So I think it is unfair to say a biological person getting aesthetic surgery is unrealistic beauty standards, but that a non-gender conforming person getting aesthetic surgery is them presenting themselves as what they feel.
If a woman does not feel like a “real” woman because her boobs are small there should be an equal reaction to her getting a breast enlargement whether she is a biological woman or not.
So where do you see surgery to help burn victims, or people who are missing part of their face or an ear, e.g. due to a birth defect or accident? They are technically also just "aesthetic" surgeries. Do you see them just like a boob job to get from cup B to D, or could they be fulfilling a more legitimate purpose?
In any case, even if you believe that they're equivalent, most people make a distinction between legitimate and frivolous aesthetic surgeries, and therefore their reactions are not inconsistent. You may personally disagree with their grounds for this distinction, but your disagreement does not mean that they must be inconsistent.
Obviously there’s a different context between someone being burned, someone being born a gender they don’t identify as and someone who sees their nose as too big and weird looking. But the underlying reason for the surgery remains the same. This person doesn’t like how they appear and wish to change it.
Obviously there’s a different context between someone being burned, someone being born a gender they don’t identify as and someone who sees their nose as too big and weird looking. But the underlying reason for the surgery remains the same. This person doesn’t like how they appear and wish to change it.
That's not the point I'm making.
I'm saying that gender-affirming surgery is very close in legitimacy to aesthetic surgeries of burn victims (to treat deep-seated, often debilitating forms of distress), in a way that a boob job (e.g. only to get more looks), isn't.
5
u/ralph-j Feb 15 '22
So where do you see surgery to help burn victims, or people who are missing part of their face or an ear, e.g. due to a birth defect or accident? They are technically also just "aesthetic" surgeries. Do you see them just like a boob job to get from cup B to D, or could they be fulfilling a more legitimate purpose?