I recently had a conversation with a Dutch psychiatrist that surprised me, because it seemed to indicate that the narrative around “gender affirmation” was shifting in an important direction. “Gender dysphoria is not a psychological condition,” he said to me, “it’s just a way of being. It’s not a problem.”
I actually think it's doing these individuals a disservice even if it may end up being protective of their physical bodies. (And maybe this is more important - given how clear the literature is that most teens are comfortable in their sexed bodies if allowed to proceed through their genetic puberty.)
However - for those who aren't, I think therapy helping them learn to be ok with their bodies is important. Nobody would encourage an anorexic to skip meals and lose more weight because she sees herself as fat. (Purposefully using feminine pronouns as most anorexics are female.) Nobody seriously proposes severing the spinal cord of someone who can walk because they identify as a quadrapalegic. And yet somehow when it comes to the basic parts of the human body, they're fine to just chop them off or turn them inside out? Give me a break.
Trans should be treated no differently than anorexia or other types of body dysmorphia. Just because someone feels a certain way doesn't make it true. Provide them with psychological supports to become ok with the facts of their situation - it's the most kind and caring course of action.
I hope your optimism is warranted but I think the gender predators will find a way around this by pathologising the body itself, e.g. I've heard that some surgeons in the US have referred, officially, to breasts that a patient wants to be rid of as "abnormal structures" that need to be removed and from what I gathered, the insurance company went along with this. Other activist doctors, at least in Australia, have referred to unwanted body parts as "birth defects". It's a scary world when science loses its mind.
One mutilating surgeon in FL calls the mastectomy "yeating the teets". She uses this "fun name" to allow herself to avoid the use of real medical terms, and to make it seem fun to cut tham boobs off.
Wow - "...no disease, but there is diagnosis and treatment." I hope the pendulum continues to swing in our direction and that this nightmare will soon stop! "It's just a way of being. It's not a problem." Perhaps because there is so much confusion in the medical field that that is the problem! Clearly one hand does not seem to know what the other hand is doing just like the trusted physiologists and the revered surgeons as neither "expert" has the correct solution. Why can we all see this as a severe social contagion, and they cannot? Oh, I forgot that it is really about the money! Why else would anyone want to harm a healthy child's mind and body with drugs and surgeries?
'Gender dysphoria' are just 2 words fueling all sorts of industry. Those in charge could care less about people's distress. They have made believers out of a society though and found plenty of minions to do the job of fueling the 'gender' craze. It seems there is a migration from healthcare to corporate ventures. Take Neuralink as an example. Removing sex opens doors. Replacing 'gate keeping' with 'bodily autonomy' is key for business ventures. How they justify payment is anyone's guess. Humans cannot be removed from their nature though. It all seems destined to ultimately fail but they will not go lightly into the night. In the process, many more will be hurt.
Oh my goodness, I was just thinking how 'dehumanising' this whole ideology is. On so many levels eg it has reduced 'wo/man' to a unknown 'feeling' and lego style, interchangeable, bought body parts. With the ultimate aim being to erase the fact of biological sex and even the notion of wo/man. If both 'men' and women can give birth and both men and 'women' can have pen!s' and vaginas then the categorisation becomes meaningless, right? And that's the point and the agenda that the 'trans-humanists' want to achieve. Transgenderism is just the soft stepping stone to a wider agenda advocated by trans identified man, Martin(e) Rothblatt.
Empathy? The "trans" brats encourage those leaving the cult to kill themselves.
If insurance won't cover, then it's over. Not many parents will be willing or able to shell out $80,000 to get Fred an orchiectomy and a vaginoplasty where a previous generation would have just applied black hair dye and lipstick.
And if we survive the next few decades, we will look back at this cult with horror, and thousands of people will have become eunuchs because of some crap they read on TikTok.
It is my opinion that the change is financial, not because the medical community is more thoughtful.
Lawsuits are coming about now from the de-transitioning young adults. Insurance companies aren’t willing to take the hot for this tragedy we have implemented on our children. Yes for cosmetic reasons.
On another note someone mentioned California and our awful laws related to transitioning children and being a sanctuary state, shame on us.
I am a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in San Diego and just wrote a Substack on what my professional organization is doing here in California.
You can find it under Nonie Levi’s Substack titled “Fox in the Hen House”
Thank you and yes I did and re-read again. Tragic!
They tried many times in the 1970’s to sterilize my developmentally disabled sister and my mother refused. Although, reproducing wasn’t an option for her, her natural hormones where needed through her life as a healthy woman.
I do believe the tide is turning and California will be the last holdout to this atrocity of gender affirming care.
Yes, exactly, your sister needed her natural hormones through life to be a healthy person.
You have probably read the words of Corina Cohn - regarding being tied to a medical leash? I think a very large part of "trans" is about making life time patients of many - as there were only ever a tiny few who might even have this gender identity disorder which is continually renamed. It is even questionable what the best "treatment" is for them. Then, it works so well for those who profit politically from Identity/Victim politics.
No one needs Cult Affirmation and harmful synthetic opposite sex hormones.
I hope the ground game in CA is vigorous!
I am glad to hear that your family was successful defending your sister.
This is all an atrocity. Frankenstein Medicine must stop.
The author made the key point, which is a bridge too far for many because the Overton window has already moved. The trans disorder social evolution is following the same path as the homosexuality disorder evolution. Homosexuality never became not a disorder in the natural ethos. It became not a disorder in social consciousness because of political pressure and threats of violence. It is still a disorder. Gender dysphoria will never become not a disorder in the natural ethos.
Gender dysphoria (in the clinical sense) has always reminded me of Body Integrity Disorder (BID), where seemingly healthy people wish for a part of their body to be amputated. And then, they feel relieved. I personally don’t mind people doing it, and it seems to be the case that they do feel better mentally after all, but I’d definitely consider it pathological. “Gender dysphoria” replaced the term “Gender identity disorder”, which is still consider a better fit.
I have read so much and listened to so many podcasts about this issue, that I cannot recall the source, but I remember somebody (maybe Eliza Mondegreen?) mentioning that, to get treatments and procedures covered by health care that were NOT covered, doctors made up codes. That is, they would make sure that the "patient" would get a procedure by writing down the code for something that they, and the patient, knew was made-up.
And of course, the doctors feel that they are "sticking it to the man" and fighting for justice by placing themselves with the person who is making a demand for a medical treatment that they wish, or hope, or want, and not a treatment that they actually need, or, what is worse, a treatment that will actually do them good...
I believe(?) that in the early to mid 80's rhinoplasty (nose job) was getting covered by insurance because the patients were going to psychologists/psychiatrists and claiming a mental disorder because of their noses. The billing codes were crucial! I believe that this also happened with breast implants....breast reduction was covered by insurance because it caused pain and back/shoulder deformities. About this time is when the privatization of healthcare started with the rise of the Insurance Industry and Big Pharma.
I totally balk when I see any even vaguely medical organization use that incorrect phrase "assigned at birth". When a baby is born, assumptions are made; no one assigns us a species at birth because this is determined by parentage. Same goes for sex; there is a "choice" of two, but it's an easy pick that no one needs any training for. Gender in its current context is immaterial and irrelevant until puberty.
One thing you can be sure of. The trans lobby will fight tooth and nail to walk that increasingly fine line between "mental health condition" and "hey, we're just normal folx who expect you to bow down before us". As long as they can find a way to get others to pay for their self-harming habit, they're good. https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/sticks-and-stone-can-break-my-bones
There is no such thing really as "gender dysphoria" because humans do not have gender.
The feeling that one is "in the wrong body" or should have been born the opposite sex is a delusion. This is a symptom, an indication of a deeper problem. A symptom is not a condition or identity on its own.
In males it can be autogynephilia, pornography addiction, schizophrenia, etc. In females, it can be past childhood sexual abuse, autism, depression, etc. It's not the same for every single person, and there can be overlap.
It's not a "way of being." It's a delusion and a symptom of a deeper problem. The medical industry today is fueled by profit and controlled by subversive billionaires. Their opinions are generally worthless. They used to push lobotomies, cigarettes for health, and opioids for anyone and everyone. Meaningless sheep for the most part.
I want to add that in males it can also be sexual abuse, autism, depression, etc. My son is on the spectrum. He suffered intense emotional distress from being bullied and never fitting in. I believe the majority of males in the teen/young adult cohort have the same issues as the girls in the ROGD cohort. For some reason often the boys and young men are ignored. Anyway, for girls and boys: their bodies aren't wrong. How they think about their bodies is wrong. And needs adjustment.
Yes, that's why I said it's not the same for every single person and there is overlap. Somebody like Walt Heyer talks about his childhood sexual abuse.
Of those diagnosed with autism, it's about 4 to 1 male to female. The girls who seek to escape being female with "trans" are more likely to be autistic because they are expected to be bubbly, girly, and sit silently while males sexually harass them. This doesn't mean that NO males who seek hormones/surgery are autistic. Nobody is ignoring the males, in fact, females have a harder time getting diagnosed with autism.
I didn't say being ignored in regard to autism. I agree autism is more noticed in males and often the girls are not given as much consideration. I mean the young men are not paid attention to in regard to understanding ROGD. It is assumed it's a sexual thing like autogynephilia. Abigail Shrier only wrote about girls. Lisa Littman only looked at girls. And coined the term ROGD for the new cohort of girls with gender dysphoria. So I'm saying in this regard the boys are ignored or stigmatized. I am saying the same factors affecting the girls are also affecting the boys. Most notably autism.
There was a rapid spike in identification among girls at the time Shrier and Littman were researching--that was their focus. There was not a rapid increase in identification among boys, so they were not included in their writings at the time. Researchers have to have a focus, they can't write about everything at once. And if the same factors were affecting the boys, there wouldn't have been a rapid increase at the same exact time, and there wasn't.
There absolutely was a spike in the boys in the post puberty cohort. Just not as high as the girls
The teen boys were a new presentation. So were heterosexual boys. Historically the boys were very young and most likely feminine boys who eventually realized they were gay. The other significant group were middle age men, i.e. AGP.
So the increase seen in girls in the puberty/ post puberty time frame was mimicked by boys at a lower rate. But was still there. Also, once again, atsignificantly represented by ASD in both boys and girls. Up to 50% presenting at clinics . So as I stated before the boys were ignored.
Can you muster some compassion for those of us with our beloved sons in this situation? It is painful to see this happen to our boys..and young men. It is only fair they also get their needs addressed.
Their focus was on girls and females, that is the point of feminism. Feminism is about females. Males have enough representation in govt/business/etc that they don't need feminists to talk about them constantly. So no, the focus from Shrier and Littman is on girls. Somebody else can focus on males if they want, there's plenty of male physicians and representation in medical orgs for them. Boys aren't being ignored. Males have been the focus of all medical research for decades.
I understand you have strong boymom energy here, but that is not the focus of TERFs like me. Male rapists are committing rape in women's prisons because they said they "felt like" girls and that was enough to be moved to a women's prison. Males with grown out hair are allowed to win women's sports competitions. Women are fired from jobs for protesting against this, while male pervert autogynephiles like "Maeve" Duvally gets to publish books and work at Goldman Sach. Women and women's issues are our focus, not males.
I agree. Also do you wonder if autism is being deliberately overlooked as a cause in males? If it were recognised, the castration of males for “gender dysphoria” wound be seen as eugenics. The condition is autism, dysphoria is a symptom.
Yes, exactly. In one of my PITT articles I wrote about erasing nerodiversity and brought up the eugenics issue. I believe that is a significant reason for ignoring ROGD in males. Another broader reason is the complete lack of respect for the male perspective on life, reducing all male sexuality to being preditory and perverse
Our sons have had this perspective driven into them their entire lives. No wonder trans appeals to the autistic boy: boy equals bad, girl equals good. Black and white thinking.
Male sexuality is considered predatory and perverse. We are being treated like sheep. The strong males will keep their genitals, the majority will be castrated. Who are these alpha males imposing this system on us? People afraid of climate damage if the world population is not controlled?
I notice how women are encouraged to leave their husbands and live as single parents (so they do not have more children) Fathers are seen as unwanted but they still have to provide financially. Life is tough for boys too, having role models taken from them.
Girls outperform boys in education in Saudi Arabia. Girls even outperformed boys in education in Afghanistan before the rational male provider/protectors of the Taliban banned females from education. Males are outperformed in education by females even in the most misogynist societies on earth. You can write a book about stoic ideas, but what they need to do is stop watching internet pornography and playing video games.
Girls "outperform" (per stupid standardized tests that mean nothing!) boys in education because of the WAY that public schooling was set up after Title IX (1972?). The feminist revolution changed schooling dramatically. Boys are more "active" learners, meaning that they learn better during and after physical activity. Girls are more social/passive learners and are able to sit and hold attention longer. Schools before Title IX were geared towards a boys learning style because they would need to be the breadwinners of the family and girls were taught the basics plus home economics/secretarial skills.
Yes, the feminist revolution really hit hard in "public" schooling in Afghanistan and Saudi, were it is sex segregated (including for teachers) and literally everything is catered to males. lol
I can't help but wonder if girls also outperformed boys educationally before video games and internet porn ever existed, though. Were there any similar studies from before the 1980's/1990's?
I also think distraction by sexual thoughts and biological needs can become a problem for teenage, post-pubescent males.
It is not all about pornography and video games, as I noted above. Boys have the same intense emotional issues girls have in regard to choosing the "trans solution". Please stop demonizing boys. Your attitude is part of the problem. Boys and men deserve respect and care every bit as much as girls. So knock it off.
Thank you very much for this thoughtful essay. Although, I fundamentally agree with you, much of what's driving this issue is a basic misunderstanding of biological psychology. There is, of course, no distinction between "body" and "mind", and the subjective psychological perceptions of oneself have a complex set of (biological) causes which differ from individual to individual. https://everythingisbiology.substack.com/p/there-is-biological-evidence-for
Let's be frank: Some people actually think they're lizards. It doesn't make a difference what the DSM says, or what anybody else thinks about lizard people.
The key question is this: Should we be hormonally and surgically altering our children because they have a reptile fantasy (real or imagined)? Or, should we (let parents) shepherd them into adulthood unharmed and unmutilated until they can make a wise and informed decision about their self-perceptions? All of the other psychological mumbo-jumbo — and I say this as a biological psychologist — doesn't matter, no matter who spouts the baloney. And, quite frankly, many of the opinions on BOTH sides of the issue are based on misunderstandings of the biology. Dueling points of view are not what's needed. We need simple, pragmatic, compassionate and ethical behavior on everybody's part. Trying to find supporting points of view (for anyone's particular opinion) in the psychological literature is fruitless. You can find studies that will support virtually anything. That's because much of the psychological literature is five decades behind the field of neuroscience. No amount of "logical" argumentation will solve this problem. The solution will only come when people apply loving compassion and thoughtfulness to the *sincere* distresses in which others find themselves without thought for their own narcissistic or ideological points of view. Again, thank you very much for this great essay. Sincerely, Frederick
Bravo! Thank you for helping us to articulate the nuances here. I need to read this over and over again
I actually think it's doing these individuals a disservice even if it may end up being protective of their physical bodies. (And maybe this is more important - given how clear the literature is that most teens are comfortable in their sexed bodies if allowed to proceed through their genetic puberty.)
However - for those who aren't, I think therapy helping them learn to be ok with their bodies is important. Nobody would encourage an anorexic to skip meals and lose more weight because she sees herself as fat. (Purposefully using feminine pronouns as most anorexics are female.) Nobody seriously proposes severing the spinal cord of someone who can walk because they identify as a quadrapalegic. And yet somehow when it comes to the basic parts of the human body, they're fine to just chop them off or turn them inside out? Give me a break.
Trans should be treated no differently than anorexia or other types of body dysmorphia. Just because someone feels a certain way doesn't make it true. Provide them with psychological supports to become ok with the facts of their situation - it's the most kind and caring course of action.
I hope your optimism is warranted but I think the gender predators will find a way around this by pathologising the body itself, e.g. I've heard that some surgeons in the US have referred, officially, to breasts that a patient wants to be rid of as "abnormal structures" that need to be removed and from what I gathered, the insurance company went along with this. Other activist doctors, at least in Australia, have referred to unwanted body parts as "birth defects". It's a scary world when science loses its mind.
One mutilating surgeon in FL calls the mastectomy "yeating the teets". She uses this "fun name" to allow herself to avoid the use of real medical terms, and to make it seem fun to cut tham boobs off.
Wow - "...no disease, but there is diagnosis and treatment." I hope the pendulum continues to swing in our direction and that this nightmare will soon stop! "It's just a way of being. It's not a problem." Perhaps because there is so much confusion in the medical field that that is the problem! Clearly one hand does not seem to know what the other hand is doing just like the trusted physiologists and the revered surgeons as neither "expert" has the correct solution. Why can we all see this as a severe social contagion, and they cannot? Oh, I forgot that it is really about the money! Why else would anyone want to harm a healthy child's mind and body with drugs and surgeries?
Follow the MONEY !
MENTAL "Condition"
'Gender dysphoria' are just 2 words fueling all sorts of industry. Those in charge could care less about people's distress. They have made believers out of a society though and found plenty of minions to do the job of fueling the 'gender' craze. It seems there is a migration from healthcare to corporate ventures. Take Neuralink as an example. Removing sex opens doors. Replacing 'gate keeping' with 'bodily autonomy' is key for business ventures. How they justify payment is anyone's guess. Humans cannot be removed from their nature though. It all seems destined to ultimately fail but they will not go lightly into the night. In the process, many more will be hurt.
Exactly.
Proof is in the lack of care, support, or empathy for the detransitioners.
Its a scam...and an utter travesty on so many levels.
On so many levels! I couldn't agree more. It's the biggest gas-lighting con to have affected Western civilisation.
So far, Nikki. But the slope keeps getting more slippery.
Dehumanizing.
Oh my goodness, I was just thinking how 'dehumanising' this whole ideology is. On so many levels eg it has reduced 'wo/man' to a unknown 'feeling' and lego style, interchangeable, bought body parts. With the ultimate aim being to erase the fact of biological sex and even the notion of wo/man. If both 'men' and women can give birth and both men and 'women' can have pen!s' and vaginas then the categorisation becomes meaningless, right? And that's the point and the agenda that the 'trans-humanists' want to achieve. Transgenderism is just the soft stepping stone to a wider agenda advocated by trans identified man, Martin(e) Rothblatt.
https://youtu.be/PdV73dWFmO8?si=WjhLnotXNxKvIPOI
That's why they have no empathy for detransitioners. They are people that broke away from the trans-programme.
Empathy? The "trans" brats encourage those leaving the cult to kill themselves.
If insurance won't cover, then it's over. Not many parents will be willing or able to shell out $80,000 to get Fred an orchiectomy and a vaginoplasty where a previous generation would have just applied black hair dye and lipstick.
And if we survive the next few decades, we will look back at this cult with horror, and thousands of people will have become eunuchs because of some crap they read on TikTok.
Cannot agree more!!👏👏👏
It is my opinion that the change is financial, not because the medical community is more thoughtful.
Lawsuits are coming about now from the de-transitioning young adults. Insurance companies aren’t willing to take the hot for this tragedy we have implemented on our children. Yes for cosmetic reasons.
On another note someone mentioned California and our awful laws related to transitioning children and being a sanctuary state, shame on us.
I am a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in San Diego and just wrote a Substack on what my professional organization is doing here in California.
You can find it under Nonie Levi’s Substack titled “Fox in the Hen House”
It is terrible. You probably read this one:
https://pitt.substack.com/p/eugenics-in-california-never-again
Thank you and yes I did and re-read again. Tragic!
They tried many times in the 1970’s to sterilize my developmentally disabled sister and my mother refused. Although, reproducing wasn’t an option for her, her natural hormones where needed through her life as a healthy woman.
I do believe the tide is turning and California will be the last holdout to this atrocity of gender affirming care.
Many blessings to you and your family❤️
Thank you, Nonie.
Yes, exactly, your sister needed her natural hormones through life to be a healthy person.
You have probably read the words of Corina Cohn - regarding being tied to a medical leash? I think a very large part of "trans" is about making life time patients of many - as there were only ever a tiny few who might even have this gender identity disorder which is continually renamed. It is even questionable what the best "treatment" is for them. Then, it works so well for those who profit politically from Identity/Victim politics.
No one needs Cult Affirmation and harmful synthetic opposite sex hormones.
I hope the ground game in CA is vigorous!
I am glad to hear that your family was successful defending your sister.
This is all an atrocity. Frankenstein Medicine must stop.
Best Wishes, LM
The author made the key point, which is a bridge too far for many because the Overton window has already moved. The trans disorder social evolution is following the same path as the homosexuality disorder evolution. Homosexuality never became not a disorder in the natural ethos. It became not a disorder in social consciousness because of political pressure and threats of violence. It is still a disorder. Gender dysphoria will never become not a disorder in the natural ethos.
Gender dysphoria (in the clinical sense) has always reminded me of Body Integrity Disorder (BID), where seemingly healthy people wish for a part of their body to be amputated. And then, they feel relieved. I personally don’t mind people doing it, and it seems to be the case that they do feel better mentally after all, but I’d definitely consider it pathological. “Gender dysphoria” replaced the term “Gender identity disorder”, which is still consider a better fit.
I have read so much and listened to so many podcasts about this issue, that I cannot recall the source, but I remember somebody (maybe Eliza Mondegreen?) mentioning that, to get treatments and procedures covered by health care that were NOT covered, doctors made up codes. That is, they would make sure that the "patient" would get a procedure by writing down the code for something that they, and the patient, knew was made-up.
That does not surprise me, knowing how unethical the medical profession has become.
And of course, the doctors feel that they are "sticking it to the man" and fighting for justice by placing themselves with the person who is making a demand for a medical treatment that they wish, or hope, or want, and not a treatment that they actually need, or, what is worse, a treatment that will actually do them good...
I believe(?) that in the early to mid 80's rhinoplasty (nose job) was getting covered by insurance because the patients were going to psychologists/psychiatrists and claiming a mental disorder because of their noses. The billing codes were crucial! I believe that this also happened with breast implants....breast reduction was covered by insurance because it caused pain and back/shoulder deformities. About this time is when the privatization of healthcare started with the rise of the Insurance Industry and Big Pharma.
I totally balk when I see any even vaguely medical organization use that incorrect phrase "assigned at birth". When a baby is born, assumptions are made; no one assigns us a species at birth because this is determined by parentage. Same goes for sex; there is a "choice" of two, but it's an easy pick that no one needs any training for. Gender in its current context is immaterial and irrelevant until puberty.
One thing you can be sure of. The trans lobby will fight tooth and nail to walk that increasingly fine line between "mental health condition" and "hey, we're just normal folx who expect you to bow down before us". As long as they can find a way to get others to pay for their self-harming habit, they're good. https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/sticks-and-stone-can-break-my-bones
'As long as they can find a way to get others to pay for their self-harming habit, they're good.'
🎯
You have superb logic! No disease, no problem. Nothing to cure, nothing to code.
What I have found curious is this- if there is incongruity between one’s mind and body, why do they always look to “fix” the body and not the mind?
Because there is money in that approach.
There is no such thing really as "gender dysphoria" because humans do not have gender.
The feeling that one is "in the wrong body" or should have been born the opposite sex is a delusion. This is a symptom, an indication of a deeper problem. A symptom is not a condition or identity on its own.
In males it can be autogynephilia, pornography addiction, schizophrenia, etc. In females, it can be past childhood sexual abuse, autism, depression, etc. It's not the same for every single person, and there can be overlap.
It's not a "way of being." It's a delusion and a symptom of a deeper problem. The medical industry today is fueled by profit and controlled by subversive billionaires. Their opinions are generally worthless. They used to push lobotomies, cigarettes for health, and opioids for anyone and everyone. Meaningless sheep for the most part.
I want to add that in males it can also be sexual abuse, autism, depression, etc. My son is on the spectrum. He suffered intense emotional distress from being bullied and never fitting in. I believe the majority of males in the teen/young adult cohort have the same issues as the girls in the ROGD cohort. For some reason often the boys and young men are ignored. Anyway, for girls and boys: their bodies aren't wrong. How they think about their bodies is wrong. And needs adjustment.
Yes, that's why I said it's not the same for every single person and there is overlap. Somebody like Walt Heyer talks about his childhood sexual abuse.
Of those diagnosed with autism, it's about 4 to 1 male to female. The girls who seek to escape being female with "trans" are more likely to be autistic because they are expected to be bubbly, girly, and sit silently while males sexually harass them. This doesn't mean that NO males who seek hormones/surgery are autistic. Nobody is ignoring the males, in fact, females have a harder time getting diagnosed with autism.
https://childmind.org/article/autistic-girls-overlooked-undiagnosed-autism/
I didn't say being ignored in regard to autism. I agree autism is more noticed in males and often the girls are not given as much consideration. I mean the young men are not paid attention to in regard to understanding ROGD. It is assumed it's a sexual thing like autogynephilia. Abigail Shrier only wrote about girls. Lisa Littman only looked at girls. And coined the term ROGD for the new cohort of girls with gender dysphoria. So I'm saying in this regard the boys are ignored or stigmatized. I am saying the same factors affecting the girls are also affecting the boys. Most notably autism.
There was a rapid spike in identification among girls at the time Shrier and Littman were researching--that was their focus. There was not a rapid increase in identification among boys, so they were not included in their writings at the time. Researchers have to have a focus, they can't write about everything at once. And if the same factors were affecting the boys, there wouldn't have been a rapid increase at the same exact time, and there wasn't.
There absolutely was a spike in the boys in the post puberty cohort. Just not as high as the girls
The teen boys were a new presentation. So were heterosexual boys. Historically the boys were very young and most likely feminine boys who eventually realized they were gay. The other significant group were middle age men, i.e. AGP.
So the increase seen in girls in the puberty/ post puberty time frame was mimicked by boys at a lower rate. But was still there. Also, once again, atsignificantly represented by ASD in both boys and girls. Up to 50% presenting at clinics . So as I stated before the boys were ignored.
Can you muster some compassion for those of us with our beloved sons in this situation? It is painful to see this happen to our boys..and young men. It is only fair they also get their needs addressed.
Their focus was on girls and females, that is the point of feminism. Feminism is about females. Males have enough representation in govt/business/etc that they don't need feminists to talk about them constantly. So no, the focus from Shrier and Littman is on girls. Somebody else can focus on males if they want, there's plenty of male physicians and representation in medical orgs for them. Boys aren't being ignored. Males have been the focus of all medical research for decades.
I understand you have strong boymom energy here, but that is not the focus of TERFs like me. Male rapists are committing rape in women's prisons because they said they "felt like" girls and that was enough to be moved to a women's prison. Males with grown out hair are allowed to win women's sports competitions. Women are fired from jobs for protesting against this, while male pervert autogynephiles like "Maeve" Duvally gets to publish books and work at Goldman Sach. Women and women's issues are our focus, not males.
I agree. Also do you wonder if autism is being deliberately overlooked as a cause in males? If it were recognised, the castration of males for “gender dysphoria” wound be seen as eugenics. The condition is autism, dysphoria is a symptom.
Yes, exactly. In one of my PITT articles I wrote about erasing nerodiversity and brought up the eugenics issue. I believe that is a significant reason for ignoring ROGD in males. Another broader reason is the complete lack of respect for the male perspective on life, reducing all male sexuality to being preditory and perverse
Our sons have had this perspective driven into them their entire lives. No wonder trans appeals to the autistic boy: boy equals bad, girl equals good. Black and white thinking.
Male sexuality is considered predatory and perverse. We are being treated like sheep. The strong males will keep their genitals, the majority will be castrated. Who are these alpha males imposing this system on us? People afraid of climate damage if the world population is not controlled?
I notice how women are encouraged to leave their husbands and live as single parents (so they do not have more children) Fathers are seen as unwanted but they still have to provide financially. Life is tough for boys too, having role models taken from them.
The school and societal bias against boys and men is just beginning to be recognized.
My belief is that Stoic ideas are good for young men. I have looked for a reference about "Stoicism for teens". i may have to write it.
Girls outperform boys in education in Saudi Arabia. Girls even outperformed boys in education in Afghanistan before the rational male provider/protectors of the Taliban banned females from education. Males are outperformed in education by females even in the most misogynist societies on earth. You can write a book about stoic ideas, but what they need to do is stop watching internet pornography and playing video games.
https://www.voanews.com/a/south-central-asia_afghan-woman-tops-national-university-exam-uncertain-about-future-under-taliban/6210154.html
Girls "outperform" (per stupid standardized tests that mean nothing!) boys in education because of the WAY that public schooling was set up after Title IX (1972?). The feminist revolution changed schooling dramatically. Boys are more "active" learners, meaning that they learn better during and after physical activity. Girls are more social/passive learners and are able to sit and hold attention longer. Schools before Title IX were geared towards a boys learning style because they would need to be the breadwinners of the family and girls were taught the basics plus home economics/secretarial skills.
Yes, the feminist revolution really hit hard in "public" schooling in Afghanistan and Saudi, were it is sex segregated (including for teachers) and literally everything is catered to males. lol
I can't help but wonder if girls also outperformed boys educationally before video games and internet porn ever existed, though. Were there any similar studies from before the 1980's/1990's?
I also think distraction by sexual thoughts and biological needs can become a problem for teenage, post-pubescent males.
It is not all about pornography and video games, as I noted above. Boys have the same intense emotional issues girls have in regard to choosing the "trans solution". Please stop demonizing boys. Your attitude is part of the problem. Boys and men deserve respect and care every bit as much as girls. So knock it off.
Boys are designed to be outside.
They were meant for coal mines
This!!!
Thank you very much for this thoughtful essay. Although, I fundamentally agree with you, much of what's driving this issue is a basic misunderstanding of biological psychology. There is, of course, no distinction between "body" and "mind", and the subjective psychological perceptions of oneself have a complex set of (biological) causes which differ from individual to individual. https://everythingisbiology.substack.com/p/there-is-biological-evidence-for
Let's be frank: Some people actually think they're lizards. It doesn't make a difference what the DSM says, or what anybody else thinks about lizard people.
https://everythingisbiology.substack.com/p/hallucinating-your-inner-trans-reptile
The key question is this: Should we be hormonally and surgically altering our children because they have a reptile fantasy (real or imagined)? Or, should we (let parents) shepherd them into adulthood unharmed and unmutilated until they can make a wise and informed decision about their self-perceptions? All of the other psychological mumbo-jumbo — and I say this as a biological psychologist — doesn't matter, no matter who spouts the baloney. And, quite frankly, many of the opinions on BOTH sides of the issue are based on misunderstandings of the biology. Dueling points of view are not what's needed. We need simple, pragmatic, compassionate and ethical behavior on everybody's part. Trying to find supporting points of view (for anyone's particular opinion) in the psychological literature is fruitless. You can find studies that will support virtually anything. That's because much of the psychological literature is five decades behind the field of neuroscience. No amount of "logical" argumentation will solve this problem. The solution will only come when people apply loving compassion and thoughtfulness to the *sincere* distresses in which others find themselves without thought for their own narcissistic or ideological points of view. Again, thank you very much for this great essay. Sincerely, Frederick
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