Trans reality

I didn't intend to, but I ended up watching about half an hour of the show on ABC "Girl Like You" last night.   It was a documentary, made over many years, watching a young trans guy and his girlfriend dealing with his transition.

I didn't get his full background, and I have to say, as documentary it was very heavy handed.- lots and lots of music made to flag the emotions on display.   And as with all "fly on the wall" documentary, I do wonder what influence the presence of the documentary makers have.  

I also wondered why it was being pretty heavily promoted, but only being show in a pretty late time slot.   

I suspect the answer is that because the story wasn't as positive about the whole trans experience as might be expected from the very queer friendly ABC.   The story seems to be that his girlfriend thought their relationship could survive him transitioning, and it turned out it couldn't.  She broke it off, abruptly, but it was clear that she had felt the whole experience of supporting her former boyfriend very draining.  

As for the transition - it looked like he had not had the operation, just a lot of chemical treatment.  And they made the point that one of the drugs taken to achieve comes with lots of potential mental health side effects - which isn't ideal for a group already prone to depression, etc.

As often happens, I again wondered about the body dysmorphia aspect of trans, which seems such a large part of it.   We can all agree that body dysmorphia that leads to anexoria is bad and an issue that needs a mental cure;  but when it comes to dysmorphia that is based on gender bits, it's considered wildly improper to approach it in the same way.    I looked up links on cognitive behaviour therapy and trans, for example, and as far as I can tell, the only idea about using it is to help trans be happy trans - not to question whether their thoughts about how wrong their body is may be misguided.  Yet isn't it used that way to encourage people with healthy bodies to stop thinking there is something wrong with it that will only be cured by being dangerously thin?

I suppose people will say that trans ideation is not only about body dysmorphia - or isn't always.   But gee, it's a messy area full of unstated assumptions and ideas that seem to be rarely thought about by those sympathetic to their situation.

I guess it was somewhat refreshing to see a doco that didn't portray the whole issue as if all trans situations would have a happy ending if only everyone would "validate" the person going through it.  (He seemed to have lots of support, including from his Mum when he moved back in after the girlfriend left.)