We parents of trans-identified kids have all asked this question: Why is this happening? Let’s examine one possible answer that I’ve heard from several sources - such as Josh Daws, Amber Athey, and Helena Kerschner - but that I think originated with James Lindsay at New Discourses: That the recent surge in trans-ID and rapid onset gender dysphoric (ROGD) teens is the deliberate result of a politically-motivated plan to break down the family structure. This article is a quick assessment to see if this explanation makes any sense, is worth pursuing, and, if so, to determine what actions we can take.
This is worthy of a bookmark for its sheer comprehensiveness and intelligent insights, not to mention other qualities. Looking forward to reading more about your work, luckily here in eastern/southern Europe trans epidemic is still not a thing. Much strength to all people afflicted by this!
I read that there is an "incidence of left handedness" argument regarding "trans" as something other than mental illness, fetish, or social contagion. Because, of course, if you are left handed you want to chop off your right hand!
What about "Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism" by Kathleen Stock? She discusses the Butler gibberish that partly started this movement. I'm reading that now. I did have my girl read Deborah Soh's "The End of Gender".
Stock does a good job but sometimes the more rationalist critiques don’t give you a real sense of Butler’s writing and makes her look far more coherent than she actually is. Its one of the reasons I liked the New Polity way of doing it because they actually read the damn thing along with you. They’re also a bit under the radar and won’t trigger an immediate red flag to the heavily indoctrinated like Kathleen Stock would.
If you’ve had the unfortunate task of actually trying to read Bulter however, it’s utterly (deliberate) incoherent thought bubbles, classic Pomo writing.
If you’re kid is hyper logical and hyper fixated, Butler might actually twig something for them. Especially if you take the line of, if you want to be a part of this movement, you better be PROPERLY informed by their leading thinkers rather than your idiot mates on TikTok.
If you DON’T want to read Gender Trouble yourself, there’s a very good podcast breakdown on New Polity (they’re Catholic, but don’t hold that against them) that I found helpful after having to suffer through Butler myself. I think it’s on YouTube somewhere.
I wouldn't argue that Gender Trouble is a resource about the origins of this movement, as much as one of the major causes (at least in academia) of this movement - she (now going by "they") argues that both gender and sex are socially constructed.
Excellent essay, and you are right - I remember an essay by a former M-to-F, a white man, who felt so hated as a cishet-white-man that he decided to be trans, and felt such love and acceptance when he pretended to be a woman. My kids' school is only about 20 percent white, though we are white by local standards, so they don't feel a lot of anti-white sentiment (it seems to be strongest among white people, this self-hatred). (Interestingly, I've noticed a similar phenomenon among black young people from privileged backgrounds - they often play up being black as an identity to detract from familial wealth, like well-off white kids embracing an alphabet identity. I don't hear the same stuff from working class black young people.) But I've told my kids about how it is in more majority-white places, and tried to prepare them by pointing out the falsity of these good-bad binaries: that men oppress women, that whites oppress the rest of the world. That straight people oppress gays. I point out that while the press loved the MeToo# so-called movement for a while, most women, when complaining about problems in the workplace, actually complain about bullying by other women. That men and women have protected and cared for each other, and struggled side by side, throughout history, and that when there are large power imbalances between people, abuse can happen, but it isn't that one group of people is bad and another is good, or innocent. That this (US) majority straight-people nation spends a lot of money on healthcare needs of a minority gay population (HIV, hepatitis, now monkeypox - not that only gay people get these diseases, but they are overrepresented among those infected, to put it mildly), which isn't oppression. Studying world history can disabuse people of the notion that white people invented slavery, war, heterosexuality, and the notion that there are two sexes.I tell them the whole hierarchy of oppression that is so popular in schools, especially with large white populations, is based on a false binary of good vs bad, oppressor vs oppressed. Broad brushes paint inaccurate paintings, full stop. I tell them that no one is good (paraphrasing Jesus here, lest I be accused of plagiarism), that the line between good and evil runs through the heart of every person, and not between groups (paraphrasing Stolzhenitsyn here), and that they should just accept that they are sinners and try to do right and don't get upset if people accuse them of being terrible - we are all terrible in one way or another, and we're all falsely accused of terrible things sometimes, and that none of this makes us "bad" people or should be cause for shame. "You're a white racist!" can be met with "OK, you're welcome to your opinion of me, but I'd really like to focus on X idea if you'll bear with me . . ."
Oh, and I also explained that the whole CRT is a cover for the increased concentration of wealth among the few, basically using black and brown people as human shields - "Oh, we must have mostly peaceful protests (while burning down swaths of minority-owned businesses and making it very hard for poor mothers to get diapers for their babies and poor elderly to get medicines in their own neighborhoods) to protest racism! And more people will buy from amazon!" and "We must shut down schools because black and brown people are more likely to die from covid so keeping schools open is racist!" and predictably school outcomes are much worse for kids in over-crowded housing whose parents don't work from home, oops, lots of black and brown kids overrepresented there too. I could write for hours about this, other people already have, but once you teach kids it is a ruse, and a sinister one at that, it loses its power to harm psychologically. CRT is a divide and conquer strategy to keep people busy while the rich get richer and the middle class disappears . . . And a friend told me he thinks the trans ideology is also to stir up animosity, which means it is so important to be loving towards people in the thick of it, and their sanctimonious "Allies."
I wish this was shorter and I didn't read the whole thing. But I agree that "white guilt" is a variable in the equation. As for the cause, I think there are some very narcissistic personalities out there that have manipulated the internet into promoting transition as a panacea to rationalize their personal fetish. They also exploited the Woke thing. It's not a conspiracy. These people are unconsciously defending their own egos.
This essay is a monumental scholarly effort. However, as a parent with a college age trans-identified son, I would appreciate articles like this one including more reference to understanding the males who are vulnerable to a trans-identified path. Perhaps a PITT writer can tackle the topic of differentiating reasons why males versus females succumb to gender ideology. Are there distinct aspects that differentiate why males versus females are seduced by the trans cult? What is the overlap?
I confess I haven’t read the whole thing yet but from what I did read, it absolutely describes my ROGD daughter:
Identifies with the marginalized ✔️
Ashamed of being white, “cishet” ✔️
Disdains the patriarchy ✔️
Above average intelligence ✔️
Middle class ✔️
Lists Jewish, ADHD, pronouns in Twitter bio ✔️
The irony is that with every pro-trans policy pushed through, women become more marginalized. Maybe these girls will realize that they are truly oppressed and return home.
Wow, fantastic piece. Coherent and logical with lot's of room for critical thinking conversations to be had with the ROGD group. What's interesting is that my 16 year old daughter is caught up in the ROGD group think, while my soon to be 18 year old son sounds like the AR boys described. Very interesting!
Brilliant! Thank you for writing this. I was recently reading Robert Lifton, an expert on cults and brainwashing, and he writes that the first step to brainwashing during the Cultural Revolution in China was to destroy one's previous identity by creating shameful feelings about one's identity. Identity destruction has been analyzed as a step by step process and is nothing new. The schools have been emulating it, essentially experimenting with the most vulnerable kids (via the CRT).
I complement the author on trying to make sense of today's world and to help children. The real pandemic today is realityphobia. Jesus told his disciples that "you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free." That was one of many scriptures I memorized growing up that provided a firm foundation for my life. As the article points out young people (basically teenagers) struggle with identity - who am I? Though I experienced same-sex attraction, I never considered myself "gay"; I made a decision in college that I wanted to marry (a woman) and have children, and God blessed me with that. I came to realize that the Truth is my/(your) true identity is God's beloved child. We just need to choose/believe/affirm that truth. There are really only 2 choices in life. We choose either (a) to listen to God's quiet voice telling us how much he loves us and wants the best for us, or (b) by default, we listen to and, thus, give "the world" authority to tell us who we are. And, as this article points out, "the world" does not have our best interest at heart as God, our Creator, does. Choose you this day whom you will listen to.
I am not arguing with the author, I think this is really something to ponder and I haven't really fully formed my opinion yet. I am really interested in hearing what non-white parents (or not parents) in this substack think about this. (Is that an ok thing to ask? I really don't want to alienate anyone). Also, just anyone from countries where race is less of an issue than in the USA.
In Australia race isn’t as front and centre as in the US but most middle class intelligent kids are taking on the white privilege guilt with gusto, and subsequently identifying as the only oppressed minorities available to them; queer, non binary or trans.
...you are not the savior like Greta and Nike say you are...
Twelve years ago when her smart, creative, introverted daughter returned from the first day of kindergarten, in tears, my sister asked, "Why honey? What's wrong?"
"They said I have to save the world. I don't want to save the world, Mommy. I just want to go to kindergarten."
This points to another major stressor, right up there with race--the demands of green-world on kids. Developmentally, they NEVER should've gotten the bad news first. The climate is an adult worry. Not a kid worry. But the activists couldn't wait for the parents to save the world, so they went after the kindergarteners. The weight of the world cheerfully tossed onto the shoulders of 6-yr-olds! And people wonder why kids are stressed, anxious and suicidal. Maybe its because they've been set up for failure?
Somehow I missed this back in August last year but I think it's one of the most sensible and well-argued theories I've seen on this topic. Thank you.
This is worthy of a bookmark for its sheer comprehensiveness and intelligent insights, not to mention other qualities. Looking forward to reading more about your work, luckily here in eastern/southern Europe trans epidemic is still not a thing. Much strength to all people afflicted by this!
I read that there is an "incidence of left handedness" argument regarding "trans" as something other than mental illness, fetish, or social contagion. Because, of course, if you are left handed you want to chop off your right hand!
I thought the below would be relevant to the conversation. Have a scan to understand the psychological assault these kids are under:
https://www.city-journal.org/gsa-clubs-smuggle-gender-ideology-into-k-12-education?wallit_nosession=1
A lot of this stuff dates back to the writings of Simone De Beauvoir too.
Teacher training video from my school on "identity"
https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c3hlqlVr29V
Found another great resource on the orgins if the transgender/genderfluid movement: Gender Trouble by Judith Butler.
What about "Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism" by Kathleen Stock? She discusses the Butler gibberish that partly started this movement. I'm reading that now. I did have my girl read Deborah Soh's "The End of Gender".
Stock does a good job but sometimes the more rationalist critiques don’t give you a real sense of Butler’s writing and makes her look far more coherent than she actually is. Its one of the reasons I liked the New Polity way of doing it because they actually read the damn thing along with you. They’re also a bit under the radar and won’t trigger an immediate red flag to the heavily indoctrinated like Kathleen Stock would.
If you’ve had the unfortunate task of actually trying to read Bulter however, it’s utterly (deliberate) incoherent thought bubbles, classic Pomo writing.
If you’re kid is hyper logical and hyper fixated, Butler might actually twig something for them. Especially if you take the line of, if you want to be a part of this movement, you better be PROPERLY informed by their leading thinkers rather than your idiot mates on TikTok.
If you DON’T want to read Gender Trouble yourself, there’s a very good podcast breakdown on New Polity (they’re Catholic, but don’t hold that against them) that I found helpful after having to suffer through Butler myself. I think it’s on YouTube somewhere.
I wouldn't argue that Gender Trouble is a resource about the origins of this movement, as much as one of the major causes (at least in academia) of this movement - she (now going by "they") argues that both gender and sex are socially constructed.
Excellent essay, and you are right - I remember an essay by a former M-to-F, a white man, who felt so hated as a cishet-white-man that he decided to be trans, and felt such love and acceptance when he pretended to be a woman. My kids' school is only about 20 percent white, though we are white by local standards, so they don't feel a lot of anti-white sentiment (it seems to be strongest among white people, this self-hatred). (Interestingly, I've noticed a similar phenomenon among black young people from privileged backgrounds - they often play up being black as an identity to detract from familial wealth, like well-off white kids embracing an alphabet identity. I don't hear the same stuff from working class black young people.) But I've told my kids about how it is in more majority-white places, and tried to prepare them by pointing out the falsity of these good-bad binaries: that men oppress women, that whites oppress the rest of the world. That straight people oppress gays. I point out that while the press loved the MeToo# so-called movement for a while, most women, when complaining about problems in the workplace, actually complain about bullying by other women. That men and women have protected and cared for each other, and struggled side by side, throughout history, and that when there are large power imbalances between people, abuse can happen, but it isn't that one group of people is bad and another is good, or innocent. That this (US) majority straight-people nation spends a lot of money on healthcare needs of a minority gay population (HIV, hepatitis, now monkeypox - not that only gay people get these diseases, but they are overrepresented among those infected, to put it mildly), which isn't oppression. Studying world history can disabuse people of the notion that white people invented slavery, war, heterosexuality, and the notion that there are two sexes.I tell them the whole hierarchy of oppression that is so popular in schools, especially with large white populations, is based on a false binary of good vs bad, oppressor vs oppressed. Broad brushes paint inaccurate paintings, full stop. I tell them that no one is good (paraphrasing Jesus here, lest I be accused of plagiarism), that the line between good and evil runs through the heart of every person, and not between groups (paraphrasing Stolzhenitsyn here), and that they should just accept that they are sinners and try to do right and don't get upset if people accuse them of being terrible - we are all terrible in one way or another, and we're all falsely accused of terrible things sometimes, and that none of this makes us "bad" people or should be cause for shame. "You're a white racist!" can be met with "OK, you're welcome to your opinion of me, but I'd really like to focus on X idea if you'll bear with me . . ."
Oh, and I also explained that the whole CRT is a cover for the increased concentration of wealth among the few, basically using black and brown people as human shields - "Oh, we must have mostly peaceful protests (while burning down swaths of minority-owned businesses and making it very hard for poor mothers to get diapers for their babies and poor elderly to get medicines in their own neighborhoods) to protest racism! And more people will buy from amazon!" and "We must shut down schools because black and brown people are more likely to die from covid so keeping schools open is racist!" and predictably school outcomes are much worse for kids in over-crowded housing whose parents don't work from home, oops, lots of black and brown kids overrepresented there too. I could write for hours about this, other people already have, but once you teach kids it is a ruse, and a sinister one at that, it loses its power to harm psychologically. CRT is a divide and conquer strategy to keep people busy while the rich get richer and the middle class disappears . . . And a friend told me he thinks the trans ideology is also to stir up animosity, which means it is so important to be loving towards people in the thick of it, and their sanctimonious "Allies."
I wish this was shorter and I didn't read the whole thing. But I agree that "white guilt" is a variable in the equation. As for the cause, I think there are some very narcissistic personalities out there that have manipulated the internet into promoting transition as a panacea to rationalize their personal fetish. They also exploited the Woke thing. It's not a conspiracy. These people are unconsciously defending their own egos.
This essay is a monumental scholarly effort. However, as a parent with a college age trans-identified son, I would appreciate articles like this one including more reference to understanding the males who are vulnerable to a trans-identified path. Perhaps a PITT writer can tackle the topic of differentiating reasons why males versus females succumb to gender ideology. Are there distinct aspects that differentiate why males versus females are seduced by the trans cult? What is the overlap?
I confess I haven’t read the whole thing yet but from what I did read, it absolutely describes my ROGD daughter:
Identifies with the marginalized ✔️
Ashamed of being white, “cishet” ✔️
Disdains the patriarchy ✔️
Above average intelligence ✔️
Middle class ✔️
Lists Jewish, ADHD, pronouns in Twitter bio ✔️
The irony is that with every pro-trans policy pushed through, women become more marginalized. Maybe these girls will realize that they are truly oppressed and return home.
🙏🏼
Wow, fantastic piece. Coherent and logical with lot's of room for critical thinking conversations to be had with the ROGD group. What's interesting is that my 16 year old daughter is caught up in the ROGD group think, while my soon to be 18 year old son sounds like the AR boys described. Very interesting!
Brilliant! Thank you for writing this. I was recently reading Robert Lifton, an expert on cults and brainwashing, and he writes that the first step to brainwashing during the Cultural Revolution in China was to destroy one's previous identity by creating shameful feelings about one's identity. Identity destruction has been analyzed as a step by step process and is nothing new. The schools have been emulating it, essentially experimenting with the most vulnerable kids (via the CRT).
I complement the author on trying to make sense of today's world and to help children. The real pandemic today is realityphobia. Jesus told his disciples that "you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free." That was one of many scriptures I memorized growing up that provided a firm foundation for my life. As the article points out young people (basically teenagers) struggle with identity - who am I? Though I experienced same-sex attraction, I never considered myself "gay"; I made a decision in college that I wanted to marry (a woman) and have children, and God blessed me with that. I came to realize that the Truth is my/(your) true identity is God's beloved child. We just need to choose/believe/affirm that truth. There are really only 2 choices in life. We choose either (a) to listen to God's quiet voice telling us how much he loves us and wants the best for us, or (b) by default, we listen to and, thus, give "the world" authority to tell us who we are. And, as this article points out, "the world" does not have our best interest at heart as God, our Creator, does. Choose you this day whom you will listen to.
I am not arguing with the author, I think this is really something to ponder and I haven't really fully formed my opinion yet. I am really interested in hearing what non-white parents (or not parents) in this substack think about this. (Is that an ok thing to ask? I really don't want to alienate anyone). Also, just anyone from countries where race is less of an issue than in the USA.
In Australia race isn’t as front and centre as in the US but most middle class intelligent kids are taking on the white privilege guilt with gusto, and subsequently identifying as the only oppressed minorities available to them; queer, non binary or trans.
...you are not the savior like Greta and Nike say you are...
Twelve years ago when her smart, creative, introverted daughter returned from the first day of kindergarten, in tears, my sister asked, "Why honey? What's wrong?"
"They said I have to save the world. I don't want to save the world, Mommy. I just want to go to kindergarten."
This points to another major stressor, right up there with race--the demands of green-world on kids. Developmentally, they NEVER should've gotten the bad news first. The climate is an adult worry. Not a kid worry. But the activists couldn't wait for the parents to save the world, so they went after the kindergarteners. The weight of the world cheerfully tossed onto the shoulders of 6-yr-olds! And people wonder why kids are stressed, anxious and suicidal. Maybe its because they've been set up for failure?