The author, Sue Evans, talks about how in the early days of these treatments, the patients were mostly "younger boys who believed themselves to be girls from an early age and a few teenagers who felt like they were trapped in the wrong bodies." More recently, there are many more girls, and, as Evans puts it, instead of a longstanding belief that they are in the wrong body, they reject the changes of puberty.
I don't know what's really true, but if it's about respecting a young person's self-conception, why is the feeling that you belong in the other sex's body given more respect than the idea that you belong in a body that is free of the attributes that arrive with puberty? I find it easier to understand why biological females would like to say no to decades of menstruation and bra-wearing and ogling than why a biological males would want to stunt the growth of their penis. Puberty blockers exist. Who gets access to them? Is it a matter of personal autonomy or of medical professional ethics?
This issue tends to be discussed in terms of gender identity, where it's all about whether the patient really feels that they are the opposite sex. But why is that particular form of unhappiness privileged? What about the idea that it is a burden in this life to have an adult female body and that some females want the right to medical treatments that allow them to lay that burden down and go forth as a free woman — free of breasts and periods? That's still the idea of being "trapped" in wrong body.
I'm bringing this up because Evans is suggesting that a lot of the biological females seeking treatment are saying they feel that are male because that's what you need to say to get puberty blockers. What would they say if they could get puberty blockers simply because they want to block puberty?
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66 comments:
The entire debate is tainted by the (foolish) demand we accept puberty blockers as harmless and reversible without negative effect.
Party of Science - - feh.
Why don't we let children get tattoos? Because they might change their minds when they are older and we don't want them to do something permanent that they might regret later.... why doesn't that long-established boundary hold in this case?
Megyn Kelly had a fascinating podcast last night - 2 detransitioners and 2 doctors discussing this very issue. The doctors had a laundry list of side effects of puberty-blockers that was horrifying. But you NEVER hear anything about that. How the left came to embrace the once-hated and distrusted 'big pharma' is beyond me....
Female transgenderism/puberty blocking has all the earmarks of how women in the past joined convents, cults, or harems (as concubines). Do you need a new religious martyr? Joan of Arc or Greta Thunburg to the rescue. Young, female, and "innocent" draws many admirers. Affiliation and an early death (or reproductive death) received praise, and people literally pray to you as a saint for thousands of years after you die.
Boys join gangs, athletic teams, or the military when young. Girls collaborate, console, and commiserate.
"Co" and "Con" -- no accidental coindidences with this female-friendly English prefix.
Alternatively, avoiding puberty and adulthood is the zeitgeist of our time: we dwell on non-serious luxuries and fun. This includes social media narcissism, hobbies and games for life, remote working digital nomads who blend vacations and retirement into work, etc. etc. etc. It's always more effective to dress up selfish wishes as noble causes. Kids can be great liars, even to themselves. [Guilty here...]
That is an excellent explanation, Ann.
What JAORE said. You appear to be falling for the claim that puberty blockers can be stopped without causing permanent physical changes which the person so treated may regret in the future, a far from rare experience (minor example - Demi Lovato, anyone?). It's not uncommon for people so treated to be rendered sterile and incapable of experiencing orgasm because their genitals do not develop properly, and may actually complicate future surgical intervention. You also ignoring that this is not a one-time shot but puts the person on a track to requiring lifelong hormonal treatment, and as Ms Evans describes, the blockers are often quickly followed by cross-sex hormones.
Puberty is not a medical condition requiring treatment. The proper course would be dealing with the root issue, the discomfort at bodily changes and how to deal with the implications, not claiming that the twelve year old who just experienced her first period somehow knows that she never wants to be fully matured woman.
Peter Pan syndrome. Seriously: our culture (and markets) celebrates a hyper-extended adolescence full of pleasures, diversions and few responsibilities. Student debt? Yeah, whatever: when we emerge from our chrysalis with our Super Credentials the money will pour in. Why hurry?
Entering full adulthood means no more excuses, and because it now happens at say 30 or 35 —the midpoint of a Biblical lifespan— it means old age and senility are almost visible from there. Terrifying.
So: why would a pre-adolescent boy or girl want to get any older? And when professional caregivers are aligned/organized to take the desire seriously? Why then it must be real! And once they start down that path it gets ever harder to go back. There are no objective guideposts to mark the trail downward; only “feelings” and some half-cooked Narrative; and with each step downward the normal world gets more remote. And with chemical castration and physical mutilation the road is sealed shut.
This is —almost entirely— sick and evil stuff.
IMHO.
What would they say if they could get puberty blockers simply because they want to block puberty?
I am assuming the first “they” in your hypothetical refers to the young girls requesting them. If there was a social media movement pushing avoiding adult womanhood, then they would be OK with requesting them without convincing themselves that they really want to be men rather than forever prepubescent girls.
If the first “they” referred to the medical establishment, they would say, “Hell, no. We aren’t going to facilitate such an unhealthy thing as remaining prepubescent all of your life.” Doctors used to be quite happy to perform hysterectomies on women for no other reason than they were tired of having periods, although it was after or towards the end of the childbearing years, usually. Sometime in the 1980’s that attitude became seen as paternalistic and bad for a woman’s health, so it fell out of favor. You don’t see women getting hysterectomies as frequently now, especially for menstrual cramps and heavy periods. It used to be extremely common.
But this changing gender thing is more than just not liking periods and breasts, although that’s probably part of it. It is also about getting attention by making yourself stand out as being different than the norm. Transgressive. Like pink hair or tattoos used to be.
Owen: "This is —almost entirely— sick and evil stuff."
Oddly, according to Howard and Team Left/Dem/NeverTrump (but I repeat myself), none of this is real.
It's all made up by Christopher Rufo.
It's probably russian disinformation too. It should no doubt be added to Trump Shampeachment (Enter Current # here) articles.
Enigma nails it at 917.
"They were horrified by their bodies, and they wanted control over the changes taking place in them"
Show them one picture of a naked old man. That'll scare them straight.
" You appear to be falling for the claim that puberty blockers can be stopped without causing permanent physical changes which the person so treated may regret in the future"
No. That's a misreading. I've defined a particular topic and am discussing only that. I don't deal with the subject of whether puberty blockers should be available at all, only why one line rather than another, and what is this phenomenon of the sudden huge increase in females wanting them.
I'm not discussing whether children's opinions should be responded to like this. I could say a lot about that, and this post is restricted to what it's restricted to so that it can be written and focused. Do not assume I'm implying other opinions. I have other opinions, but I am declining to state them in this post.
You can say what you think, and I appreciate that in talking about me, you hedged it with "You appear to be falling for the claim," but you appear to be seeing appearances that are the things that you fear, not what I am showing.
As always, I sympathize with Althouse's sentiments, but --
“why is the feeling that you belong in the other sex's body given more respect”
Why “why”?
It serves prog purposes, as the cutting edge of the ideological vanguard undermining any traditional assumptions about any traditional mores. Destabilizing identities increases the vulnerability of people that makes them seek Big Brother support, and the destabilization itself imposes a new moral code that can be used against deplorable heretics.
“How the left came to embrace the once-hated and distrusted 'big pharma' is beyond me”
Why “how”?
Hate and distrust are prog tools, like anything else, to be deployed and changed as needed. Of course, in other situations, big pharma is still the enemy. It just depends.
The case-by-case indignant responses to bad faith and illogic, all the why's and how's, ignore the ideology at work. There's a war going on. These are maneuvers on a battlefield. That's why and how.
Look at the photos of the lean and lithe surfer/skateboard girls in socal in the 70s. They were active even if it was just walking or biking around the suburbs with the boys.
I suspect kids have become a lot less active, and heavier, which triggers earlier puberty and self hatred. You're just not ready for boobs at 10.
Don't ask me how I know.
DONNA
I'd got so used to having 'em come up
benign, I guess I just didn't expect it.
She looks down her shirt front.
DONNA (CONT'D)
Sure wish I had longer to get used to the
idea.
(beat)
You think if you got no uterus, and no
breasts, you're still technically a
woman?
ERIN
Sure you are. You're just a happier
woman, 'cause you don't have to deal with
maxi-pads and underwire.
- Erin Brockovich (2000)
The problem is, as with grooming so called, that you're asking them to choose before puberty before they've experienced heterosexual relations that kick in, itchwise, after puberty.
People...doctors, teachers, politicians, parents, who enable this nonsense should be put in prison.
They are destroying an entire generation...
Why did we not ever have clusters of young girls and boys asking to stop puberty and/or requesting to change gender before these times?
This is not just a sudden awakening. This is a taught behavior. Coupled with groupthink. It's very powerful in the youth. They're looking for new, radical ways of expressing themselves, finding themselves as they are nearing puberty. And they almost always look to other 'leaders' for inspiration, for new input. Not their parents, but people outside of the home. People that can speak to them in a way their family would not do. And people who will allow them to experiment with thoughts- freely. Unencumbered by direction from someone who loves them and wants to protect them.
If we survive as Western Civilization- and frankly I'm not sure that we will, for dozens of reasons- there will be those who look back on these times and wonder how a society that had so much access to knowledge, seemed so intent on acting like they had none, and why a society that had more luxury and a higher standard of living than any in the history of humankind, insisted on reverting back to the Middle Ages.
To go from a girl's body, which is proportionally similar to a boy's body, to a young woman's body is more shocking than society has admitted for a long time. My first instinct at puberty, and it's not uncommon, was to assume I was getting fat. Broader hips, bigger rear, more plumpness -- and, of course, the boobs -- are all part of being a woman. But after twelve years of having a different body, puberty is almost devastating.
I like the Althouse argument. Let's admit what it is the young women really reject. Society scorns the messiness of womanhood. Why should a girl want any part of it? Honesty might be the best antidote.
umm, here's the secret secret
early pubescent girls are awkward, and bashful, and embarrassed.. For a year or two.
Then, They wake up one day, and realize; they Rule The School*
UNLESS!
some queer, that HATES WOMEN, cons them into chemical castration and cutting their breasts off
Rule The School* (well, the whole freaking earth, but that doesn't rhyme as well)
"This is not just a sudden awakening. This is a taught behavior. Coupled with groupthink...."
But what was always there is the reality of puberty — the loss of childhood, the imposition of an unwieldy, embarrassing, ridiculous, smelly, drippy, disgusting body. There is every reason for any person facing puberty to feel afraid, alarmed, and unwilling. This is particularly so for females, as breasts get a huge amount of attention, there is a sense of being preyed upon, the expectations that you will become a machine of reproduction, and the incredible affront that is menstruation. You've got to be kidding me! The desire to avoid the transformation is perfectly understandable.
Big Mike shows his confusion, when he said...
So do I understand that “gender affirmation” only became viewed as a problem when it was seen to disproportionately impact young females?
Not really; it became viewed as a problem, when it went from:
a fraction of a percent of the population, with long suffering..
to:
ten percent of young girls, that heard about it two weeks ago on the internet
I would like to see the raised hands of everybody who didn't hate themselves through large swaths of puberty. Who didn't have periods of time of *hating* what is happening to their bodies?
That's why I'm against puberty blockers. It's the worst time for decision making in one's lifespan.
Of course, as a group, we need women to accept and value their reproductive role and to bear and mother children. We can afford some dropouts — nuns, lesbians, extreme introverts — but we need enough of the females to stay on the conveyor belt of life. A craze for saying no to puberty won't be accepted. It cannot be normalized. I am just showing that the idea makes sense for the individual.
You can say that it's terrible to destroy sexual feeling before it develops, but you're part of the group that is luring and encouraging women to stick with the reproductive function, so it's important to YOU.
What if a young girl really could think deeply about what is the best way to live. Is feeling sexually drawn to men best for her, as an autonomous individual, or does it bring and absurd risk of an unhappy, subordinated life?
Progressive confusion normalized through psychiatric skits and social contagion.
You can say that it's terrible to destroy sexual feeling before it develops, but you're part of the group that is luring and encouraging women to stick with the reproductive function, so it's important to YOU.
Etymologically it's women who were considered the lure.
As you describe going through puberty as a female, it sounds so much more daunting than that of males. We simply have hair starting to grow out everywhere, our voice cracking as it tries to decide which tone to settle on, and our hormones raging so much that we become absorbed with our penises and what do to with them...for about the next 50 years.
Yes- we have it relatively easy by comparison.
Women, men, and "our Posterity" are from Earth. Feminists are from Venus. Masculinists are from Mars. Social progressives are from Uranus.
Men and women are equal in rights and complementary in Nature/nature. Reconcile.
We all went through puberty. Most of us had adults around to help us navigate this awkward and 'horrifying' phase of life.
What kind of pills or tools would we willingly give to an adolescent child where they say no-one loves them, no one ever will, hate their lives and...just wants to die.
'This is not just a sudden awakening. This is a taught behavior.'
Reminds me of 'South Pacific' and the song about racism.
"You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught"
'The desire to avoid the transformation is perfectly understandable.'
But somehow this was never an issue over the last 10,000 years.
@Althouse: "A craze for saying no to puberty won't be accepted. It cannot be normalized. I am just showing that the idea makes sense for the individual."
Beyond your norming and social craze framing, sexual maturation is cold blooded evolution in its essence. Survival of the fittest is commonly read as "strongest," but functionally it also means that those who survive fit into the extant environment and reproductive system.
These women can go off and become nuns or neo-Gaia-Green-Shakers if they want. They'll all be dead, their ideas will die with them, and the earth will be populated by those who breed. (Unless an eccentric billionaire develops artificial breeding chambers and has 1,000,000 children per year. Elon? Elon? Elon?)
Of course, as a group, we need women to accept and value their reproductive role and to bear and mother children. We can afford some dropouts
Normalize, tolerate, or reject? Tolerate, exactly, thus the first choice: abstinence or sex; and the second choice: contraception in depth. There is no compelling cause to normalize behaviors without redeeming value to society or humanity. Many, perhaps most, behaviors are merely tolerable with respect to the moral principles of individual dignity, individual conscience, and intrinsic, sustainable value.
I'll refocus another couple of answers. I did get focused on the fact that Sara Evans was talking quite specifically about the treatment of children, and its impact.
One possibility is that the people who are gatekeeping, and pushing, puberty blockers don't believe their own bullshit about gender identity being distinct from biology. They know that, with the exception of a tiny number of cases of true physical deformity, all mammals mature into one of two dimorphic and complimentary sexes, so the only answer to not wanting to be a woman is to become a man, and vice versa. There is no third option from a biological point of view.
... what is this phenomenon of the sudden huge increase in females wanting them.
Given the increasingly early age at which girls begin to develop sexual characteristics, and the fact these changes are both more public and more directly sexual than what happens to boys somewhat later, I'm not surprised that a significant fraction of girls would welcome the chance to defer them. The first comment under the post about Rogan discussing the sexualized view of Shirley Temple brings up the very narrow space our society has for maturing children to be non-sexual, and to give them time to develop their own identities. A young woman in the first blush of sexual maturity has enormous social clout, and there is a consistent push to 'use it or lose it' which has to be a scary prospect for some young women.
Taking puberty blockers because you want to avoid normal development is on the same path as bulemia and anorexia to control your body. When a young woman takes this sort of control of her body, we don't accept the actions as a good or even neutral action, we rightly see it as a negative action with some root cause that needs to be treated.
Maybe you may have a girl that believes she is in the wrong body, and you can take the course of transitioning them to a boy. But if the history of young women doing terrible things to themselves to control their bodies is any guide, that number will be very small.
What if a young girl really could think deeply about what is the best way to live. Is feeling sexually drawn to men best for her, as an autonomous individual, or does it bring and absurd risk of an unhappy, subordinated life?
This is exactly what I meant by the narrowing space in society for children to develop into sexually mature adults without a whole lot of other people projecting their social, political, sexual, and psychological hangups on them.
Mengele's memoirs revisited.
I read Sue Evans’ article last night. Taking her stand on this topic must have taken a toll on her and her husband’s mental and physical health, knowing that they were right to oppose allowing children to transition to the opposite gender. My thought after reading her article is that the medical and mental health professionals that she worked with joined the transgender cult almost overnight once activists got to them at Tavistock and lost all common sense (pun not intended but appropriate with her column on Bari Weiss’ Substack). The same for medical and mental health professionals as well as lefty politicians and government bureaucrats around Western Europe and North America. It has become a new psuedo religion - hence, a cult. And with a number of detransistioners growing by the day who have gotten out of the cult getting attacked by the cult daily, this is a cult along the lines of Scientology. In case you weren’t aware, people who leave Scientology are doxxed online and harassed in person, and harassed by Scientology lawyers - a big example is actress Leah Remini who escaped from that cult.
"Taking puberty blockers because you want to avoid normal development is on the same path as bulemia and anorexia to control your body."
Great point!
"When a young woman takes this sort of control of her body, we don't accept the actions as a good or even neutral action, we rightly see it as a negative action with some root cause that needs to be treated."
There is a huge risk of death in persisting with anorexia. That is one distinction. With transgender, we're continually told that there's a huge risk of death in NOT giving the treatment.
"Maybe you may have a girl that believes she is in the wrong body, and you can take the course of transitioning them to a boy. But if the history of young women doing terrible things to themselves to control their bodies is any guide, that number will be very small."
I agree that people can be very destructive to their own body. I think with the transgender issue, the destructiveness is — we are told — cancelled out by the threat of suicide, the most destructive thing people do to their own body. That extreme is actively used to forbid open discussion or to bypass scientific truth. It's an emergency — incipient suicide.
Ann Althouse @ 10:38: "...we need enough of the females to stay on the conveyor belt of life. A craze for saying no to puberty won't be accepted."
I was going to respond, "The future belongs to those who show up," but I see Enigma nailed that point down very nicely @ 11:03.
Ironic that in their desperate effort to assert control over their biology, these people are making themselves-completely controlled by forces outside themselves. Their physical self-mutilation reflects an interior self-mutilation. The pain, fear, anger must be absolutely epic.
There has to be a better way.
'What if a young girl really could think deeply about what is the best way to live. Is feeling sexually drawn to men best for her, as an autonomous individual, or does it bring and absurd risk of an unhappy, subordinated life?'
The two words to focus on are 'if' and 'young.'
We put ages on behavior for reasons that are usually sound.
If anyone wants to chemically/surgically change their bodies after the age of 18 using their own money, I won't stop them.
What I am fully against is the training and teaching of a destructive ideology that never existed even a few years ago.
What the hell is going on?
The desire to avoid the transformation is perfectly understandable.
Yes, but only recently has their been a state-sanctioned exit door, with extra benefits for joining the LGBTQ+ community.
Shhh, we won't even tell your parents!
'With transgender, we're continually told that there's a huge risk of death in NOT giving the treatment.'
I hope you don't really believe this.
It's fear-mongering.
Eat your broccoli, little Johnny, or the Bogey Man will get you.
"Of course, as a group, we need women to accept and value their reproductive role and to bear and mother children. We can afford some dropouts — nuns, lesbians, extreme introverts — but we need enough of the females to stay on the conveyor belt of life. A craze for saying no to puberty won't be accepted. It cannot be normalized. I am just showing that the idea makes sense for the individual.
You can say that it's terrible to destroy sexual feeling before it develops, but you're part of the group that is luring and encouraging women to stick with the reproductive function, so it's important to YOU.
What if a young girl really could think deeply about what is the best way to live. Is feeling sexually drawn to men best for her, as an autonomous individual, or does it bring and absurd risk of an unhappy, subordinated life?"
Here we have exhibited purest projection and delusional thinking: Who, pray tell, would be "the group that is luring and encouraging women to stick with the reproductive function"?
Would that nefarious crime syndicate be a real thing, a genuine patriarchal conspiracy group? Or, perhaps, would it more accurately be described as a figment of someone's delusional imagination?
Are they here in the room with us? Are they?
This kind of crap is why I'm increasingly unable to take our good professor seriously as an interlocuter. There is no such "group", and even if there were? The reality here is that such a group would actually be in far better contact with reality than 99.9% of the nutjobs who think that "you can be whatever you want to be".
Sorry, boys and girls; biology gets a vote. The determining vote, by the way.
Recognition of reality isn't some conspiracy cooked up by misogynists and misandrists; it's just there. Deny it all you want, but deal with it you must.
90 percent of the problems of modern life, particularly with regard to the relations between the sexes, stem from people stomping their little feet and holding their breath, demanding that Daddy do something about things that are immutable laws of nature, beyond influence and any recourse. Quit being an immature child, and accept reality. Which in regards to the differences between men and women, stem from the fact that we are an irretrievably sexually dimorphic species. You can't change that, and sadly, Karen can't actually see the manager about it, because the manager isn't going to do much more than laugh in her face. Assuming you can arrange a meeting or conversation with said managerial entity, in the first place. Many have tried, and nobody that we know of has succeeded on this plane.
I can sympathize with puberty being rather horrifyingly uncomfortable. I was 11 and the only girl in my sixth grade class who wore a bra. I had a year of a lot of discomfort and sudden anger outbursts and overreactions. It passed. Partly because I accepted it as part of life. It just was.
There are a lot of aspects about becoming an adult human being that I’d love to bypass. Things that I find far more tedious and wish could go away….dealing with taxes, health insurance decisions, investing to ensure there’s enough $$ to live on in old age. And soon…dealing with possible old age and not having kids who might care what happens to me and help with decisions.
It’s life. A lot of it is just not fun. Trying to avoid puberty and the physical changes in bodies risks an attitude that all discomfort can be avoided. It can’t.
I agree that people can be very destructive to their own body. I think with the transgender issue, the destructiveness is — we are told — cancelled out by the threat of suicide, the most destructive thing people do to their own body.
Which is the greater motivation for suicide?
A. A natural thing happening to your body that half the population is equipped to help to understand?
B. An unnatural thing happening because you were assigned the wrong gender at birth and need radical, expensive surgery which you cannot afford to bring your body back to its natural state?
And where are the capital-F Feminists when all this abuse is being sanctioned and systematically brought to bear on the most vulnerable of women?
Cowering. They are cowering.
Althouse said...
With transgender, we're continually told that there's a huge risk of death in NOT giving the treatment.
yes, we Are told that continually.. And if you ask:
"How do suicide rates, for transitioned dysphorics compare to Non transitioned dysphorics?"
suddenly, they change the subject.
The sad fact is:
dysphoric people are mentally unstable (by definition). mentally unstable people tend to commit suicide
Let's remember the issue of money. If the teenager wants treatment, let them pay for it themselves, not taxpayers or their insurance. This stuff is not cheap.
The left and right agree that young girls who are unhappy with their bodies shouldn't be encouraged to become anorexics. The left and right agree that such girls should not be encouraged to commit suicide. The left and right seem to agree that young girls shouldn't be able to get tattoos and body piercings. However, when it comes to puberty blockers and sex change operations for such girls, only the right is clearly opposed. That's because the left would like to erase any meaningful distinction in society between men and women and gaining acceptance of the notion of gender fluidity is seen as a useful step in that direction. If the left can sell society on the idea that being born with a penis instead of a vulva is unimportant, so much so that it doesn't even indicate one's gender, it undermines the whole idea of a patriarchy. If a generation of young girls suffer a lifetime of adverse effects from puberty blockers and sex change surgeries, then that's just the price the left is willing to pay in order to advance an ideological objective.
"But what was always there is the reality of puberty — the loss of childhood, the imposition of an unwieldy, embarrassing, ridiculous, smelly, drippy, disgusting body. There is every reason for any person facing puberty to feel afraid, alarmed, and unwilling. "
Never let a crisis go to waste.
There is a very good documentary out there from the UK. It may be the same girl. It was really insightful and sad. Poor girl really regrets doing the drugs and having her breasts removed. Tavistock told her that her depression was from gender dysphoria but she is now more depressed than before. Doctors from Tavistock on both sides of the issue were featured. The poor docs against liberal use of transitioning were sooooo careful in what they said because of fear for their career, but they made a lot more sense than the doctors advocating transitioning who seemed to ignore the science and want to move forward on the basis of a "belief".
In sixth grade I looked around at both sides of my family and was terrified that I'd end up an average-looking, 5'10" man.
So I sold lemonade and mowed lawns and saved my money.
In the summer between 6th and 7th grade I had extensive plastic surgery (nose, chin, a little liposuction, etc...the usual).
Then I went to an orthopedic surgeon and he broke all the bones in my legs and put in some weird thing that would stretch them over time with the target of getting me to 6' 4" or so.
Now, it would be weird for a 6' 4" man to have the feet of someone 6 inches shorter, so I had my feet amputated and added cadaver feet from a tall dead guy. I knew it would look a little awkward to have such huge size 13 shoes on a 14-year-old, but it was sure to pay off in the end.
I'm so happy now, looking down at all my short relatives whenever we get together. The limping is still a problem and I can't walk more than a hundred yards at a stretch. But when I'm not in my wheelchair, I stand head and shoulders above all of my family.
There was a slight problem with my nose and my chin implant slipped, but I'm getting those redone soon.
I hope this doesn't turn into a Michael Jackson situation...
here's an article that says that a reason for the huge increase in Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria is that:
Their schools compulsively tell their children how awful it is to be white, how white people enjoy unearned “privilege,” how they benefit from “systems” put in place by and for white people for the sole purpose of oppressing “people of color.” Plagued by guilt, the children—almost all of them girls—rush to the sanctuary of “LGBTQ+” identity. Once there, they are catapulted into hero status.
That is:
IF you're a pubescent white girl.. You are SCUM!!
IF you're a trans................. You are Okay!!
As we've seen, puberty is an uncomfortable, weird time; where our body seems out of control
Anorexia, or Cutting, or other types of coping might make us think we have 'control'
But transitioning not only gives us 'control'.. It makes us A MINORITY!!
and the fact that we hide this from our bogus bourgeoisie parents (whities!!!) just makes it even more better
A girl can puberty-block by taking up long distance running. Stay thin as a rail and probably not menstruate. Perhaps find a nice guy to run with. Best of both worlds.
I used to pass such a girl every day for years on my bicycle errands, pretty far out in the country. Nothing developed except a wave. Very tanned.
Wow, so many good comments on this post.
I blame the ubiquity of p0rn for at least some of this. As others have said here, female puberty can be quite shocking to experience. Now couple that with the fact that so many young men today have been watching increasingly violent p0rn since they were 8-9 years old. What is a teen girl to think? That becoming a woman means she can use her new body to have sex with men who want to choke her and urinate on her, like they see in videos on their phones all the time? No wonder so many young women want to turn away from being women. If that's what I thought it meant, I might do the same.
Joe Smith @ 1:01: You owe me a new keyboard.
I agree that people can be very destructive to their own body. I think with the transgender issue, the destructiveness is — we are told — cancelled out by the threat of suicide, the most destructive thing people do to their own body. That extreme is actively used to forbid open discussion or to bypass scientific truth. It's an emergency — incipient suicide.
Where is the deep, thorough study of this phenomena. Were 10% of girls committing suicide because they could not be boys BEFORE there whole transgender issue became a thing. Maybe the issue isn't transgender, maybe the issue is something else. Do we, in an effort to save the one destroy the lives of 9 others "just in case"? And that is of course if there is clear evidence that transitioners commit suicide at greatly reduced level of those who wish to transition but cannot. I don't think the math works out. Plus, what alternative, non permanent options do we have for gender disphoria? Have we first verified it is the root cause of their angst? Have we determined that there is not a way to get them to cope with it without radical procedures? Have the left made mountains out of molehills simply because it is an issue that the right opposes, and there for must be fought in the culture wars with no consideration about the collateral damage?
You have the cutest little eight year old daughter in the world. She just LOVES entering beauty pageants. You love the attention too, but it's all for your little sweetie. She is worldly enough to notice the exposure of the costumes and the leering of the judges. But that bothers her not at all.
She realizes that if she had more of a womanly look, but was still in the 10-11 year old category, she would be unbeatable!
So she goes to a Doctor and says I identify as a post pubescent woman. Please give me a boob job and fanny fillers.
Yea or nay?
I think part of my perception here is colored by a dive I took into the Pro-Ana (Pro-Anorexia) livejournal posts when I had a slow work days at an ISP in the early 2000s.
It was hard to tell how many of the people there were trolls trying to get girls to starve themselves to death, but I get the feeling that a majority were earnest young women starving themselves to literally skin and bones.
Those posts are also were I picked up an aversion to vegans/vegetarians. There they suggested that girls claim to be vegan or vegetarian to avoid having to eat the food their families prepared. So much of the advice on those pages revolved around "Saying you want reasonable-thing-X, because you really want unreasonable-thing-Y."
The Billionaires pushing this transgender movement are pushing along all fronts to reduce the population of humans on the planet.
They are making food and energy more expensive with the Climate Change as their tool knowing that poor people will not have enough food.
They are pushing "puberty blockers" that are also used to sterilize sex offenders. If they can get 2-3% of kids with this garbage they consider that success.
They are pushing farmers off their land in every developed country.
They are using "Covid Policy" to keep people from meeting and talking and building a social fabric.
At every level the Davos Crowd is at war with humanity.
And they overlap completely with the goals and action of the Biden Regime. Everything this regime is doing directly reduces total wealth and prosperity of the citizens of this country.
what is this phenomenon of the sudden huge increase in females wanting them.
Why do they hustle the pregnant high school girl away from campus, and off to the Good Shepherd Center??
Cuz......one girl gets pregnant, attracts a lot of attention, and suddenly many girls are pregnant.
gilbar said...
Althouse said...
With transgender, we're continually told that there's a huge risk of death in NOT giving the treatment.
yes, we Are told that continually.. And if you ask:
"How do suicide rates, for transitioned dysphorics compare to Non transitioned dysphorics?"
They cannot be honest about their goals or the results of their policies.
They just can't. Their words and actions just don't match. Ever.
All of this is being pushed in bad faith with evil intent.
Viennese Voodo meets endocrinologists who have no procedures that can generate revenue. Result, boon for docs who would otherwise be treating childhood obesity.
What would they say if they could get puberty blockers simply because they want to block puberty?
Well, what should WE say?
It's not like people have the right to control their own bodies. because if we did, pain killers would be available to anyone who wanted them, and suicide would be legal, for any reason, or no reason at all.
Oh, and you could sell your organs / blood.
But, even if they did have that right, why do they have the right to make the rest of us pay for it?
You want a double mastectomy? Fine. You pay out of pocket for your double mastectomy.
Because mutilating a perfectly functional body is not something the rest of us should have to pay for
I think Ann is perfectly correct. One of the reason I spend time on this issue, which as a childless 70 year old, does not directly affect me, is because I know given the choice to avoid the drippiness and bulk of puberty I certain would have opted for almost anything that would stop it. And that would have been a shame since I've had very nice life as a woman starting at age 17 or so.
"What if a young girl really could think deeply about what is the best way to live. Is feeling sexually drawn to men best for her, as an autonomous individual, or does it bring and absurd risk of an unhappy, subordinated life?"
If she thinks really deeply, she realizes that thinking of herself as an "autonomous individual" is silly, and that determining the value of relations with men in terms of her "autonomy" as an "individual" is even sillier. Of course, the real risk with "young girls," as with young boys in a different way, is that they will mistake the blithe absorption of fads like pseudo-feminism or transgenderism for "thinking deeply."
Seems like misogyny to me!
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