people at UCSF and elsewhere. This may sound odd but doctors are already doing mastectomies on twelve year olds and vaginoplasty under the age of eighteen. And with a “let the child lead” affirmative ethos, why would a youth be given a non-binary double mastectomy as a tween but not nipple removal only. Or just testicle removal or clitoral removal for nullo identities. Given the hormone blocker to estrogen protocol appears to destroy sexual function in trans girls in some cases, a nullo genital aputation for more “body comfort” or “desired esthetic” in reality isn’t much different.
Jesse Singal covers a case demonstrating a young “non-binary” person, fairly ambivalent about hormonal effects, being affirmed by psychologists and medically treated by doctors.
The pair of females in the first article cited received a lot of positive feedback, as many in the current culture have very positive attitudes about binding and top surgery. Should this be the case with minors who are reporting that they become more popular when they come out as trans or non-binary?
The images received a positive response, racking up more than 6,250 likes, shares and comments.