Susanna Says

"TS...sk!"

Hi, girls:

Without doubt, there are individ- uals who should have the operation. It is not hard to visualize a condition in which surgery is the only solu- tion. Experts in the field, such as Dr. Benjamin, do meet them. There's hardly any trace of masculinity in their personalities and they are a miserable failure in their attempts at living a man's life. Frequently their bodies also show a few--some- times many womanly traits even before hormone treatments are started. It is logical that these

individuals should be turned into females, and it seems that many do make a satisfactory adjustment and proceed to lead fairly normal lives.

So goes the standard preface to the subject. Actually I am not par- ticularly concerned with TS's although I've always felt somewhat sorry for them. The amount of adjusting is simply phenomenal. What con- cerns me is the TV who thinks he is a TS and is not a TS. I've known a few. They are mesmerized by the thought of just being a GG. Take four weeks off your job-put yourself under a surgeon's knife . . . and there you are... meet the new Sophia Loren . . . or better still, a reincarnated Marilyn Monroe. I admit: it's a beautiful dream . . . the trouble lies in the fact that it's just a dream and when you try to turn it into a reality it turns out to be a nightmare. In fact, such obsession is the expression of a most childish, immature, superficial and retarded—I was going to say neurotic (but I won't) personality development. I like to compare such

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