Here’s part two, about the Genspect conference in Killarney last week! The reality is that many people have been harmed by gender: detransitioners who paid heavily for the impossible promises of transition, ‘disenchanted transsexuals,’ parents who lost contact with well-loved children, dissidents (“TERFs”) who sacrificed careers and shredded their social networks. And none of these people, with their very human needs and their very human pains, were reducible to some identification or diagnosis or slur: no label could encompass who they are or what they have gone through or what any of them will become.
Young people have always suffered from delusional thinking, indulged in fantasy, lacked perspective, etc. However, reality eventually came and set them on the right path (in most instances). Nowadays, not only is reality ignored by mainstream America (and other parts of the world, but Europe, country by country, is waking up and slowing down - Finland, Norway, Sweden, France and now the UK), but young people are pushed and shoved in the direction of their fantasies, and told that anything short of indulging completely in their fantasies will either cause them to kill themselves, or, at best, will force them to lead a miserable, pointless life. Anyone who tries to get in the way of their fantasies - warning of the dangers of the pretense of believing they are the opposite sex, warning of the medical challenges of such choices, and urging them to, if at all possible, accept their healthy bodies and appreciate the benefits of living within those bodies (but not necessarily conforming to any stereotypes associated therewith) - is sloughed off as a bigoted fool. Parents in particular who try and protect their children are considered the worst offenders, and many of these young people, who naturally are separating from their parents as they grow up, now have complete disdain for those who love them the most. This entire situation is untenable, and will eventually come to an end. In the meantime, how many young people will be harmed? How many women will be harmed? How many families will be torn apart? Genspect is doing a very important job - and it is well appreciated by parents like me!!
I appreciate the emphasis on lost humanity. Sexism/gender ideology is indeed dehumanizing. Sometimes I think gender ideology is the weirdest reaction to sexism I've ever seen -- males are identifying into the misogynistic ideal of what a woman is and females are identifying out of it. It seems like a reaction to sexism without the acknowledgement that sexism exists. I guess it's the same with "sex work is work" and other examples in which women's oppression is repackaged and sold back to them as "liberating/powerful" or "self-expression" or "kindness". This is just the latest attempt to convince us our oppression doesn't exist, that the conditions of our oppression are natural and our opposition to it is unnatural, and we need to be focused on more important things like how we're going to cater men.
Very emotive piece. I am saddened by the terrible injustice that is being visited upon so many troubled children who are only just coming to terms with puberty and so many with co-morbidities. Instead of giving them time to be sure about their feelings, and to question them, they are being fed a crock of shit instead of absolute truth. Transitioning is not a guarantee of happiness and it may be a passport to lifelong medicalisation, pain and regret. Adolescence can be tough. Why is it so difficult to ask these children what is making them so sad? Asking the question should be the precursor to anything else and it should take time.
It's interesting that you have just posted this, because it dovetails with a segment on the PBS NewsHour. The NewsHour's segment was about children becoming increasingly unruly in school, and doing things like attacking their teachers, or other kinds of acting out. I think that transgender activists may be partly responsible for that. They have given kids the idea that they have the "agency" and the RIGHT to make major decisions for themselves, and that they should not have to defer to adult authorities. But even if they do defer to adult authorities, the adult authorities in their lives (teachers, school administrators) are all parrotting the message of trans activists.
Kids today are anxious to become adults, and increasingly intolerant of being told what to do. In my opinion, the influence of trans activists may have been extremely negative, giving kids permission to "be themselves" and thumb their noses at authorities. The proper role of the schools should be to counter the bad information coming from social media, but the schools have become conduits for that bad information.
"If you think you are trans, you need to wait until you are an adult before acting on that, because you never know if your feelings will change. You are not completely grown up until you hit your twenties, and you will not have a good idea of exactly who you are until you get there." That's the message kids should be getting from their schools.
Just read your full essay and found it brilliant and at times beautiful. Favorite line: "Gender identity is not an endocrine condition or a birth defect or a revelation of some essential truth surpassing all understanding, but is rather a deeply human problem, a fresh expression of timeless needs for meaning and explanation and belonging." So true.
"But what I don’t understand is how it is that gender does not fascinate its most avid proselytizers and practitioners." It really is so weird. And fascinating! As you say, so many people who were at Genspect and who read your newsletter are only in these spaces because of how harmed they have been. But I keep asking myself why isn't EVERYONE so curious and appalled? For me and maybe others in the "fascinated" (you could even say "obsessed") camp, it's like any line of thinking or piece of music that latches onto my mind and fusses and buzzes about endlessly demanding I pay attention to it. Keeping me awake, looking for clues, like a murder mystery to be solved. For me, the "fascination" is like any other creative impulse. I think creativity is strongly linked to curiosity, and both have been stifled in so many. From what you and others report of the Genspect conference, creativity was put back into the recipe again. Humanity was welcomed and folded in. People should be laughing and crying whenever people get together to talk about things that matter so much. It sounds like it was the best conference ever.
"Gender" is a grammatical word used in languages (like mine, Icelandic) where words are "female", "male" or "neutral" (it). Let's just use it for that. Humans have sex. I'm not interested in others' "gender identity". They can discuss it with their shrinks or friends who have the patience.
Young people have always suffered from delusional thinking, indulged in fantasy, lacked perspective, etc. However, reality eventually came and set them on the right path (in most instances). Nowadays, not only is reality ignored by mainstream America (and other parts of the world, but Europe, country by country, is waking up and slowing down - Finland, Norway, Sweden, France and now the UK), but young people are pushed and shoved in the direction of their fantasies, and told that anything short of indulging completely in their fantasies will either cause them to kill themselves, or, at best, will force them to lead a miserable, pointless life. Anyone who tries to get in the way of their fantasies - warning of the dangers of the pretense of believing they are the opposite sex, warning of the medical challenges of such choices, and urging them to, if at all possible, accept their healthy bodies and appreciate the benefits of living within those bodies (but not necessarily conforming to any stereotypes associated therewith) - is sloughed off as a bigoted fool. Parents in particular who try and protect their children are considered the worst offenders, and many of these young people, who naturally are separating from their parents as they grow up, now have complete disdain for those who love them the most. This entire situation is untenable, and will eventually come to an end. In the meantime, how many young people will be harmed? How many women will be harmed? How many families will be torn apart? Genspect is doing a very important job - and it is well appreciated by parents like me!!
I appreciate the emphasis on lost humanity. Sexism/gender ideology is indeed dehumanizing. Sometimes I think gender ideology is the weirdest reaction to sexism I've ever seen -- males are identifying into the misogynistic ideal of what a woman is and females are identifying out of it. It seems like a reaction to sexism without the acknowledgement that sexism exists. I guess it's the same with "sex work is work" and other examples in which women's oppression is repackaged and sold back to them as "liberating/powerful" or "self-expression" or "kindness". This is just the latest attempt to convince us our oppression doesn't exist, that the conditions of our oppression are natural and our opposition to it is unnatural, and we need to be focused on more important things like how we're going to cater men.
Very emotive piece. I am saddened by the terrible injustice that is being visited upon so many troubled children who are only just coming to terms with puberty and so many with co-morbidities. Instead of giving them time to be sure about their feelings, and to question them, they are being fed a crock of shit instead of absolute truth. Transitioning is not a guarantee of happiness and it may be a passport to lifelong medicalisation, pain and regret. Adolescence can be tough. Why is it so difficult to ask these children what is making them so sad? Asking the question should be the precursor to anything else and it should take time.
It's interesting that you have just posted this, because it dovetails with a segment on the PBS NewsHour. The NewsHour's segment was about children becoming increasingly unruly in school, and doing things like attacking their teachers, or other kinds of acting out. I think that transgender activists may be partly responsible for that. They have given kids the idea that they have the "agency" and the RIGHT to make major decisions for themselves, and that they should not have to defer to adult authorities. But even if they do defer to adult authorities, the adult authorities in their lives (teachers, school administrators) are all parrotting the message of trans activists.
Kids today are anxious to become adults, and increasingly intolerant of being told what to do. In my opinion, the influence of trans activists may have been extremely negative, giving kids permission to "be themselves" and thumb their noses at authorities. The proper role of the schools should be to counter the bad information coming from social media, but the schools have become conduits for that bad information.
"If you think you are trans, you need to wait until you are an adult before acting on that, because you never know if your feelings will change. You are not completely grown up until you hit your twenties, and you will not have a good idea of exactly who you are until you get there." That's the message kids should be getting from their schools.
Just read your full essay and found it brilliant and at times beautiful. Favorite line: "Gender identity is not an endocrine condition or a birth defect or a revelation of some essential truth surpassing all understanding, but is rather a deeply human problem, a fresh expression of timeless needs for meaning and explanation and belonging." So true.
"But what I don’t understand is how it is that gender does not fascinate its most avid proselytizers and practitioners." It really is so weird. And fascinating! As you say, so many people who were at Genspect and who read your newsletter are only in these spaces because of how harmed they have been. But I keep asking myself why isn't EVERYONE so curious and appalled? For me and maybe others in the "fascinated" (you could even say "obsessed") camp, it's like any line of thinking or piece of music that latches onto my mind and fusses and buzzes about endlessly demanding I pay attention to it. Keeping me awake, looking for clues, like a murder mystery to be solved. For me, the "fascination" is like any other creative impulse. I think creativity is strongly linked to curiosity, and both have been stifled in so many. From what you and others report of the Genspect conference, creativity was put back into the recipe again. Humanity was welcomed and folded in. People should be laughing and crying whenever people get together to talk about things that matter so much. It sounds like it was the best conference ever.
"Gender" is a grammatical word used in languages (like mine, Icelandic) where words are "female", "male" or "neutral" (it). Let's just use it for that. Humans have sex. I'm not interested in others' "gender identity". They can discuss it with their shrinks or friends who have the patience.