Be content with what you are

THE Holy Bible says God created man in his own image. So why would one want to undergo surgery to change their sex? Last week, I was stunned when I was going through one of our local papers and came across a headline "Male teacher set to return to classroom as a woman after gender surgery.

This got me wondering what on earth is happening in this world.

A man undergoing surgery in order to become a woman?

"At first I thought it was a joke, but when I got deeper into the story, it was said that the teacher is said to have throughout his life struggled with his gender identity therefore he is undergoing the process of gender reassignment and had actually been allowed to give up work for the rest of the term so that he can begin planning for his new life.

This means that after the operation, the biologically born male teacher who will be identified as a woman will be known as a transwoman.

This seems weird.

Mind you the operation, rather the reassignment is surgical and it involves genital reconstruction, facial feminisation, breast augmentation, donor uterus among other additions and subtractions to be made on the person.

However, the surprising part about this whole procedure, according to research, sex reassignment surgery can be difficult to obtain due to a combination of financial barriers and lack of providers.

Why would a man want to change into a woman and why would a woman want to change into a man?

Adam was created in the image of God as a man and there is nowhere, anywhere in the Bible where it was written that Adam was not satisfied with being a man so he asked God to turn him into a woman.

The same as Eve who was created as a woman, but she never asked God to turn her into a man.

Why would one want to change their biological outlook?

Is it because they fancy being what they are not?

Or maybe is it that they have female hormones when they are male which push them into facing their reality?

Is it that they are so adventurous such that they want to explore the life of the opposite sex?

Or is that they are not satisfied with what they are?

These are some of the questions which came into my mind, but with no definite answers.

Okay one may be turned into what they desire, but there are some negative effects to it which may be complications of the surgery itself, requirement for a reoperation, regrets with the whole process, surgeons may construct a body part using skin grafts taken either from one's thighs or buttocks which may also leave one with disfiguring scars, sensitive genital tissues may be forever lost affecting one's feelings.

On positive effects,  maybe there can be one which is, a person may feel that their dream has actually became  reality, dream come true.

But still another question comes into my mind, what exactly does one gain by going through all this trouble and labor, really?

What about the people around, that is family and friends, how are they going to react to the new development?

Like this foreign teacher, he was being addressed as "Mr" so when he returns after his surgery he will be addressed as "Ms".

I am glad that so far in Zimbabwe no such case has been publicly reported which means that people are proud of what they are unless these cases are being dealt with in private and secretive manner.

However, I would like to believe that in Zimbabwe, men are proud of being men and women are proud of being women.

That's great.

Let us say a married woman with a family decides to undergo such a transformation into a man, what would the kids call her since she would have turned into a man?

Will the husband be able to stand the fact that there are two men living under the same roof?

I cannot judge, but I believe that would be impossible especially with us the black people.

What we tend to forget is that being yourself, what you are, you play an important role in life and in the society.

Hence by turning into something else your role may also be distorted and even affect those who are around you.

If you are a man you have a role to play as a man and if you are a woman you also have an important role to play as a woman in the society.

This reassignment whether male or female will also mean changing some habits, changing friends, changing the environment and outfits etc.

But why put yourself under pressure over unnecessary things?

It is better to be content with who you are and what you are.

Leave up to your desirable standards as a proud woman and proud man.

Don't envy to be what you were not meant to be because you might try to undergo gender surgery and never wake up from the surgeon's bed.

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Mandy Kanyemba is a freelance journalist. You can get in touch with her on genderwithmandy@gmail.com