I used to think of some of the teens wrapped up in this as having a social contagion. I now believe that the 'full on believers' are also wrapped up in a social contagion.
I do not understand how any of this isn't a mental illness. Gay people are not trying to deny reality but transgender people are not only denying but trying hard to alter reality.
Thank you, Sofie - and thank you Eliza, for sharing Sofie's review with us. Agreed, there must be "other Jamie Reeds" out there. It's hard to believe that the Trans Train documentary is five years old. I am full of relief and hope that the messages of craziness and harm are getting out now, and also full of sadness that things are not changing faster. Thanks for sharing and for speaking out.
I'm not sure the English words "sex" and "gender" have discrete meanings either. Sex, we're sometimes now told, is biological, and gender social, but also that "gender identity" is innate (how?). We're told infants are "gendered at birth" male or female--but male and female are sexes, not genders. Trans activists and their allies, in a word, seem about as apt to use the terms interchangeably as anyone else.
Yeah but there isn’t such thing as “gender” separate from sex in English either. A handful of activists and academics claimed you could use “gender” as a confusing shortened form for “gender roles.” Up till 5 years ago no one did that. Gender means which sex you are so that you don’t have to freak people out by making them think you’re talking about f***ing, and trans ideology uses it that way too: ie altering SEX hormones and secondary and primary SEXual features, as part of gender identity.
Yes, the first trick is the term 'trans person, which already creates an essential entity, when really the term is empty and just means someone who is trans, a circular definition.
You then get the compromise trans as treatment for carefully selected severely dysphoric, or someone who is consistent with their 'born-in-the wrong-body' narrative, which both just create another 'true trans'.
But there is no true trans, and in fact it's quite inequitable to condemn the most dysphoric to a narrow future just because they exhibit the most complex and difficult treatment. We know they have many comorbidities and often other background traumas.
So I think we should avoid this compromise in language as it cedes the ground already. We need to get medicine back to it's role in basic disease- why is a psychological issue, dysphoria, being treated as a medical issue? And psychologists need to use accurate language in accordance with what is already known about psychology. So for a start recognising that an identity, or sense of identity, or narrative about a sense of identity, appears within Self, which has many such overlapping and shifting identities.
If course there's no reason to expect this to happen because culture at large is stuck and unable to do sense-making because of a pervasive and extreme relativism.
The combination of a reconfigured sexuality with "critical" theories of sexual relationships to advocate "polyamory" as well as "consent" to sexual activity by children are the tangents flowing out from the bubble of "trans identity." Most of these young girls have no inkling of this dark nebula of influence when the indoctrination and brainwashing begin. Though I've had 30 years of exposure to this cult as a trans widow, I'm only fully understanding the full spiderweb of this powerful, moneyed cult.
I felt literal chills down my spine when I read this post, especially Leo's struggles and how she was failed by the medical system.
I owe a huge debt to Jemsby and Mattisson: I watched the first two parts with my daughter when she was in the depth of dysphoria, and about three or four months later I started seeing the first glimmers of desistance. Perhaps it's coincidence, but I heard that other parents had the same experience. I think the lovely young woman at the end of part two who says something like: "I just don't need to worry about this right now" gave my daughter a visible off-ramp, a way to stop the identification without losing friends and being ashamed.
When will this end?? When will we stop changing children's bodies in order to cure a psychological or social malaise? I am on my knees every day with gratitude that my daughter desisted, but my heart aches for all the parents I know whose children haven't yet, and maybe never will.
it was interesting to watch the doc a second time now that I've read eliza mondegreen's account of the WPATH conference.
what I didn't catch the first time around is how bizarre it is that (essentially) activists are addressing a medical conference and how grovelling/pandering/overly-grateful the host and audience was to them. (no wonder no one can course correct!)
and I newly appreciated how the filmmakers end the doc with the body language and facial expressions of the people who are both responsible, and avoiding responsibility, for this continued harm
"'Whatever you do, don’t take her to see us. If you do, she is never getting out of here. She’ll be a patient for the rest of her life.' It really makes you wonder how many Jamie Reeds around the world have yet to come forward." Chilling.
I used to think of some of the teens wrapped up in this as having a social contagion. I now believe that the 'full on believers' are also wrapped up in a social contagion.
I do not understand how any of this isn't a mental illness. Gay people are not trying to deny reality but transgender people are not only denying but trying hard to alter reality.
Thank you, Sofie - and thank you Eliza, for sharing Sofie's review with us. Agreed, there must be "other Jamie Reeds" out there. It's hard to believe that the Trans Train documentary is five years old. I am full of relief and hope that the messages of craziness and harm are getting out now, and also full of sadness that things are not changing faster. Thanks for sharing and for speaking out.
"It really makes you wonder how many Jamie Reeds around the world have yet to come forward."
Indeed, another Jamie Reed has come forward! Tamara Pietzke is her name.
Oooh, yes! https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13046891/washington-doctor-gender-affirming-care-minor.html
Thanks for such a thorough review. And thanks for warning us that although a battle might have been won, the war is far from over.
I'm not sure the English words "sex" and "gender" have discrete meanings either. Sex, we're sometimes now told, is biological, and gender social, but also that "gender identity" is innate (how?). We're told infants are "gendered at birth" male or female--but male and female are sexes, not genders. Trans activists and their allies, in a word, seem about as apt to use the terms interchangeably as anyone else.
The point is that there aren’t two terms you could possibly confuse that way in Swedish. There’s only “sex,” no “gender.”
I understood the point.
Yeah but there isn’t such thing as “gender” separate from sex in English either. A handful of activists and academics claimed you could use “gender” as a confusing shortened form for “gender roles.” Up till 5 years ago no one did that. Gender means which sex you are so that you don’t have to freak people out by making them think you’re talking about f***ing, and trans ideology uses it that way too: ie altering SEX hormones and secondary and primary SEXual features, as part of gender identity.
The video is unavailable now it appears...
Yes, the first trick is the term 'trans person, which already creates an essential entity, when really the term is empty and just means someone who is trans, a circular definition.
You then get the compromise trans as treatment for carefully selected severely dysphoric, or someone who is consistent with their 'born-in-the wrong-body' narrative, which both just create another 'true trans'.
But there is no true trans, and in fact it's quite inequitable to condemn the most dysphoric to a narrow future just because they exhibit the most complex and difficult treatment. We know they have many comorbidities and often other background traumas.
So I think we should avoid this compromise in language as it cedes the ground already. We need to get medicine back to it's role in basic disease- why is a psychological issue, dysphoria, being treated as a medical issue? And psychologists need to use accurate language in accordance with what is already known about psychology. So for a start recognising that an identity, or sense of identity, or narrative about a sense of identity, appears within Self, which has many such overlapping and shifting identities.
If course there's no reason to expect this to happen because culture at large is stuck and unable to do sense-making because of a pervasive and extreme relativism.
The combination of a reconfigured sexuality with "critical" theories of sexual relationships to advocate "polyamory" as well as "consent" to sexual activity by children are the tangents flowing out from the bubble of "trans identity." Most of these young girls have no inkling of this dark nebula of influence when the indoctrination and brainwashing begin. Though I've had 30 years of exposure to this cult as a trans widow, I'm only fully understanding the full spiderweb of this powerful, moneyed cult.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVhnwSn4Rk&t=1s
I felt literal chills down my spine when I read this post, especially Leo's struggles and how she was failed by the medical system.
I owe a huge debt to Jemsby and Mattisson: I watched the first two parts with my daughter when she was in the depth of dysphoria, and about three or four months later I started seeing the first glimmers of desistance. Perhaps it's coincidence, but I heard that other parents had the same experience. I think the lovely young woman at the end of part two who says something like: "I just don't need to worry about this right now" gave my daughter a visible off-ramp, a way to stop the identification without losing friends and being ashamed.
When will this end?? When will we stop changing children's bodies in order to cure a psychological or social malaise? I am on my knees every day with gratitude that my daughter desisted, but my heart aches for all the parents I know whose children haven't yet, and maybe never will.
The story of Leo is absolutely heartbreaking here and in the documentary
Link to doc:
https://youtu.be/HPNSWjjAzDk?si=CIZFXzUsD4qHIkfg
it was interesting to watch the doc a second time now that I've read eliza mondegreen's account of the WPATH conference.
what I didn't catch the first time around is how bizarre it is that (essentially) activists are addressing a medical conference and how grovelling/pandering/overly-grateful the host and audience was to them. (no wonder no one can course correct!)
and I newly appreciated how the filmmakers end the doc with the body language and facial expressions of the people who are both responsible, and avoiding responsibility, for this continued harm
Thank you!
"'Whatever you do, don’t take her to see us. If you do, she is never getting out of here. She’ll be a patient for the rest of her life.' It really makes you wonder how many Jamie Reeds around the world have yet to come forward." Chilling.