A newly-unearthed story published in Teen Vogue last summer featured a “non-binary” 28-year-old actress wearing an open blazer to showcase scars from her irreversible mastectomy to align with her “gender identity.”
The story, “Who’s Afraid of Liv Hewson?” detailed how the actress, who goes by “they/them” pronouns, reportedly withdrew from Emmys consideration over its “gender-specific” categories, as well as her background to “discovering” she is “non-binary.”
The piece was re-circulated on X this week, with many conservatives pointing out that it glorifies irreversible surgeries for “trans” kids.
.@TeenVogue shamelessly promotes self harm pic.twitter.com/D8rQpycHEA
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) January 17, 2024
This is sickening. @TeenVogue is showcasing a young woman who cut her breasts off to their teenage audience. Stop glamorizing self harm and mutilation. pic.twitter.com/8K7JdghS46
— Gays Against Groomers (@againstgrmrs) January 17, 2024
Hewson, who is Australian, reportedly suffered from gender dysphoria and anorexia. At age 16, Hewson “began learning about feminism and queer history” and learned the term “nonbinary.” At that point, Hewson felt things “click into place,” Teen Vogue editor Lex McMenamim, who is also “non-binary,” wrote.
And, Teen Vogue took aim at some of the legislation being enacted across the country to protect children from these life-altering surgeries and “care” (via Teen Vogue):
American politics are hyper-focused on LGBTQ+ children, especially trans children, to the point of attempting to ban their existence. This ideological and legislative push is cannily framed as “in defense of children,” but in reality it seeks to punish deviations from a cisgender, white, heterosexual norm — consequently punishing anyone, including and especially children, who deviate.
[...]
Conservatives talk about trans children as a historical anomaly, a failure of modern society, a social contagion, an impossibility; but people like Hewson have already lived otherwise.
“I'm just so done feeling any shame or apology about it,” Hewson told the outlet.
“This is true about me, so why would I spend any time hiding or prevaricating around that or feeling shame and grief about it? This is who I am, and that's actually wonderful. Not only is it not a problem, it's a good thing, and it deserves space. I deserve to be in the world as much as anybody else; so do all nonbinary and trans people,” Hewson added.
In regards to her mastectomy, which trans advocates call “top surgery,” Hewson said it’s “misogynistic” for conservatives and “TERFs,” which stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” to show concern over young women who want to undergo these surgeries to be trans.
“It's really misogynistic: ‘These girls couldn't possibly make this decision correctly and will need to be stopped from doing terrible things to their bodies,’” Hewson said.
“When people talk about gender-affirming surgery using words like ‘mutilation,’ that's not very nice. Is that how you think about people who've had surgery for other things? It's a disgust reaction, and I do not take disgust into account as a legitimate point of discourse. I don't have to entertain it and I'm not going to. It's a waste of everybody's time, it's knee-jerk, it's not grounded in reality, and it's not useful,” she added.
According to Teen Vogue’s “about” page, “many of [their] readers range in age from pre-teens to late twenties.”
During the 2020 lockdowns, Ayala quit testosterone “cold turkey.” She is now suing the doctors who provided her care, as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“I still struggle a lot, mentally and physically,” Ayala said.
“I don’t even like to think about my fertility,” she added. “It is my greatest fear to go to the gynecologist and have them tell me that I can’t have children over some decisions that were made when I was 14.”
Another prominent detransitioner and activist, Chloe Cole, 19, announced at the end of 2022 that she would sue the organizations and doctors who facilitated the irreversible “gender-affirming” surgeries and treatments she endured as a minor. Cole underwent a double mastectomy when she was 15 and lived to regret it.
“My teenage life has been the culmination of excruciating pain, regret, and, most importantly, injustice,” Cole shared. “It is impossible for me to recoup what I have lost, but I will ensure no child will be harmed at the hands of these liars and mutilators. I am suing these monsters.”