Sweden – Film – "The Regretters" – Reveals the aftermath of sex reassignment surgery when you've made the wrong choice...
Women Born Transsexual
By Suzan
08 February, 2011


http://womenborntranssexual.com/2011/02/08/sweden-film-%E2%80%9Cthe-regretters%E2%80%9D-reveals-the-aftermath-of-sex-reassignment-surgery-when-you%E2%80%99ve-made-the-wrong-choice%E2%80%A6/


"Do you have to be either a man or a woman? Can't you just be you?" asks ->-bleeped-<-in. He and Johansson are the two subjects of the Swedish documentary film Regretters. Both are transsexual, and have either completed, or are in the process of completing a male to female, and back to male transformation. "I don't know who I am," says ->-bleeped-<-in. "Sounds complicated," responds Johansson. ->-bleeped-<-in replies, "No, it isn't, believe me."

There, and back again: Regretters reveals the aftermath of sex reassignment surgery
What happens when you've made the wrong choice

By Corey Pool
Staff writer
Published: Tuesday, February 8, 2011

http://www.theconcordian.com/arts/there-and-back-again-regretters-reveals-the-aftermath-of-sex-reassignment-surgery-1.1966411

In a black room, dimly lit and fit with only two chairs and a projector, Orlando ->-bleeped-<-in and Mikael Johansson sit down to discuss their journeys through a gauntlet of gender bending operations.

->-bleeped-<-in, who underwent one of the first successful sex reassignment surgeries, spent 11 years as a woman, married to a man. Once it was revealed that ->-bleeped-<-in was a transsexual, his marriage collapsed. Johansson, who always felt he had more feminine qualities, decided to have the operation late in life. Post operation, Johansson admits he felt immediate regret, and spent the next eight years trying to come to terms with his decision, and planning its reversal. 

[...]

"Identity, and the search for identity, is far more complex than you might think," explained Marcus Lindeen, playwright, journalist and director of the film. "It is certainly not so black and white." Regretters is Lindeen's debut documentary film, an adaptation of his play of the same name. The film is a conversation through which we are told the story of two people and their journey through their lives, questioning gender, identity, and attempting to come to terms with who they are, and what has brought them to where they are now. "This is a very respectful portrait of two human beings," said Lindeen.

Something is not quite right in these claims.

These people have not gone back. They had their male genitals removed, but subsequently, chose to live as men. This isn't reverting. That is lifestyle choice.

Speaking for myself, I would love to have corrective surgery on my ugly bit. Once I have done that, I will live as I choose. I don't see why I should feel compelled to live according to someone's estimation of how I should live. It isn't anyone's place to tell me that I can't live with my wife, or that I must wear a dress.

I can't remember the last time my wife wore a dress. I know that she has never, in her life, chosen to wear a dress. Always, as is appropriate to the situation. I have a photograph of her, at about 12 or so, going to her first communion, in a white dress, with a veil, (watched over by her formiddable grandmother!!). She looks like an awkward boy in a dress.

The claim that, after surgical correction of this fault, I or anyone else must live according to a set of notions of how women should live is sexist and frankly demeaning.

The issue with these people is their disatisfaction in the assigned role. Their problem is their failure to embrace the opportunities that modern surgey has provided, to see beyond the binary gender.