The Butt Injection Black Market
LINDSAY BEYERSTEIN, AUG 9, 2013 4:49 PM
http://inthesetimes.com/duly-noted/entry/15445/transgender_women_in_the_butt_injection_black_market/
This week, the Associated Press ran a very sad story about women who are being maimed and killed by black market buttocks injections. The story portrayed these tragedies as byproducts of female vanity and ambition. The real story is probably much more complicated...
Whoever else is getting butt injections, these treatments have long been popular with trans women seeking a more feminine appearance. Two years ago, Laura Rena Murray had a brilliant piece in the New York Times documenting the struggles of trans women in New York who turn to the black market, at great cost to their health, because they can't afford proper medical assistance for gender transition. Maybe the AP reporter has uncovered a silicone injection subculture populated exclusively by cisgender women, but I have my doubts...
Why is it important to talk about the transgender dimension of black market silicone injections? Because it puts the phenomenon in context. The AP story makes it sound like women are getting these procedures as purely cosmetic surgery. That narrative obscures the fact that some clients are resorting to dangerous black market injections because they can't afford mainstream medicine for gender reassignment.