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Girls who feel like a boy inside, boys who feel like a girl. A Dutch photographer and journalist have brought out a book on transgender children who opted for a sex change at an Amsterdam hospital.
For the past seven years photographer Sarah Wong and journalist Ellen de Visser have been following 11 Dutch children on the way to a new identity. Their photos and reports give a glimpse inside the lives of children born in "the wrong body".
In the book, the children's personalities develop, they talk about their decision to opt for a sex change, and their doctors and psychologists explain their work with the children and the dilemmas they encounter.
More:
Inside out (English language edition), photography Sarah Wong, text Ellen de Visser
Publisher: De Jonge Hond
Hormones
At the VU Medical Centre’s gender clinic in Amsterdam, dozens of transgender children have been successfully treated to make their bodies match their feelings. From the age of twelve they can start taking drugs to hold off the start of puberty, and when they are 16 they can start taking sex-change hormones.
Starting early brings major advantages. It limits or prevents psychological problems, and sex-change operations look better because the children haven’t developed secondary sexual characteristics during puberty. The unconventional Amsterdam approach is now being copied by clinics in other countries.
Sarah Wong’s photos of transgender children were first published in 2003 in Dutch daily de Volkskrant.
The report on the often neglected phenomenon of transgender children generated a huge response both in the Netherlands and abroad.
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There is no way to change your body...have to live in it ...until the end..
Your body changes on a physical level every day. When you learn, your neurological pathways and the very structure of your brain changes. When you choose to eat junk food or choose to take up exercising, you are changing the physical presence of your body. When a person's organ is defective, meaning it is not functioning properly, a surgeon can replace the organ (giving a viable substitute). Essentially, their bodies were not constructed properly. Who is to say a surgeon should not change the body to better the life of an individual? We created prosthetics for children born without arms or legs. We do not tell the child that he or she must live with the way he or she was born, unable to move of his or her own accord. We work to find a way to help the child find happiness. Why not help these children find their happiness? Because the separation of gender has a social construct attached to it that emphasizes the separation?
I think it is time for the world to change and the social constructs should not be used to judge or limit others in their pursuit for happiness in this life.I am quite happy these children have found happiness.
There are many ways in which we people born with the medical condition of transsexualism can change our bodies to match our minds, shall we say. Thank heavens for that. This is a medically recognised and treatable condition. It is not about choice, nurture, single parent families, or any other societal influence or lack there of. As with other physical conditions in need of treatment, this is no different. It does not involve sexuality nor sexual practice. It is extremely debilitating for those involved, until treatment commences.
So think again Jasmin, before you post, about something you know nothing about.
I think all of this is absolutely fantastic! I can't imagine how frightening and confusing it must for children to deal with this sort of thing and I'm so glad someone is *listening* to and working with them. I also honored to see the photographs of some of the children. They are lovely and all appear happy. Thank you for sharing!
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