A Trans Woman Finds Her True Face Through Surgery

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, Wnyc, David, Arts, Yorker, Society & Culture, Storytelling, Books, New, Remnick, Politics

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2018

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The staff writer Rebecca Mead recently observed the seven-hour surgery of woman she calls Abby. (To protect her privacy, Abby’s real name was not used, and her voice has been altered in the audio of our story.) Abby, who is trans, had undergone hormone therapy, but her strong facial features still led people to refer to her as male, which caused her severe emotional pain. She decided to undergo a reconstructive procedure called facial feminization surgery, in which a specialist would break and reshape her bones. Mead spoke with Abby before and after the surgery about what it would mean for the world to see her as she sees herself. Plus: The poet Ada Limón moved to Kentucky and fell in love with horses all over again.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is World Trade and
0:03.0	The One World Observatory
0:06.0	Is the straight of the block for West Boulevard and make that right?
0:09.0	They didn't break that, but they have pretty good access to those people.
0:14.0	They're actually, they're just...
0:15.0	So that's...
0:17.0	So that's happening.
0:20.0	It seems like an incredible story here on many fronts.
0:24.0	From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production
0:28.9	of WNIC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:32.6	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:34.3	I'm David Remnick.
0:38.1	I'm happy to say I had never been in a surgical theater before.
0:43.4	I've never undergone surgery myself, and I've never witnessed a surgery as a journalist
0:47.9	before, and I'm quite squeamish.
0:51.5	That's Rebecca Mead, who's been a staff rider with the New Yorker for more than 20
0:54.8	years. In December, Rebecca sat in on a surgery, and it was seven hours long. What she observed
1:02.2	was miraculous, but some of it's a little difficult to hear about, so heads up or stomach down.
1:09.4	It's a little after 7.30 in the morning, and we're in the operating room.
1:14.3	There is an iPhone plugged in, and throughout the operation, this will be playing music,
1:20.1	mostly Britpop from the 1960s.
1:25.4	Abby is in a violet-colored surgical gown, and she's lying on the operating table.
	...

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