March 23, 2006 Issue                                               

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Sex change photos featured in new Woodmere exhibit
by JIM WEAVER

A photo of Jake following his double mastectomy. The containers on the counter top are not medications but food — peanut better, etc. (Photo by Clarissa Sligh)

Clarissa Sligh is a compelling story teller. The talented Philadelphia photographer uses her visual medium as a narrative. She is one of six artists featured in the Second Triennial Exhibition of Contemporary Photography at Chestnut Hill’s Woodmere Art Museum, March 26 through June 25. Sligh’s photographic series, titled “Jake in Transition,” is a provocative yet sensitive view of a female-to-male transsexual. When I was growing up, I thought there were boys and girls and that you were one or the other. In actual fact, it’s not that simple.

Simply stated, a transsexual is a person whose inner sense of gender identity and brain patterns is completely the opposite of what physical form he/she was born into. This is a recognized medical condition which is completely unrelated to sexuality or sexual preference. Transsexuality occurs in equal numbers among born-male and born-female people. Some have estimated that one in 30,000 people is born with the condition. However, more reliable figures show that approximately one in 2500 adult males in the U.S. has had some form of sexual reassignment surgery and has become a post-op woman.

The brain’s “gender identity” is determined very early on in the fetal growth process. Messages of an incorrect hormone balance are sent to the developing fetus, which redirects the “intended” natural development to the opposite physical gender. Once born, the body’s own hormone generators further this physical discrepancy, especially with the onset of puberty. Transsexuality is not hereditary, and a person cannot just “become” transsexual one day. This extremely complex birth condition is simply a variable in nature. Most transsexuals are acutely aware of something feeling incorrect from a very early age. There are approximately 40,000 Americans who have successfully corrected their physical gender and now live as normal, productive individuals.

Clarissa Sligh was living in Texas in 1996 working on a photo project on masculinity. “I was trying to find male images that were non-stereotypical,” she said. “Someone asked me if I had ever considered photographing masculine females. The idea appealed to me, and I was introduced to Jake, and soon after began the transition photo series.” Jake was 38 at the time, and Sligh photographed him over the next three years. The photographs were first exhibited at Rutgers University in 2000. Since then they have also been shown at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the University of Washington and the University of Maryland. The original exhibit contained 51 images while the Woodmere show has approximately 24. Several images contain hand-written notes by Sligh of her thoughts when the photos were taken.

When she first began working with Jake, Sligh described him as “a lesbian, though not a feminist, who didn’t believe in protest marches or political actions. Seemingly pretty much satisfied with the status quo, the only thing he didn’t like was being in a woman’s body. A hard worker who made payments on his house and truck, was loyal to his guns, dog and women, enjoyed watching TV and videotapes. He would occasionally throw clay bowls and cups and attend Alcoholic Anonymous meetings, but he did not lead a particularly interesting life … Working with Jake, I was challenged to consider what makes one a woman or a man. And working with him helped me to see my understanding need not be concrete, but can remain in flux.”

One of Sligh’s image from the Woodmere exhibit records the transition events: May, 1996: uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes surgically removed, placed on estrogen. December, 1996: placed on testosterone. March, 1997: double mastectomy. May, 1997: Jake and his girlfriend break up. (“What happened to him was more powerful than either one of us expected,” she said.) May, 1997: goes to court and gets name and gender changed. June, 1997: clitoris removed and silicon ball implant (to stretch skin to provide tissue for future genitalia surgery). October, 1997: defective silicon ball removed and replaced. December, 1997: ball removed again; incision did not heal properly. May, 1998: new ball implanted to stretch skin further. October, 1998: first date with new girlfriend. November, 1998: ball removed and re-implanted. July, 1999: engaged to be married. December, 1999: vaginectomy. The medical costs have exceeded $30,000. Ten years after his first operation, Jake is still having surgery. His urethra, earlier diverted to his colon, will be made anatomically correct.

On the day Jake had a double mastectomy, Sligh wrote in her journal. “I will shoot her tonight. Now that the time has come, I am terrified, no horrified, about her cutting out her female body parts. Somehow it feels like my body. Like it’s being done to me.” The next day she wrote, “As she began to remove her shirt, I thought, I hope I don’t get sick.” Although Sligh still thinks about the question, “Does the means justify the end?” she respects Jake’s decision to give up everything, including the possible ability to have sexual orgasm, in order to become outwardly the kind of sexual human being he is inside. Jake’s feeling about the mastectomy was entirely different. “Everyone was saying, ‘Oh no, you’re not going to cut off your breasts,’ while I was thinking, ‘Thank God, I’m getting rid of these tumors.’”

In 1995, Jake was receiving psychological counseling (“because I hated my body”). “My counselor suggested I read an autobiography by Christine Jorgensen,” Jake said. “It was what convinced me to undergo a sex change.” Jake was concerned how to tell his parents. “I went home to Kentucky to see them for Christmas, thinking I might tell them my plans, but did not know quite how … I was in the kitchen with my mom helping her prepare dinner, when she turned to me and asked, ‘Have you given any further thought about becoming a man?’ I was blown away.” Throughout the sex change process, Jake has received strong support from family and friends.

Jake is currently employed as a software trainer at Texas A&M University. A member of the U.S. Army Reserves, 1984 to 2000, he served in Operation Desert Storm as a woman, attaining the rank of captain. Later, he served an additional year on active duty as a man. “It was the happiest year of my life,” he said, “ I loved being a male soldier.”

Sligh is the author of two books (one to be self-published later this year) called Wrongly Bodied and Wrongly Bodied Two, which deal with transsexuality. The term “wrongly bodied” was what Jake used to describe his condition. To learn more about “Jake in Transition” visit the Visual Studies Workshop web page at www.vsw.org/exhibitions/traveling/travel.html Other area photographers represented in the Woodmere exhibit are Arnold Newman, Naomi Savage, David Graham, Thomas Brummett and Sarah Stolfa. The museum is open daily except Mondays. Call 215-247-0476.