I AM JAZZ

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by UsesProzac.

This is pure parenting failure right here. They did something that confused the child. I suspect this has to do with who is the alpha in the house and its obviously the mother. If your child was born with testicles and a penis then you raise them as a boy like these parents should have!

You've conflated gender with sex and exposed your ignorance in the process. I encourage you to educate yourself a bit about gender identity disorder before passing your judgments on something about which you clearly know very little.

This kid reminds of the freaky scene at the end of Sleepaway Camp.

I hope the mermaid dream is over now. Otherwise the next step is to turn he/her in a fish!!

When I was that old I also wanted to be a girl. If anyone would have supported me in that thought, I could have ended up like that too. And I would have regretted it horribly.

@TangledThorns

From what I've read in the scientific literature, they say that fetus' brains and sex develop at different points, so e.g. hormone spikes at a certain point in development can make the brain male or female, while the rest of the body develops to be the opposite sex.

(Individuals' sex can be more complicated than just genetic sex. Genetic males can grow up to appear female in every way if there are certain unusual hormonal conditions.)

I'm a little surprised by the ignorance of the comments here. Human sexuality and gender is so complex, must we be constantly reminding people that things are never simply black and white but many shades of grey?

People get over their ignorance through discussion and gathering of information...

This happens to be a topic that I personally don't have my mind made up on. I'm sure some people might call me ignorant. But I've known a few transgender people and, even after operations, hormone treatments, name changes, etc, they were still had significant mental health issues.

Sure, that's anecdotal... Maybe that's not the case on average. And I'm sure that growing up "the wrong gender" could plant some serious seeds of long term depression or set the stage for being bipolar... But based on what I've read and what I've experienced, I'm not yet willing to say that being transgender is perfectly ok and healthy.

That being said, if someone wanted to live their life that way, I wouldn't stand in their way.

This isn't a decision a 5 year old is equipped to make, and no parent should ever be allowed to make on behalf of their child no matter the age.

The "doctor" needs investigating. How can he know it's not a phase when the kid hasn't even got close to the hormone mess of puberty.

What decision did they make for her at 5 years old? The ability to dress and act they way she wanted to outside the house? Also by saying They shouldn't have the right to make a decision, isn't that in its self making a decision.

My issue with trangender lifestyles is that the idea of sex change surgery is not the same a the reality - a hole is not a vagina and from what I hear theres a lot of later disillusionment.

I think its a shame that before puberty there should be a binary choice to make. If a little boy of mine wanted to play in dresses I hope I'd just let it go by in an unpressurized way. Probably the society at large force a premature crisis and that's our failing not the kid's.

There's a lot of evidence that the early the transition is made the happier the patient will be. I think you are right on the mark about "growing up the wrong gender" playing a role. Typically adult transitions come with all sorts of co-morbid conditions probably resulting from years of denial, rejection, and often abuse.

I took a class in Behavioral Neroendocrinology and that's precisely what happens. All brain development follows a female path, unless acted on by hormones. If gonadal development occurs, it triggers the brain to become "masculine". But if this doesn't happen, then you have what happens to this girl.

This isn't a choice, or a phase, or a decision that was made by the parents to let it happen or not happen; this already took place in utero. I just hope she remains as happy and spunky as she is now and with luck, can find someone who can accept her for her.

Most people wouldn't really care if they were the opposite gender.

If you ask most women "If you were a man instead, what would you do?" they'll probably say "I'd try to be a good man." They won't say "I'd undergo medical procedures to partially change my gender to female."

I think that's a good basis from which to say that this girl is fixated... she's under the mistaken impression that (1) gender matters and (2) it's psychologically fixed, rather than malleable.


(That being said, I found this to be a sweet video.)

i'm glad to see the appropriate level of skepticism here from many of my fellow siftHeads. Lets not be blinded by liberal 'forward-thinking'. Mental health is serious, and any rational person would agree that the jury is OUT when it comes to performing elective genital reassignment surgery on children.

Did I miss something in the video? Where is genital reassignment surgery discussed? I don't think that's at issue here.

not acceptably sequitur for you? replace genital surgery with hormone injection and we are now on the same page. I don't honestly think you intend to make a genuine distinction between methods of medical interference

@UsesProzac only someone of your caliber would downvote skeptical thought. GJ

WTF! she "lives as a girl". She hasn't changed her gender at all. There is no set way for a boy or girl to behave that is exclusive to that gender. How you dress or act doesn't make you a girl or a boy. You won't find two people to agree on what it means to "live as a girl" so how about we just ignore this non-issue and let kids be kids. If you think I am wrong maybe you should take a look at yourself and think about why you think boys and girls are so different.

I have to assume these parents have spent the good part of their daughters life researching and discussing what medical procedures they would allow their daughter to be involved in, if any. I can only assume that in the end they are looking out for the health and happiness of their child first and foremost and any medical decisions in no way has anything to do with anyones "liberal forward thinking". Of course i am making that assumption.

That is no mermaid... it's a merman!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU0NLheu8mU

Only someone of your caliber would bring a straw man argument into the debate and not expect to be downvoted for it.

i very well may have confused 'Jazz' with 'Kim' (see http://videosift.com/video/Kim-Youngest-Person-To-Have-Gender-Reassignment-Surgery)

is it still relevant to the thread? absolutely. Even if it deviates somewhat from the OP? for fuck sake yes. Did you bother to read the whole discussion? not likely..

my commendation of and avocation for skepticism on this issue should in no way be interpreted as an attempt to dictate the behavior of her parents or anyone else. Also, everything you've said is spot on

This thread is about Jazz, not Kim.

People, you all know who the VS trolls are. The stupidity they exhibit time and time again is only one level above "a thousand monkeys with typewriters". Accept the fact that there really are people that stupid, stop feeding them, and just put them on ignore.

FTFY


hey pal. this thread
http://videosift.com/video/Kim-Youngest-Person-To-Have-Gender-Reassignment-Surgery
is also about GID
amazingly, it is an issue that involves >1 people !!! wow

While I do agree that mental health is as often as not an issue, I do think that this is not for me or you to decide. We are not Jazz or her parents. We should not think we know better.

I have a pink keyboard. And a penis. well.. if you can call it that.

I find this whole subject fascinating. I don't think I know nearly enough about it...

I would just say that perhaps there is a danger here of confusing gender role and gender identity. The former seems entirely manufactured by society in order to create this false dichotomy of gender. If one happens to like pink, dresses and playing with dolls does make him/her necessarily female? More often than not I'd assume they'd identified themselves as female and then conformed to the gender role, but thats not exactly always the case. Gay men might fall into female gender role but not be female etc.

I'm Chris Hanson with Dateline NBC...

For a man to "live as" a woman (or vice versa), there must already exist a pervasive stereotype of what a man or woman is. Is that the real problem?

If people could live free of pigeonholing, perhaps people like Jazz would never have anything to feel conflicted about in the first place; Maybe she would just be what she is and that would be that.

*sexuality

Adding video to channels (Sexuality) - requested by xxovercastxx.

Its clear when she was born, her brain was in the female gender position while her body was not. There are simply so many things that can go different in the body that I am in no way surprised we see a case like this. IMO however they need to act fast (I'm sure they prolly know this too) to supress testosterone levels before she hits puberty, or her world will quickly come crashing down.

Sex change is inevitable, but personally I think it is a far better route then to try drugs or even surgery to alter how the brain works. It is far less catastrophic to change the body to accomidate then it is to change the mind after so many years of working like a girl.