Sex, Gender, Becoming - PULP

12 Amanda du Preez
presented must also pass. On the FTM Passing Tips Homepage one is
confronted with a list of messages, ranging from advice on ‘abdominal
binders’ to ‘fake stubble’ and ‘adding foreskin on the modified
Softie’. 38 All these strategies aim at transforming female-to-male
transsexuals into ‘men’. The requests and advice deal with attempts
to fit in and pass inconspicuously as the correct ‘other’ sex. Most of
these passing strategies are geared at not being uncovered while
attempting to pass, in other words, at avoiding being caught out while
passing.
The medical procedures that can assist in the transformation process
are also not only intended to change the patient’s genital sex, but in
fact incorporate a complete physical body makeover – a remarking of
the signifiers of the apparently erroneous body. If one browses
through the online notes of plastic surgeon Douglas Ousterhout,
entitled ‘Feminization of the transsexual’, 39 his intentions as an agent
of the medical profession become very clear: ‘My main objective in
this surgery is to make you as feminine as possible, in order for you to
be as comfortable as possible in your new direction. When the surgery
is completed, we want you to be seen as a female.’ Besides sex
reassignment surgery, hormonal therapy and electrolysis, Ousterhout
also offers transformational operations and surgery, including
complete forehead reconstruction, for ‘females tend to have a
completely convex skull in all planes’; 40 chin and cheek bone
reconstruction; scalp and brow re-positioning; thyroid cartilage
reduction; breast augmentation; body contouring, such as abdominoplasty
and trunk contouring. This set of surgical procedures is
extremely expensive and moreover, constitutes drastic technological
interventions into the patient’s physical body. The body of the
transsexual becomes a cyborgian dream of grafted constructedness,
for little remains of the ‘original’ body. Yet these techno-medical
interventions do not guarantee a successful passing rite, for —
ironically — it is the degree to which these changed attributes are
effectively embodied that guarantees successful passing or not. The
mere fact that the patient’s physical attributes have been changed is
not enough; without the ‘correct’ gestures, tone of voice, facial
expressions and body language, the ‘correct’ sex on its own does not
secure successful passing.
Consequently, even though a transsexual may physically acquire the
‘correct tools’, the success of transsexuality ironically lies in
convincingly putting on appearances and, in fact, in how these newly
acquired tools are re-embodied. Addressing this issue, Griggs explains
38
http://www.geocities.com/FIMPPass.htm (accessed 2 February 2002).
39 DK Ousterhout ‘Feminization of the transsexual’ (1994) http://www.drbecky.com
/dko.html (accessed 15 March 2002).
40
DK Ousterhout ‘Feminization of the transsexual’ (1994) http://www.drbecky.
com/dko.html (accessed 15 March 2002).