A detransitioner describes some of her original motives for transitioning
The following wasn’t her only motive. But this was certainly part of why transitioning appealed to her as a troubled teenager, and I strongly suspect it’s a common motivation for today’s teenagers.
A few years ago the author was a somewhat depressed, isolated and troubled teenage girl who turned to the internet for information and companionship, and became heavily involved with Tumblr:
On Tumblr, the situation was such that any claim to being “oppressed” would accumulate social credibility, while any unfortunate “privileged” status was justification for verbal abuse. As a “privileged” person, you were expected to constantly grovel and apologize, you had no right to speak on any issue involving the group you were “oppressing”, and you could not object in any way to any mistreatment hurled against you because of your race, gender, or sexuality.
I found myself in a bit of a double bind. On one hand, I had found what felt like the perfect group of friends who understood me on an intuitive level, who I was able to talk to openly about the things I liked and made me “weird” in real life, but on the other hand I was a “cishet white girl” in an environment where that was one of the worst things to be. Since Tumblr users are mostly biological females, the “cishet white girl” holds the position of most privileged and therefore most inherently bad group. In this climate, you are made to feel guilty and responsible for all the horrors and atrocities in the world. No hardship you could possibly go through could ever be as bad as the prejudice and genocide POC and LGBT people face every. Single. Day. Insert clap emoji. LGBT people and POC can’t even walk out of their houses without being murdered by cishet white people just like you!
Its understandable that any young person exposed to this kind of belief system would grow to deeply resent being white, “cis”, straight, or (biologically) male. The beauty of gender ideology is it provides a way to game this system, so that you can get some of those targets off your back and enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded youths. You can’t change your race, pretending to have a different sexuality would be very uncomfortable in practice, but you can absolutely change your gender, and it’s as easy as putting a “she/they” in your bio. Instantly you are transformed from an oppressing, entitled, evil, bigoted, selfish, disgusting cishet white scum into a valid trans person who deserves celebration and special coddling to make up for the marginalization and oppression you supposedly now face. Now not expected to do as much groveling and reaffirming to everyone how much you love checking your privilege, you can relax a little and talk about your life without wondering if you are distracting from the struggles of or speaking over marginalized groups, because you are marginalized too…
Teenagers are very vulnerable to that sort of group pressure, and the internet intensifies it greatly.
I said it wasn’t her only motive. Here were some others, and they are not uncommon in young girls of that age (post-pubescent teenager) today:
This is the incentive I felt to comb through my thoughts and memories for things that might be further evidence that deep down, I wasn’t really a girl. I hated my body; it must be because I don’t like that its female. Boys have never been interested in me like they are with other girls; well, maybe I would be attractive as a boy, and then I could be like all these cute “gay trans boys” I saw dating each other online. I didn’t have many friends, it must be because being a girl isn’t my “authentic self”, and that was getting in the way of my social life. Plus, people were nicer to me since I said I was trans so that must be an indication that being trans is the right thing to do to make friends. Female sexuality is hypersexualized and pornified, yet it’s supposed to be “empowering” for women to do porn, be prostitutes, or have dangerous, kinky, scary sounding sex with many different men. I heard that my discomfort with this made me “vanilla”, and a girl who is vanilla has no chance of really pleasing a man when competing with “empowered” women. I must not have really been meant to be a girl, because if I was, this wouldn’t all be so scary and confusing.
It’s a long article, but I found it riveting. The author, who is now in her early twenties, finally stopped taking testosterone and accepted – and is trying to embrace – her status as a heterosexual young woman. She’s a good writer, too, and obviously intelligent. And yet those things didn’t protect her from falling into a deep well from which it took a great deal of effort to emerge.
One of the worst things about her story, and the story of many others, was how every mental health and health professional with whom she interacted during that period was negligently and irresponsibly (in my opinion) and uncritically facilitating what happened to this girl. In contrast, they were singularly unsupportive when she realized that she needed to detransition back to being female. Her story is not unusual in that regard.
I’m so glad I’m not growing up today, although it would be nice to be young – nice in the abstract. But I do have grandchildren, and I do worry about the attitudes prevalent in the world surrounding them.
As a trans woman in my thirties, thank goodness I’m not growing up today either! I see a lot of trans people and a lot of actors who give us a bad name.
That said, I feel for the young men and women who transition for all the wrong reasons and struggle with it as a result.
I want to believe that one day these doctors and medical professionals will face a reckoning but I’m sure it will never happen.
I found the following a particularly difficult article to read. My world-view leads me to believe there is grave evil involved in this particular subject as preying on the young is especially malevolent.
https://www.city-journal.org/child-custody-gender-gauntlet
We now have multiple instances where a parent that wants to step-in to prevent transitioning is stripped of parental rights. I have no words.
Western Civilization dropping its Judeo-Christian heritage for secularism , including the heterosexual “ sexual revolution” of the 60s, created the void that has been exploited.
Basically, society pushed God aside and declared itself god, able to decide right from wrong, and make up new rules – which are actually ancient pre Christian pagan rules-along the way.
Much of the crazy we see in our society is from humans believing there is no higher authority. So now society falls for every stupid, illogical fad that comes along.
Watch the secular left. Do not be surprised when they fall in line, en mass, for the next stupid narrative. One we have not even thought of yet.
No real roots, just tossed to and fro like a tumbleweed.
jon baker,
The one some of the leftist nuts want to do is normalize pedophilia. It crops up from time to time including just a week or two ago.
Extremists always become more extreme until they are crushed.
As Leah says, social media pressure constitutes all the wrong reasons for embracing a transsexual identity. Because very young people are so susceptible to peer pressure, any social or medical steps towards changing sexual identity should be postponed until adulthood.
One of the worst things about her story, and the story of many others, was how every mental health and health professional with whom she interacted during that period was negligently and irresponsibly (in my opinion) and uncritically facilitating what happened to this girl. In contrast, they were singularly unsupportive when she realized that she needed to detransition back to being female. Her story is not unusual in that regard.
Well, that tells you something about the guild culture of medicine and the guild culture of the social work and mental health trade (and make that double for the intersecting segment of the Venn diagram, psychiatry).
Look this isn’t a close call. There should be five public reactions to this:
1. Schools of social work are shut down. Going forward, the child protective service and allied are recruited from the ranks of junior grade psychologists, nurses, and sheriff’s deputies, who then sit for cross training certificates. Every other function commonly filled by social workers is trained in some other faculty.
2. An end to third party payments financing counseling &c.
3. A general prohibition on surgeries and hormonal ‘therapies’.
4. Nuremburg trials. Target the professional associations, the hospital administrators, the accrediting agencies, the school administrators, the judges.
5. RICO suits. Targets should be the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Association of Social Workers. Shut down, liquidate, prosecute.
Drug addiction, abortion as birth control, homelessness as an alternative lifestyle, children growing up fatherless, rampant theft, daily shootings, teaching of CRT in schools, and much more. All signs of a society that’s lost its way. But this campaign to convince young girls that they are male, seems to be setting new lows in preying on our young. That the medical community is not showing at least some doubt about this is more disturbing than their failure to treat early Covid-19.
Where is common sense and decency?
The City of Lincoln, Nebraska passed some kind of law that makes it illegal to even talk about this stuff. I’m not clear on all the details, but people in Lincoln are in uproar and have a petition drive to stop the law from taking effect. And, FWIW, three of the people on the City Council in Lincoln are gay. As a percentage, I’m guessing higher than SF; not that it matters.
I am of the firm opinion that no drugs or surgery on these kids until at least age 18.
Griffin,
It does get easy to become depressed by all the crazy. I got really agitated yesterday for several hours about it all.
Plus I could not find a part for the garden tiller, “ Manufacturing discontinued.”.
Sign of the times.
;(
On the other hand, last Sunday before the service they Baptized 14 kids , teenagers and young adults in the service I went to. They ask them, “ Are you being baptized because Jesus is Lord of your life?” , and person must answer in the affirmative.
Personally, I think a more declarative,” Jesus is Lord.” , would be closer to first century baptism.
They also baptized an 80 year old woman in the previous service.
And the guy that preached, was not a Christian as recently as 2016. Opened up the book of Romans one day trying to prove some guy wrong and had an unexpected experience.
jon baker,
Yep, it can all be so depressing. I try to just tune out from it as much as possible because in the end there isn’t much one person can do about so much of this so getting worked up only hurts yourself.
I also strongly believe that most people don’t agree with any of this stuff and just want to live quiet lives with their families. Some would say that is the problem because they are the ones who passively allow this nonsense to happen but I just think most people don’t like dealing with this stuff and that is an incredibly good thing.
The politicization of everything has been maybe the worst thing that has happened to society in the last twenty years.
The lack of places to escape politics is so corrosive to society and leads to so much division.
The City of Lincoln, Nebraska passed some kind of law that makes it illegal to even talk about this stuff.
????
jon baker on February 23, 2022 at 5:15 pm said:
” … I could not find a part for the garden tiller, “ Manufacturing discontinued.” … ”
jon baker:
I once had to search online for a snowblower part that was locally unavailable. The site that worked for me is called “Repair Clinic,” and they have a bunch of tiller replacement parts. I wouldn’t bet on them having what you need, but it might be worth a look.
Here’s a link:
https://www.repairclinic.com/Shop-For-Parts/a24/Tiller-Parts
Almost every animal species above the reptiles reveres mothers and motherhood and their essential role and the sacrifices they make. Even ants and bees do this.
We have sown the wind. God help these lost young women and forgive us for what we have done to them.
jon baker @ 4:39,
Whittiker Chambers in his 1952 book “Witness” spoke of exactly what the West’s rejection of God and embrace of secularism would bring.
Griffin,
If pedophilia is normalized, what taboo will be left? They yearn for a world where “Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the Law.” Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law
Though with the condition that they are free to disrespect everyone else but expect due respect to be offered to them. Disconnection from objective reality brings cognitive dysfunction.
Art Deco,
In general, I agree with your 5 prescriptions. You do realize that absent a military coup or civil war, that they are highly unlikely to be implemented?
J.J.,
Common sense requires a grounding in acceptance of objective reality. Decency requires an absence of self-absorption. As the self absorbed have no time for or interest in anyone but themselves.
Fortunately, though likely to be brutal, reality will in time, offer ‘correction’.
Tumblr can be great fun. Since it was supposed to be a blogging platform, its format is very different from other social media sites. But yes, extreme far-left views dominate the discourse (that being said, every political ideology under the sun can be found on tumblr) and a claim to “oppression” definitely helps you fit in. Sexual orientations, gender identities, and pronouns that most people have only recently heard of were widely known 10 or 11 years ago on tumblr.
I do find it amazing that the transgender/nonbinary trend is happening among both young men and women – and it seems like somewhat different factors are involved. Though there is some overlap; many of these young people are searching for some fundamental explanation for why they’re “different.”
https://newdiscourses.com/2021/09/yes-your-kids-trans-thing-phase/
This is a favorite article from back in the day when things were just starting to get really weird on tumblr: https://thoughtcatalog.com/shae-mcdonovan/2012/06/pretending-youre-oppressed-the-new-internet-fad-2/
Sadly, it’s still a fad, but no longer new.
Cornflour,
Thanks, I will check it out.
In the Texas primary election (early voting now) there is a Ballot Proposition advocating the banning of chemical castration, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and genital surgery for all minor children as it applies to sex change.
There are people afflicted with the transgender dysphoria issues, no doubt. But any society that does not protect its children from phenomena like this, when faddish madness can lead to permanent physical and psychological damage and loss of reproduction capability, can not survive for very long. In many cases it would seem that this has become the purview of sexual predators.
NOTE: jon baker on February 23, 2022 at 5:15 pm said:
” … I could not find a part for the garden tiller, “ Manufacturing discontinued.” … ”
Try ereplacementparts.com, no guarantees though. Good luck! There’s always the shovel & hoe, you know.
The author didn’t start testosterone till she turned 18. But that didn’t mean it was a good decision. For her, it was not. And the health care system did not help her evaluate the appropriateness of her decision. It just rubber-stamped it.
Teen agers, especially teen age girls, are mentally, uh, fragile, and easily suggestible. There are so many who are *positive* that something is “wrong” with them, and if they could just find out what “it” is, it will solve everything.
Every group of teen age girls goes through a phase of craziness. In my day, they were into multiple personality disorder. Fortuitously for the girls who were sure they were Sybil, multiple personality disorder is far enough out there that there wasn’t a spate of Sybil’s and Eve’s across the country. But there were girls reading “Sybil” looking for clues….
But not long after came an epidemic of attempted (and unfortunately successful) suicides. (They got heavily into Sylvia Plath.)
Then came an epidemic of anorexia. A gazillion teen age girls all thought they were fat. And if they could just lose weight, that would “fix” what was “wrong” with them. Girls died. Most eventually recovered. But there were a LOT of them.
There was a period when many were sure they had schizophrenia. (“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” was a very popular book at the time. Remember, “highly suggestible…”) Again, like multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia was highly unlikely, which meant few were treated for an illness they likely did not suffer from.
Less damaging phases included all those girls who were into goth. (Compared to some of the other things teen age girls glom onto, the goth thing was probably one of the healthiest.) Those were the good old days….
A friend’s daughter saw her friends get heavily into drugs. That was the thing years ago for a teen age girl to escape into when they decided there was something “wrong” with them. A few of her friends died.
While I am sure there are some genuinely transgender teens out there, struggling with what they are going through, I think this epidemic of teens, especially teen girls, is about, well, teen girls being teen girls.
The challenge with teen girls is keeping them grounded enough so that they don’t damage themselves too much (or kill themselves) before getting into adulthood. And letting them permanently damage themselves based on a brief period of “teen age girl problems” syndrome is medical malpractice.
“Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?” has a whole new meaning in the 21st C.
______________________________
Why can’t a woman be more like a man?
Men are so honest, so thoroughly square;
Eternally noble, historically fair.
Who, when you win, will always give your back a pat.
Why can’t a woman be like that?
–“”Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?” (from “My Fair Lady”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcpwuK1Fmx4
While I am sure there are some genuinely transgender teens out there
There aren’t. It’s an iatrogenic disorder.
I might be stretching what is tangential to this topic, but I recently saw Jordan Peterson’s daughter, Mikhaila, explain how she went to great lengths to make a TedTalk on the “Lion Diet.” She was sure to follow all the protocols for TedTalks so that it would qualify. The TedTalk folks won’t display her talk.
She has had a lifetime of suffering, including loss of joints, from an autoimmune disorder, and claims her symptoms abated when she eliminated all foods except meat from her diet. (I think only red meat. Not sure if she eats chicken or fish.) Some other folks claim to have had miraculous transformations from this same, Lion Diet. And, many folks claim to have had great health benefits from eliminating meat from their diets.
Mikhaila gave many examples of Ted Talks on the wonders of Veganism and eliminating meat, but they will not allow her to tell her story on eliminating vegetables. It seems possible to me that both can be true. Some folks can do well on an all meat diet and some folks can do well on an all vegetable diet. And, it’s likely the folks who do well on one are not well adapted to the other. Mikhaila has blood tests and other, medical data to back up her claims.
Like the woman neo writes about in this post I have seen videos of folks, especially young women, who felt pressured to become vegans and started suffering health issues that they ignored for years, until adding meat back to their diets and having their health improve immensely. Some of these people claim to have permanent damage to bones or organs due to their prolonged veganism.
I’m not promoting any diets here. I have reasonable, intelligent adult friends who claim to feel much healthier after eliminating meat from their diet, and I have friends who tried veganism and felt worse. I think both things can be true. However, the Internet seems to go one way on gender dysphoria and an omnivore or carnivore diet; disallowing real world evidence from people who have been hurt by following the herd.
Lee Also,
I am sorry to report that Dissociative Identity Disorder is back in a big way with today’s teens. Pop those three words into the youtube search bar and prepare for thousands of hours of teens educating you and walking you through their symptoms.
Regarding “transgender” and if it can be a real, human trait. I don’t think any of us doubt the nurture aspect of it and that its likelihood of appearing can be created or augmented by family/societal factors.
A few weeks ago I was wondering about the nature aspect. Can it be something “in one’s DNA?” I have two close friends who each have a family member who suffers from this where the cases seem to fall on the “nature” side. I have personal experience of others who seem likely to be on the “nurture” side.
In the two cases the children were very distraught at an early age and almost as soon as they could communicate were telling their parents something was very wrong. Both are very content living their adult lives as the “opposite” gender and neither is an advocate or preachy in any way. It’s as if they were fish born to primates and once put in the sea everything fell in place.
Thinking about these two individuals something occurred to me. Many animals have defined, gender roles. A male robin* will search for choice materials to build a nest for its family, the female sits on the eggs, the male scares off predators, etc… Those are “hard coded” behaviors. They are innate. And that is certainly a brain organ thing. The male and female robins also have reproductive organs that are essential to fertilizing and producing eggs, but there is a separate, thinking organ piece of the puzzle.
What if some animals are born with the opposite gender thinking organ components than their reproductive organs? There is a strong male and female drive in all mammals that forces behaviors outside of reproduction, but related to gender roles. Male elephants leave the herd, females remain. Male lions stay with a group of females but run off other male adults. Female elephants form matriarchal herds with prepubescent children. Female lions form packs to hunt and feed the pride. And on, and on.
Can a human be born with the drive to be a gender that does not correspond with their reproductive organs?
*I’m nearly completely ignorant of ornithology, so if I’m using the wrong bird species just go along with me.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/02/21/nebraska-citys-fairness-ordinance-triggers-firestorm/
BTW, a city can’t regulate the medical profession.
If it wasn’t obvious in my comment at 8:59pm, I do not think most, if any of these teens clinically suffer from DID, but they sure are convinced they do.
Rufus T. Firefly:
There does seem to be a difference between early-onset and late-onset. But these days, when transgenderism is talked about so much and even very very young children might hear about it, I think the distinction becomes less clear because there could be a suggestibility effect. Many years ago, though, when very young children got the idea into their heads, my guess is that there was something very strong and perhaps “nature”-related going on.
Somewhat related: actual text of the Florida bill that has Democrats up in arms this week about how Florida just wants LGBT kids to get abused.
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/1834/BillText/Filed/PDF
Sounds reasonable to me that schools should not withhold or encourage students to withhold important information about their sexuality or gender from their parents. Of course, there actually is a provision for not telling the parents when there is a reasonable belief that the child will be harmed by the parents if the truth comes out.
It’s pretty clear there are some corner cases. Nature likes to throw the occasional curve ball.
The three issues I see are:
(1) The mass hysteria of recent years is obviously symptomatic of some deep societal ills both driven and amplified by social media but with deeper roots still.
(2) Sadly, but really, for the good of broader society, Most Square Pegs have to be hammered into Round Holes. The more intractable cases need to be dealt with compassionately as part of a polite charade that he/she is just a bit unusual. If that means that there is some unavoidable childhood bullying or job discrimination, that’s just too bad. It’s part of the Human Deal that some people just draw short straws and have to take one for the team. Turning society on its head, pathologising the Normal and celebrating the outliers is suicide.
(2a) A Bruce Jenner who is quietly kinky can and ought to be tolerated. A Bruce Jenner who has the effrontery to take it public should be mocked mercilessly and driven out of town.
(3) More generally than the whole Tranny thing, it’s clear that Western Civ is going increasingly insane. Lots of Spiteful Mutants running around unchecked.
neo @ 9:23pm,
I absolutely agree there is much child abuse going on these days unrelated to a genetic abnormality (if it exists). I hate to be so flippant about such a damaging subject, but the Salem witch hysteria comes to mind regarding the sudden onset of youth attention to this matter.
BTW, a city can’t regulate the medical profession.
Well, no, of course not. They pass a 67 page ordinance on a matter well outside the ken of conventional municipal government. The regulatory function of local government is properly limited to land use, the use of public thoroughfares and public property, and nuisance abatement. And not one vote in opposition to it. What a claque of megalomaniacs.
Rufus T. Firefly:
I don’t think you’re being flippant. Teenage girls seem to have a special vulnerability to some sort of joining together in somewhat hysterical group movements. I use the word “hysterical” purposely, and not as a put-down either. Adolescence can be very confusing and difficult.
This is the ordinance:
https://nebraskafamilyalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/22-31_Ordinance_Title_11.pdf
BTW, a city can’t regulate the medical profession.
Great. Why should they be empowered to regulate anyone else?
Speaking of trans-fascism & the inability to even question or dialogue about one’s options other than hormones & surgery…visit the Soviet state of Victoria Australia.
https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/dan-andrews-says-government-will-legally-defend-victorias-pro-lgbt-laws/209765
It seems if someone comes to a “professional” (including clergy) talking about being in the wrong body & wanting info about becoming what they are not, you are not legally allowed to do anything other than bless them into the next permutation of their body. Even to suggest talking to someone who decided against transitioning…verboten.
“Transitioning” is merely taking “fundamental transformation” to the next level.
Making it “up front and personal”.
“Erasing boundaries” (as they say…)
And in this epoch of fundamental insanity (in practically all realms)—what the Durants may well have labeled “The Age of Mass Hysteria”—here’s taking Book Burning(TM) to the next level: Author Cancelation:
“The Erasure of JK Rowling”—
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/24/the-erasure-of-jk-rowling/
(Or better, perhaps: “Author da fe”)
Speaking of Book Burnings… A bit of fine nuance to spice things up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissenschaft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Hirschfeld
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eulenburg_affair#Effects
Some interesting connections and if you start at the bottom link and work backwards you might ask yourself a very big What If?
Re Eulenburg: Fascinating.
I knew that Bismarck was essentially deposed; that Wilhelm II was a weak character—though to be fair he did have a physical defect: his stunted arm—who made up for his lack of confidence in the typical ways…and that German foreign policy changed radically and—shall we say?—not for the better?…(granted this “armchair psychology” of mine may be absolutely wrong).
Didn’t know the play-by-play (or round-by-round) gory details; on the other hand, IF one reads between the lines, one may well pin the blame—FOR EVERYTHING(!)—on heteros(!)…(“HETEROGLOBO” in the parlance? Which might leave us….where? Hmmm.)
Interestingly, the purge/trial described does seem to be a kind of precursor to the “Night of the Long Knives” (with differences, to be sure)—IOW, Ernst Rohm revisited…(and so, history MAY repeat…AND rhyme?)
Moral of the story: Those Germans’ll ALWAYS surprise you…
No, hmmm, guess not. Got to be another moral to this story….
Thanks for the link (I think so, anyway…)
Speaking of trans-fascism & the inability to even question or dialogue about one’s options other than hormones & surgery…visit the Soviet state of Victoria Australia.
Well, this is the left in our time. That’s half the trouble. The other half is that starboard parties never have the balls to repeal laws which interfere with freedom of speech and freedom of contract and judges do not enforce constitutional liberties when these conflict with what people in their social circle want.
Always Welcome!
The whole shebang (and by that not just the Germans) was a supersaturated solution set to go off by 1900 or so.
I think I read somewhere once that after the Eulenberg Scandal, Wilhelm II got up to his iffy nookie here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilleion_(Corfu)#The_Kaiser
Anyway enough of that… It’s a new day and the topic henceforth should be Hero Putin’s smashing of the Neo Nazi Ukranian Azov Battalion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion
Department of Subtleties and Nuances All Rights Reserved.
I actually know the former City Attorney for the City of Lincoln. Good guy.
His view was that the City wouldn’t do anything to enforce the law prohibiting conversion therapy within the city limits of Lincoln.
He ran for Mayor and lost. The lib woman (Yalie) who beat him looks like a movie star. I told him that’s why he lost. Lerion Gaylor Baird. Lerion!
Salem Witch Trials is perfect. Teenage girls are prone to a mass hysteria that is ridiculous for adults and medical professionals to cave in to. In Salem, they did execute the witches.
pace your article on imageology, the elitist left’s agenda for transitioning seems related.
what is more image-based than a person of one gender ‘identifying’ as something else? the truth is what public opinion says it is.
Hannah’s article was very interesting. I’ve saved it.