The March 2006 issue of Details is apparently on the newsstands in New York City. I just fielded a telephone call from a CNN reporter about it. I will write my own comments on the article when I get a chance, but this is the thread to post any and all comments about it.

Have at it....

Once again, another article that focuses solely on the issues of being a pedophile (as it starts off dramatically with the almost-rape of a 10 year boy by a castrate-wannabe), the issue of being a sex maniac, and written to portray the interviewees as just plain nuts.

(No pun intended)

To Mr. Bart Blasen-what's-his-name:

Please meet me in Indy so I can kick your ass all over Monument Circle!

And don't post on this Board again.

Spank you very much, for yet another embarrassing piece of trash that portrays this Community as a bunch of witless psychos.

Rot in hell, you piece of shit.

As one of the people featured in the article...

It was written about how I expected it to be going into it, so I have no disappointment there. My quotes were exactly as I said them, however some embellishment was given, but generally my quotes are in context to what I said.

That said, I am quite convinced that only three people in the article are real and the other two are not quite what they appear. Granted, those other two may surprise me someday and turn out differently as I had similar accusations thrown at me until I actually did something.

While I understand Paolo's disappointment, overall it was much less of a slasher piece than the GQ article a few years back (GQ is also owned by Fairchild publications) and the American Eunuchs "documentary."

In the end any press is going to do at least *some* good as the medical community needs to stand up and help us by realizing that with gender/body dysmorphic issues that it isn't a simple matter of A and B. There are many different people in between A and B which is where I happen to fall.

I would sum it up this way... it could have been better, but it is a move in the right direction. It wasn't as bad as what I've seen out in the past, so perhaps we are moving the needle a bit.

--LT

Details review

My own feelings about the Details article fall somewhere between those of Paolo and Losethem. The first paragraph is extremely bad and incredibly negative but, if the reader persists, there are some postives in the article. Overall, it's much worse than I had hoped, but better than most of the press to date.

If you ask anyone in the “general public” about who is most likely to be castrated today, by far the most common answer would be “pedophiles and convicted child molesters”, especiallly molesters of little boys. Even though most pedophiles are attracted to little girls.

The use of “James” as the first example in the Details article plays straight into that prejudice. If James is honest in his statement that he was voluntarily castrated (by Dr. Kimmel) to reduce his overactive libido BEFORE he molested a child and caused permanent damage to him, he should be treated as an honorable person. All of the prison time and psychotherapy out there seem to do very little to deter repeat offenses by those who have molested small children. James may have taken the most effective route to prevent his someday committing a crime. It's important that it was (1) voluntary, (2) done before he had committed any criminal act, and (3) done with full knowledge that he can probably never take any testosterone supplements in his life.

Pedophiles, and those who are voluntarily castrated out of fear that they would become pedophiles, however, make up only a tiny percentage of the eunuch community. The number of child molesters judicially castrated per year in North America is probably less than the number of men castrated PER HOUR, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, for treatment of prostate cancer.

From all that I can tell, pedophiles and potential pedophiles who were voluntarily castrated make up an extremely small percentage of the voluntary eunuch community represented on the Eunuch Archive. I have met only one, and he was interested in adolescent girls.

The two people interviewed in the article with whom I have had contact seem to come across much better and are fairly accurately portrayed. Chris gets last place in the article, but comes across as level-headed and intelligent. The note that he's currently remodeling his 1950s three-bedroom house makes him seem more like the guy down the block than a freak with a strange obsession. He sounds like someone who would help to organize the annual block party and who would be invited to all the neighborhood backyard BBQs. The article leaves you wondering if he might possibly be the nice young guy down the street who's so much fun to talk with.

I just got off the phone with Brian Smith. In all of my conversations with him, he comes across as much brighter and more creative than he does in the article. There are hints of it in the comment that his bookshelf ranges from Dostoevsky to Ann Rice, that the living room has Buddhas and Bibles. He has a wide-ranging mind and likes to play with interesting ideas. I'd like to catch one of his performances as “Kentucky Johnson” and his “hick-hop” music. He's much more than the typical college student, yet his carefully reasoned decision to become a eunuch is nowhere discussed in the article.

The article is no where near as good as it could have been with the resources that Bart Blasengame had available, yet it may be the best piece yet published on the voluntary eunuch community. Let's hope that something better yet comes along.

My perspective on this article (which I have not seen, and don't intend to read) is that they write what sells. It is about money, not truth and reality.

In a more general view of the "news industry", I have lived all over the world, including so-called "communist" countries, and have come to realize how bad the press and media are, especially in the USA. One of the advantages of living (as a retiree) outside of the USA is that I don't see/watch much of the crap coming out of the USA. I have found the BBC, Radio Deutschewelle, and even Radio Moscow to be much more credible sources of [professional] news. It has become commonplace for the news industry to put their commentary on events, rather than just reporting the events. CNN is especially bad, even though they market themselves as honorable/honourable.

I just read the article and I am stunned, at a loss for words and angry. Bart did not answer his own question at the beginning of the article and he did not represent the majority of the eunuch community. I will write more after I have read it a few more times and have calmed down.

What made me so angry about this article was that I knew it would turn out like this. They always do. No matter what the initial inquisitor says or promises, they always end up doing harm to this Community.

For those who haven't read it, the article begins with a sensational bit of writing that one might find in the fiction archive here - a pedophile stalking a little boy because he wants to rape him...or worse...we could infer from the story. This person then goes on to seek castration to control his urges.

Right off the bat, the Community is portrayed as a bunch of child-stalking pedophile freaks. Not a good intro, but one that hooks the reader in.

Next we come to the misquotes, things in "" marks that weren't said at all.

Then we have the man seeking castration without support of his significant other. More questioning, questions that are never really answered.

So WHY do some men seek castration?

Don't read this article for a valid answer.

Missing is any intelligent discourse on the Community, or any real comments that I am sure that the Members involved with this travesty would have said. I think I know that those involved would have had much more to say, and it wouldn't have read like this article, had the reality been printed.

Is it too much to ask for someone to do a story, written or video, and provide some kind of proof that the "eunuch or wannabe next door" is just as normal and mundane as everyone else on the block? Why must we here always be portrayed like some sideshow freak, to be ogled and ooooh-aaaah'd at?

But then again, that wouldn't sell at all.

My offer to kick Mr. Blasengame's ass still stands, though.

Paolo wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:36 pm My offer to kick Mr. Blasengame's ass still stands, though.

Oh Hell!, Paolo, Let's just castrate him. Maybe then he would get a little sympathy for what he didn't understand...



A-1

I'll make sure my bladder is empty the next time I walk past Paolo's corn flakes.

Wow, that wasn't a flame it was a thermonuclear detonation!

Sorry for raving everyone, I've edited this entire post to give a more calmer opinion (without the soapbox!)

It was worse than I'd hoped but better than I'd expected. It did highlight the diverse nature of the community, but I have several bones to pick with it:

Demeaning and Vulgar Language

Every castration or sexual refererence seems deliberately worded to shock and appaul. The article opens with a vulgarly worded question "Why would a healthy, normal man want to slice off his testicles?" - very graphic and deliberately shocking phrasing. It could easily have read "Why would someone want to become a eunuch?"

Other minor statments that could have been more respectfully worded:

"...that mass of tissue and sinew gripped in his left hand will be gone" (page 128) "...had his testicles lopped off by his wife" (page 127) "Men Who's dangling manhood is a milestone" (page 127) "Raging hard-on" (page 128)

"I like a smooth crotch, and tight pants with no bulge" (page 126). While I can imagine some may enjoy this, it is something I can quite safely say I cannot identfy with in the slightest.

Getting off on the Wrong Foot - All Eunuchs are Pedophiles

It began trying to answer the opening question with "James" - probably the worst possible person to start of anybody interviewed. While I admire his decision to be castrated, the carefully detailed description of how he planned to lynch a 10-year-old boy from the street and spirit him away in his car made me feel physically sick inside. And then claiming that "God wanted me castrated" - a religious fanatic and a very dangerous person. (sorry if you're reading this, but that's how it seems to everyone who doesn't know you!)

Bart then carefully generalizes his focus on "James" by issuing the statement "Parhaps the most sympathetic subset of eunuchs, though, are men like James..." (page 127) I'm not like James at all and resent him being used as an architypal member.

Gender Question Not Addressed

Although the article gives individuals experiences and reasons for castration - it never even attempted to address the gender dysphoria aspect. There were some excellent quotes by Tom Johnson, that I thought were much more representative of the community.

Who knows - maybe I was expecting too much from Bart? He is only the scribe after all. Possessing no mind of his own, and not being part of this community, he can only write what he's told.

So I suppose it could have been worse.