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CallaFirestormBW -> RE: Is there a manual or can you give advice on a Penectomy or Penis Nullification? (1/24/2009 1:34:49 PM)
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Not saying that this is the case here, not having talked to either of the parties involved, but just on a general note concerning sanity and other things... Having met and spent some time with individuals who are acrotomophiliacs and apotemnophiliacs, I've started to look at this more as many people looked at gender dysphoric individuals some 30+ years ago. In general, most of the individuals I've met who have fetishes in this area are pretty down-to-earth people, and pretty well adjusted. There is just a part or several parts of the human body that they just don't believe belong there (either on their own bodies, or on someone else's body). For them, the piece(s) hang out like, if you'll pardon the expression, sore thumbs.
A couple of individuals here have commented on the idea that men who want penectomies don't like being men... actually, that's nearly as far from the truth as saying that men who -crossdress- don't like being men. MOST of the penile apotemnophiliacs I've met while doing pastoral care for the body modification community LOVE being men -- they just hate their penises. They run about 70:30 homosexual:heterosexual, but my experience has been that that is, in part, because it seems to be easier in the gay community to find someone willing to do the amputation. The ones I've met have shown no desire to be female--though a couple have said that, if it were the only way to get their penis cut off safely, they'd try to go that route (which I think is sad, that they'd even have to consider that).
In one way or another, every single human being is a little crazy, so if this is their way, so be it. Unfortunately, since the medical profession tends to be excruciatingly judgmental about procedures (they'll hyperinflate a woman's breasts until she can barely stand upright just because she demands it, or completely re-shape a person's face for the asking, but try and find a plastic surgeon who will do a penectomy and it's like they suddenly poofed into oblivion.), people have gone in other directions to get the work done that they wish to have done.
I do recommend to someone who asks me about having a limb amputated or body part significantly changed (pretty much any change short of dying hair, and including mods that I do like piercings, brandings, and cuttings that can't be undone) that they talk to the people who are close to them about their decision, and make sure that they've both seen something like the end result that they're anticipating and set up a support network to help them through the readjustment phase. I remind the folks who want to have things removed like arms and legs (in the same way that I remind patients who are losing limbs to illness) that it is important that they prepare for the loss, be prepared to grieve it even if they know it's the right thing for them, and that they have arrangements made for physical therapy and occupational therapy after. When the genitalia are involved, though, many of these steps get left out or forgotten. I always find it strange that doctors are willing to do prophylactic mastectomies for women and prophylactic penectomies for men who have a family history of certain cancers but no sign of cancer themselves, but if the person wants a mastectomy or penectomy because she or he hates having breasts or a penis and the organ(s) feel un-natural to the person, that person is likely to be denied as a 'flake' or as exhibiting 'mental illness'.
I agree with my stepdaughter. She likes the sci-fi idea of the constantly mutable body, where you can go to a "body shop" and be completely re-designed at will. She thinks that it would make the world a much better place if people could just look the way they wanted, do it safely, and we could all just get on with living.
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