Washington D.C.-area plastic surgeon comments on Bruce Jenner's interview with Diane Sawyer
Robert K. Sigal, M.D., says there are many kinds of heroes – and Bruce Jenner is one.
There’s brave, and then there’s “Bruce Jenner brave.”
That was my reaction to watching Bruce Jenner’s interview with Diane Sawyer. For the few left in America who aren’t aware of Bruce’s story, a brief recap: Olympic gold medal hero decathlete in the 70’s, failed husband times three, determined father, peripheral star of reality TV show “Keeping up with the Kardashians,” and now LGBT hero. What a life! But why call him a hero now?
As plastic surgeons who help transgender patients better cope with their gender identity, we at Austin-Weston see the pain these people deal with constantly. They come to us, usually for feminization, after years of struggle with ostracism and self-doubt, looking for a measure of ease in a hostile world. By the time they get to us, many have found some way to make things better – they’ve found support in the LGBT community and they’ve made peace (to the extent they can) with those close in their lives – but the path to our door was too often tortuous. Attempted suicide is over 30% in the transgender community.
Listen to Mr. Jenner (and I yield to that convention as Bruce does not yet refer to himself as Ms. Jenner), and you hear him tell of his personal struggle – of trying on his sister’s dresses at a young age, of hormonal treatment and the blessing it was for him in the 80’s, and most lately of the fear he had of ruining his children’s lives by publicizing his story – and you ask, “Why would this person want more pain? Why would he sign up for that?” And that’s the heroic part.
Sometimes life puts us in a position of inevitability. A pilot loses engine power over the Hudson and brings the plane to a safe water landing. A plane crashes into a Washington D.C. bridge in winter and freezing survivors are pulled to safety by onlookers who rush into the water without regard to their own lives. You’re there and you react. Some react “heroically” and some not, but there was no long contemplation involved where consequences could be teased out and examined. No real alternative. Nevertheless, we call these people “heroes.”
Sometimes life puts us in a position of choice. I hesitate to bring up the military for fear of comparing patriotic life and death choices to Bruce Jenner’s, but there are parallels worth exploring. When you sign up for the military, they say you know what you’re getting into. I had dinner a few weeks ago with a 21 year old wounded warrior whose legs were gone and whose life will never be the same. With the optimism of an 18 year old, he’d enlisted with no real thought that “It would happen to me.”
Bruce Jenner knows what he’s getting into by bringing his story so publicly. He is walking into the buzzsaw with his 65 year old eyes as open as they can be, and he does it with a certain optimism. But unlike the optimism of youth, Bruce Jenner knows he will be hurt and that his life will never be the same. His heroic walk, like the walk of all heroes, is animated by the thought of helping others - of helping younger transgender individuals and sexual minorities make it through a life complicated by their “otherness,” and of helping us all by demonstrating what good can come of being true to who we really are.
Dr. Robert Sigal is a board-certified plastic surgeon and the managing partner of Austin-Weston, The Center for Cosmetic Surgery, in Reston, VA.
Prior to becoming a partner at Austin-Weston, Dr. Sigal received his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and his M.D. at Jefferson Medical College. He went on to complete a full residency in General Surgery at Harbor/UCLA, culminating in a chief residency. During that time, he spent two years working in cancer research at the University of Pennsylvania, where he later trained in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Dr. Sigal's articles and comments have been published extensively in medical journals and in the media.
Dr. Sigal is married and the devoted father of two girls. Besides his charitable work, he practices yoga, skis, listens to music, plays the guitar and reads avidly.
Genevieve Kopel
703-230-2537 direct
kopel@austin-weston.com
Austin-Weston, The Center for Cosmetic Surgery, is the longest-established and largest cosmetic plastic surgery practice in the Washington, DC area. Its 4 board-certified plastic surgeons (American Board of Plastic Surgery), Robert K. Sigal, M.D., George W. Weston, M.D., Byron D. Poindexter, M.D., and Christopher D. Knotts, M.D., have fostered a reputation for excellence and are recognized nationally and internationally for innovation, experience, and results. The breadth of surgical experience and the availability of 4 doctors in group practice, all specialists in cosmetic surgery, means patients receive the best care available.
The surgeons of Austin-Weston have consistently been voted best plastic surgeons in the Metro DC area by their peers and by the public in local magazine and newspaper reader polls. With a professional support staff of over 35 highly-trained and skilled individuals, Austin-Weston occupies an 11,000-sq-ft building consisting of 5 AAAHC-accredited, state-of-the-art operating suites with private exit for surgery patients, a skin care division, a post-operative care area, 2 separate entrances for pre-op and post-op patients, and administrative offices.
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