S04.E02: Weighty Issues

[J. Matazz]

2 hours ago, gingerella said:

I'd like to know what it's like to be transgender day to day, enough with the bottom surgery, we all know it's not going to happen any time soon due to the obviously glaring fact that no two reputable psychologists would ever give Jazz a letter right now anyway, and she probably won't do anything long term to drop the weight either so all this surgery talk is moot. It's like th producers think we're all really, really stupid and not following along. 

Was told her surgery is in June, if weight loss goes according to plan (continuing). Have to think letters are had by now, but that's personal speculation.

 

That said, if you want to know about my boring day to day with bottom surgery, please hit me up in a private message, since this section is about Jazz, her life, show, etc. as someone who lives this daily-I love answering questions for people!

[gingerella]

Given how fucked up Jazz is, emotionally speaking, I would think that she'd have to be in counseling for quite some time before being deemed ready for surgery, yes? Every time we've seen her in a counseling situation she reverts to being a pouty, petulant child, so any counselor would immediately see there are issues. Also, I cannot imagine, given what we know about Jazz, that she was, or will be, successful in losing 30 pounds because she thinks her losing weight is only about some excuse, which she seems to loathe, and eating salad, which will make anyone fall off the wagon because it's boring. Her weight issue is emotionally driven binging because she won't deal with unresolved issues. So again, I just don't see how she could get any letters until she'd been in counseling for at least a year or more to see real change.

[Caracoa1]

I suspect getting bottom surgery will not resolve a lot of Jazz's issues...she may lose the required weight for surgery but will most likely gain it all back within the year.....then what? Will she be happy and fulfilled? I hope so...but doubt it.

[CousinAmy]

8 hours ago, Otter said:

@gingerella good thoughts adding to @Dobian's post.  I can't watch the show anymmore because so much has turned me off so I come here for updates.  It *was* a great opportunity to have a teaching moment and all involved IMO blew it.  Here's why and again my opinion only:

Jazz wanted to be a girl as a toddler and her mother accomodated her love of pink and sparkly things.  Great!  I was the opposite of girly until a teen and still never overboard with makeup and such.  Is that a litmus test?  Surely there must have been been other signs, especially with a child so young.  Why do we not hear of more?  And to be real honest, those interviews with a super-young Jazz sound way too rehearsed  There's coaching and there's coaching if you know what I mean.

As pointed out upthread, hormone blockers for children is a new medical frontier.  Why did Greg and Jeanette agree to turn their daughter into what is a medical experiment?  I understand the fear of mom about self-hurt, and maybe I missed something, but was Jazz in therapy (not with cousin Debbie) to search out other avenues besides this radical procedures?

But reason number one for be so turned off -- I have questions, lots of people have questions just based on her story.   But questioners not totally affirming are labeled "haters".  Always, and it's gotten old.  I'm not a hater ... I have some basic questions and shutting me down makes me wonder what isn't being disclosed.  

Finally, I want the best outcome for Jazz and want her to have a happy and satisfying life no matter what twists and turns that life takes.  Thanks for the updates.  :)

I remember seeing her as a little child saying she knew she was a girl. She was very insistent. I can't remember when I first "knew" I was a girl - it's not a decision I made consciously. (My brother did the rough and tumble stuff, and I played with dolls. What can I tell you? It was the 1950s and everyone just knew their place). Whatever Jazz was feeling, she convinced her parents that she was a girl.

[Dobian]

17 hours ago, Otter said:

@gingerella good thoughts adding to @Dobian's post.  I can't watch the show anymmore because so much has turned me off so I come here for updates.  It *was* a great opportunity to have a teaching moment and all involved IMO blew it.  Here's why and again my opinion only:

Jazz wanted to be a girl as a toddler and her mother accomodated her love of pink and sparkly things.  Great!  I was the opposite of girly until a teen and still never overboard with makeup and such.  Is that a litmus test?  Surely there must have been been other signs, especially with a child so young.  Why do we not hear of more?  And to be real honest, those interviews with a super-young Jazz sound way too rehearsed  There's coaching and there's coaching if you know what I mean.

As pointed out upthread, hormone blockers for children is a new medical frontier.  Why did Greg and Jeanette agree to turn their daughter into what is a medical experiment?  I understand the fear of mom about self-hurt, and maybe I missed something, but was Jazz in therapy (not with cousin Debbie) to search out other avenues besides this radical procedures?

But reason number one for be so turned off -- I have questions, lots of people have questions just based on her story.   But questioners not totally affirming are labeled "haters".  Always, and it's gotten old.  I'm not a hater ... I have some basic questions and shutting me down makes me wonder what isn't being disclosed.  

The problem with this show was evident again in the podcast.  They implied that this doctor was somehow bigoted because she isn't convinced transgenderism is determined by birth.  Well, that's her opinion and she has done enough work in this field to be entitled to have one.  It's not like she's some yahoo running their mouth off online.  But there is an even bigger thing that was again skipped over.  The issue isn't about what makes a person transgender, it's about parents making a life-altering decision for a 3-5 child based simply on what they have told them and doctors who make this life-altering alteration based on purely anecdotal evidence.  It is life-altering because stopping puberty not only stunts a person's physical, mental, and emotional growth, but makes it impossible for them to ever bare or sire children.  No 3-5 year is equipped to make that decision and no parent should have the right to make that kind of decision for them.  The critical and I would say mandatory conversation about all of these ramifications of altering someone's hormones is simply a conversation that a parent cannot have with a 3-5 year old.  I am sure, being that this is kind of the first generation where we are seeing this being done to young children, that in another ten to twenty years we are going to start reading stories about transgender adults who regret this having been don to them when they were young and even resenting their parents who green lighted it.  A child's biology should never be messed with like that.  Get them therapy, counseling.  If they want to transition when they are eighteen, that's their choice.  This show goes out of it's way to be all feel good family time, but it promotes something I consider to be very disturbing.

Edited January 19, 2018 by Dobian

[CoachWristletJen]

I agree wholeheartedly that she needs more time to figure herself out. hormones have completely short-circuited her sexual responses which may be why she is so grossed out by certain things. It’s not fair to permanently shut down the possibility of an orgasm before she’s ever even had one! She’s being treated like a lab rat at this point.

And her mom is a fame whore.

Edited February 8, 2018 by CoachWristletJen

[Caracoa1]

Is it even possible at this point for Jazz to even have an orgasm?  If she somehow did manage to achieve one I wonder how that would affect her?

[CoachWristletJen]

59 minutes ago, Caracoa1 said:

Is it even possible at this point for Jazz to even have an orgasm?  If she somehow did manage to achieve one I wonder how that would affect her?

I don't know, and I think it's very sad. A salient aspect of her sexuality has been stripped away and she doesn't even fathom what she's lost.

I'm very excited by the advances in medical science that allow people to live as their true gender! However, I am not at all comfortable with this kind of experimentation on children. I do believe that children should have the freedom to live as their true gender, but I am queasy at the thought of some of this hormone experimentation when the doctors themselves admit that they don't know what the outcome will be. I'm no expert by any means, but as I understand it, many transgender women choose not to have the surgery to change their sex organs because of how they want to experience sexual intimacy. Once Jazz has the surgery, she can't go back! I think she's rushing into it. I almost get the feeling that the producers want to schedule the surgery on her 18th birthday so that they can have a good show... What I see happening feels wrong. 

I get that a lot of her critics are just small-minded bigots who can't handle the idea of a transgender person. It almost makes me hesitant to be critical lest I be confused for one of those idiots. I want her to be able to live fully as a woman... it's going to be hard to do that without any sexual feelings. Everyone around her seems hellbent on the cosmetic aspects, and not on her inner, emotional life, and that's what's more important at this point!