M2E

M2E

The term eunuch is being used contemporarily by a small population of men who seek emasculation via surgeries or even self-mutilation, as well as by men who seek various forms of chemical or physical castration for aesthetic or other purposes.  Of course these men, as they express and present themselves to one another online, don’t articulate their desires for ‘eunicity’ as disordered. They express many things common in trans discourse: 

• descriptions of gender dysphoria

• transitional effects of hormones

• physical impacts on their bodies

• changes in sex, sexualities and attractions

There has been some attempt to study these men and their motivations:

The physical castrations were largely premeditated, with an average of 18 years from the time that an individual developed interest in being a eunuch to the time of their actual castration. We identified four factors that may promote castration ideations: (i) abuse sustained during childhood, including parental threats of castration; (ii) homosexuality; (iii) exposure to animal castration during youth; and (iv) religious condemnation of sexuality. (Johnson, et al, 2007)

This is what Joey Alison Sayers has named The Trans Discourse Minefield -- a sharp contrast in how trans folks are speaking about themselves to each other, versus how the outside worlds of family, society and the medical establishment speak to trans people.