I <heart> the Discovery Channel
Discovery used to be all wolf cubs and panda bears, but the last few times I’ve snagged some late-night TV-viewing, I’ve found it less Wild Kingdom and more… real-life Survivor.
Sort of a cross between televised competitions and grisly medical show. With a few sensationalstic quasi-news shows thrown in for good measure. (For instance: Did you know? That the teenagers? They have the sex? I found this out from the DC special Teen Sex.)
So I when I find myself awake at 4 a.m. in the morning after too many delicious cups of late-night coffee, utterly amazing food, and even finer conversation… what am I watching?
A Lifetime-filter-filled docu-drama about gender-reassignment surgeries.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I tend to believe people who say they know integral things about their bodies and minds. It seems perfectly rational that the malleable bits that make up ‘male’ and ‘female’ could totally get swapped, just like the bits that make up, oh, every other variation in the human genome.
Gender reassignment surgery (GRS) is legal, available, and fairly safe. Safe does not mean risk-free, but patients are and should be carefully screened to ensure that, for them, the benefits outweigh the risks.
If GRS is what someone wants, and something they are willing to endure, something they need? Why not? It would be cruel to forbid it.
However, was I really prepared to watch a penis being skinned? I’m still not sure.
March 1st, 2006 at 3:45 pm
The answer to your final question is “no.” No one is ever prepared to see that. Even the doctors performing the surgery have to supress a shiver of revulsion each and every time. In fact, that you even asked that question when the answer is so astonishingly apparent indicates that you are still suffering from shock.
March 5th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Hmm, well I wainted a bit to consider whether I was in shock (since being in it would keep me from recognizing that I was), and I’m guessing you’re totally right.
Noone is really prepared to see that sort of thing. But it’s on television. Which is where the people are supposed to put the stuff that people want to see.
So that means that somewhere, someone, wanted to see that.
Which sort of scares me. Especially since it might be me. Or something.