"I am perplexed at the sudden mention of young children brainwashed into seeing themselves as the wrong gender. We have not been talking about this, and it plays no visible part in the sudden explosion of affirmation pressure."
😅No, *you* have not been talking about this, which I think is the problem. So many people, when they talk about…
"I am perplexed at the sudden mention of young children brainwashed into seeing themselves as the wrong gender. We have not been talking about this, and it plays no visible part in the sudden explosion of affirmation pressure."
😅No, *you* have not been talking about this, which I think is the problem. So many people, when they talk about trans people are only really talking about trans women. And when they're talking about trans women, they're only *really* talking about the fifty-year-old men with AGP trying to bully their way into female spaces.
These people are out there, of course, I've pointed them out repeatedly. But they only represent a segment of the trans "community".
Just as important to consider are trans men. Because any policies designed for trans women will apply equally to trans men, who represent a larger slice of the community than any other group, especially amongst young people.
So, for example, if you want trans women to use men's bathrooms, you have to also make trans men use women's bathrooms. And given that trans men, in many cases, look, as you say indistinguishable from men, you now have people with beards, presenting completely as men, walking into women's bathrooms. This is the entire reasons why I think bathrooms (and bathrooms alone) should be (and already are) segregated by gender rather than sex.
It's important to consider people who genuinely have gender dysphoria. Who felt this incongruence from an early age. I'm told over and over again that these people represent a tiny proportion of trans people, but never with even a tiny bit of evidence. And regardless of their proportion, in the total human population, there are likely millions of them out there. People who have undergone complete gender reassignment surgery, people who are visually indistinguishable from the sex they've transitioned into, what do we do with these people? Are they just attention seekers? Perverts who were so committed to getting into women's spaces that they had their penises cut off in their teens?
When I'm talking about trans people, I'm trying to talk about *all* of these groups, not just the weird old men in dresses. I don't know Stephanie's story. I don't know what she's like away from her nasty little internet persona. But I'm not going to let her nastiness become the lens through which I view all trans issues. And my concern is, the more people see of the Stephanies, the less willing they'll be to nuance their views to include the many other people who are nothing like her.
Yes, I'm just as concerned as you are about the perverts and the surgeons preforming mastectomies on children. I'm just as eager for psychologists to spend time diagnosing they patients and trying to find solutions that don't involve life-long hormones and irreversible surgery and to not have this mislabelled as "conversion therapy." I'm just as certain that regardless of any of this, there are instances where single-sex spaces need to be for single sexes, not genders.
But none of this has anything to do with the inadequacy of reassignment surgery. That's just personal distaste for what these people are doing. Adults can do whatever they want to their bodies. As long as they're mentally competent to make the decision. And the decision on whether they *are* mentally competent can't be based on, "well I think it's weird/gross" or "'normal' people don't do that."
"I am perplexed at the sudden mention of young children brainwashed into seeing themselves as the wrong gender. We have not been talking about this, and it plays no visible part in the sudden explosion of affirmation pressure."
😅No, *you* have not been talking about this, which I think is the problem. So many people, when they talk about trans people are only really talking about trans women. And when they're talking about trans women, they're only *really* talking about the fifty-year-old men with AGP trying to bully their way into female spaces.
These people are out there, of course, I've pointed them out repeatedly. But they only represent a segment of the trans "community".
Just as important to consider are trans men. Because any policies designed for trans women will apply equally to trans men, who represent a larger slice of the community than any other group, especially amongst young people.
So, for example, if you want trans women to use men's bathrooms, you have to also make trans men use women's bathrooms. And given that trans men, in many cases, look, as you say indistinguishable from men, you now have people with beards, presenting completely as men, walking into women's bathrooms. This is the entire reasons why I think bathrooms (and bathrooms alone) should be (and already are) segregated by gender rather than sex.
It's important to consider people who genuinely have gender dysphoria. Who felt this incongruence from an early age. I'm told over and over again that these people represent a tiny proportion of trans people, but never with even a tiny bit of evidence. And regardless of their proportion, in the total human population, there are likely millions of them out there. People who have undergone complete gender reassignment surgery, people who are visually indistinguishable from the sex they've transitioned into, what do we do with these people? Are they just attention seekers? Perverts who were so committed to getting into women's spaces that they had their penises cut off in their teens?
When I'm talking about trans people, I'm trying to talk about *all* of these groups, not just the weird old men in dresses. I don't know Stephanie's story. I don't know what she's like away from her nasty little internet persona. But I'm not going to let her nastiness become the lens through which I view all trans issues. And my concern is, the more people see of the Stephanies, the less willing they'll be to nuance their views to include the many other people who are nothing like her.
Yes, I'm just as concerned as you are about the perverts and the surgeons preforming mastectomies on children. I'm just as eager for psychologists to spend time diagnosing they patients and trying to find solutions that don't involve life-long hormones and irreversible surgery and to not have this mislabelled as "conversion therapy." I'm just as certain that regardless of any of this, there are instances where single-sex spaces need to be for single sexes, not genders.
But none of this has anything to do with the inadequacy of reassignment surgery. That's just personal distaste for what these people are doing. Adults can do whatever they want to their bodies. As long as they're mentally competent to make the decision. And the decision on whether they *are* mentally competent can't be based on, "well I think it's weird/gross" or "'normal' people don't do that."