Thirteen years ago, Channel 4 made a documentary called Make Me a Man, about a transgender man undergoing surgery and testosterone hormone therapy. Back then, very few of us had heard of “transgender” and there was very little information available to help educate people, including television programme makers. Last night, the same channel aired a documentary called Girls to Men about transgender men undergoing surgery and testosterone hormone therapy. This is not progress.

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The subjects are younger, the production trendier and superficially more humane, and the language more politically correct. Yet the focus remains on surgery and physical change. In the trailer, the narrator enticingly asks: “How far are they all prepared to go…?”

The title, Girls to Men, is, if anything, less accurate and more sensationalist than the one used more than a decade ago. Many trans men would rather their infant selves not be referred to as “girls”, because they have always self-identified as male. However, the point is not that no trans man must ever be called a girl; simply, that if the programme makers had been genuinely interested in accurate representation, they would have done the research (or asked a trans person) and quickly discovered the title was a bad call.

Similarly, not all of the people featured in this documentary identify as men. Some are gender-queer or non-binary. If these identities do not “fit” the programme, leave them out. One such person has spoken of their negative experience with producers. I know this person as a friend but only found out about their involvement via a piece they wrote. In it, they say they agreed to be part of a programme called Testosterone Diaries. They allege they were not told about the title change, nor about the detail of how they would be featured. Had they been, they would have withdrawn consent. Should production companies commissioned by Channel 4 not be working on the basis of informed consent?

Leaving aside how the production company treat their contributors, Channel 4 might argue that a mainstream audience needs a catchy title to be coaxed into watching something informative. Yet, in April this year, Louis Theroux made a widely acclaimed BBC documentary called Transgender Kids, a title that is both catchy and accurate.

Before watching Girls to Men, Google warned me not to get my hopes up. Top search results for the show include tabloid headlines about scenes of pubic phalloplasty surgery, or, as the Mirror puts it “penis construction”. Others focus on before-and-after pictures and old names beside new.

The show was more of the same: “Across Britain, girls are becoming men…” It was not just the catchy title then; this is in fact the whole, misleading premise of the programme. Soon enough comes talk of taking “drastic steps” during “the most important year of their lives”. “Drastic”, so you keep watching and “important” because of the surgery. Not just surgery, though. Also central are big, silicone willies and needles jabbed in bums delivering testosterone. You know, all the “man” ingredients that really define a person. At one point, a visibly anxious Billy says: “I try not to think about the surgery in too much detail.” Never mind, lad, the producers just told us every single, tiny thing about your privates, how many scars you will have and how they “burn off” the vagina (insert jaunty music). It is not documentary, it is reality TV, which, everyone knows by now, is anything but.

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I do not mean to criticise Billy, Ethan and Alfie, the three main contributors. The only tip I would give any 17-year-old is to not speak on behalf of anyone but yourself, though that can be easy to forget when a production company is making you feel like something of a star. In reality, I’m sure none of them only spoke about their bodies or surgery, just that it was edited to seem that way.

The goal, we are reminded, is “to have sex as a man”, which is clearly a euphemism for “like a man” – a pathetic attempt at linguistic sensitivity by writers who just gave us the complete penis tour. The subtext seems clear: Billy is not a man until he has a penis. By extension, then, the majority of trans men who elect not to have phalloplasty are not, and will never be, men either.

Greater visibility for trans people should not mean even more close-up shots of genitalia and “Ooh, don’t they look different – almost like real men” montages. It should be about taking the focus off surgery, suffering and sensation, because a transgender man is not defined by those things any more than the next person.

TV programme makers should consider collaborating with individuals who work with charities such as Stonewall to improve public understanding of trans issues. It could mean giving trans people consulting, production or writing roles in order to, once and for all, retire sensationalist narratives. BBC2 recently showed how this can be done successfully with its sitcom Boy Meets Girl. These steps actually help eradicate narrow conceptions of trans people that in turn contribute to transphobia.

I got my hopes up about Girls to Men for one reason: Channel 4 makes out it is committed to change. The broadcaster has participated in numerous workshops facilitated by All About Trans, a project that works with the media to change the ways it “understands and portrays trans people”. I attended a day-long session at Channel 4 HQ last year. I listened while senior commissioners and producers shared their embarrassment over yesteryear, when all LGBTQI people were lazily portrayed as little more than stereotypes. Hands were wrung and heads were shaken. Yet, it seems very little has changed. I feel like a fool for trusting them.

TV companies will continue to produce exploitative and reductive documentaries if broadcasters such as Channel 4 keep airing them. Being one step removed from the nitty-gritty of “getting the story” does not absolve the broadcaster. Thinking of trans people – any people – in simple, alienating terms makes it easier to hurt them. Television programme-makers need to wake up to this reality, rather than continuing to neatly package and sell who they think we should be.