In his day, the Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko’ was something of an international rock star whose readings could fill sports stadiums. He was one of those A-List literati who make the front pages. His poem Lies was much anthologized in English teaching materials in the years following its publication in the Soviet Literary journal Novy Mir in 1959.
The kind of lies Yevtushenko had in mind was the kind promoted by government propaganda, censorship and repression. Yevtushenko was born in 1933 and both his grandparents were the victims of Stalinist purges. He knew of what he wrote.
What are we lying to children about now? And why are we doing it?
Schools have to stop lying to kids.
To grow up healthy kids need a balanced diet of imagination (make-believe, magic, fantasy, myth, and legend) and reality (stamping in puddles, playing with blocks, making mud pies, and bruised knees. Parents indulging Santa Claus and the tooth fairy are not exactly telling the truth, but kids generally disabuse each other quickly enough and seem to emerge from the disillusionment pretty intact. No lasting harm.
The lies I have in mind have to do with sex and the kind of lies many schools are currently pushing in their policies and particularly in their sex education.
These lies represent an institutional and professional willingness to ignore not only human history but child development, child psychology, and basic science. They are a betrayal of childhood, reason, and the truth.
Some of the lies being propagated include the fiction that sex is assigned at birth and that sex is a spectrum and that it can be changed. Truth is, that no one is born in the wrong body and gendered souls are part of a belief system, not biology. Puberty blockers are experimental drugs and are not reversible. There are no good studies on their long-term effects and the drugs used are not even FDA-approved. Social transitioning by schools is not neutral and affirmation can be harmful. (See the evidence-based Cass Interim Report for an explanation and recommendations for schools.)
Relationship and Sex Education (RSE)
I’ve been taking a look at teaching materials used in US and UK schools and there’s some eye-popping bad stuff out there. (I don’t know which consultants created them but they seem to be close relatives of the DEI/ EDI folks and I am sure they were well paid.)
The prime problem of course is the worst of these materials is built on the shifting quicksands of gender ideology. They are not based solely on evidence, research, and scientific reality. Rather they are founded on a belief system and a set of ideas many of which are at best controversial, and at worst, quite bonkers. And they include not only lies, but lies promoting sexist stereotypes of the most regressive kind. Hello 1950s.
My hometown of Swindon, for example, was recently held up as an egregious example of some of the worst of this so-called teaching. It produced a 157-page manual of relationship and sex education (RSE) guidance for teachers. (The Borough Council has been shamed into removing it from its website, but of course, the internet is forever.) There’s plenty of good information on those pages but they also contain a heavy dose of fantasy and fiction. It has the usual nonsense typically found in materials in US schools and colleges – the interminable tedious terminology of identities for example.
To porn or not to porn, that is the question
For fun, I did a word analysis: “trans” appears 133 times, “non-binary” (11) “queer”(4) “homosexual/ity” just once. “gender” gets 255 mentions, “gender identity” (53), gay (44) and lesbian(24). There is a concern to have students discuss pornography, and the word “porn” appears a staggering 84 times. To porn or not to porn, that is the question.
The first four items on this vocabulary list give you the flavor. gender identity, ally, cisgender, intersex, transphobia, social justice, identifies, privileged, assigned sex, birthing professional.
It’s a full bingo card of contemporary clichés topped off with nonsensical neologisms.
The “AssignedSex” definition is particularly offensive with its dismissive use of cursory and sneering cultural concepts. It says: Listen up, you silly people. Get with the program: Our sexed bodies are mere social and cultural constructions – figleafs of theory – and not the result of human evolution and biology. What actually matters is your gender, not your genitalia. And only you know your true gender and when you tell us what it is, our task is to unquestionably validate your identity. Not to do so is literal violence.
And just look at this nice reassuring Note. So thoughtful. So kind.
And to be fully multiculturally inclusive, there are extended and detailed descriptions of the various forms of FGM and references to the “third genders” to be found in Hawaii, Tahiti, Polynesia, India, and Nepal. And of course “two-spirited” gets a paragraph.
There’s the ubiquitous genderbread distortion along with numerous other hands-on, sticky-note-style, discussion activities to keep the kids fully engaged and learning.
Not to be outdone, Warwickshire County Council came up with equally cringe-worthy versions of reality. (Now also withdrawn). Let’s look at King Binary – designed for 9 and 10 year olds.
So – rather than expand the bandwidth of what it means to male or female – children are led into thinking they are the wrong sex because they don’t conform to conventional stereotypes. Children are led to think that they must change into the other sex category if they are to be themselves.
Some girls see how sexist and confining the world is for them. They must really be boys. Some boys like pink! The horror! They must secretly be girls. Children unhappy inside their binary Sheland or Heland are trapped by stereotypes! Rather than expanding the idea of what a girl is/ can be and what a boy is/ can be, they are in the wrong body and must make a switch to feel comfortable with themselves. They have been put through the wrong door and on the wrong side of the river. Get them on the transition pipeline asap.
What a load of regressive sexist cobblers! Poisonous, dangerous – ideologically driven – ham and spinach, pernicious poppycock.
(Did I mention yet that I have a low opinion of these “teaching” materials?)
Both of these programs raise questions about age-appropriateness. They come across as having rather prurient and obsessively detailed emphases. Furthermore, they include misleading guidance for teachers and encourage children to think that their sex is determined by their feelings (and their fit into conventional social norms) rather than biological reality.
You’re More than an Ally. You too are a Special Victim! We’re all Trans Now.
This next is from Canada. It speaks for itself. All the best of gender woo in one graphic.
And just look at this definition of “Trans”. We are all trans now. Now that’s inclusive! Just drink the gender fluid.
I know there are moves afoot – in the UK at least – to remedy some of this and the government is urged to produce new guidance for schools on how to support and protect children who express discomfort with their sex. The bedrock of that approach should be the understanding that biological sex is binary and immutable. No one changes sex however much they modify the body. And that no one has ever changed sex. You can however enjoy the infinite variety of what it means to be male. Or female. It’s a healthy place to start.
It’s impossible to estimate the damaging impact of all this. But here’s one possibly connected statistic from Swindon: It referred children and adolescents to the now disgraced Tavistock gender clinic at twice the national average.
Social Transition is not a Neutral Act
Schools are further being urged not to socially transition children unless it is prescribed by an NHS clinician. Compassion for children who express unhappiness with their bodies is not found in affirming their confusion or agreeing to change their “gender”. Instead, safeguarding protocols must be followed to identify the root causes of their discomfort and to address those underlying issues first. What adults choose to do when fully aware of the consequences of their choices is another matter. For loads more great and practical information, materials, and recommendations go to Sex Matters and Transgender Trend.
In terms of the damage done, take a look at this chart of statistics taken from Hannah Barnes’ invaluable account of the Tavistock Clinic in London. These children were diagnosed with dysphoria and treated accordingly. But look at what else was going on with these kids.
Would it not have been wiser to consider those factors before funneling them into the one-way transition pipeline? With luck, the recommendations of the Cass Interim Report will lead to just such a revised set of protocols.
“Our pupils will not forgive in us what we forgave”
Some say that for a portion of those undergoing severe emotional distress and alienation from their bodies, radical chemical and surgical treatments will provide the relief that they seek. Evidence for this is slim to none. For some, we know there will be a painful reckoning in terms of health, life expectancy, fertility, and sexual functioning. Given what we now know, those who continue to promote it – and especially those who profit from it – should be held accountable.
Many of those kids would have grown up gay and lesbian.
Research suggests that 85% of those expressing extreme distress about their sex pre-puberty will have desisted by the late teen years. Puberty – it seems – is the cure for the majority of children. And which children will be “cured” and which will not is impossible to predict. Given the clear dangers of these experimental drugs plus the number (close to 100%) of those who are prescribed blockers going on to cross-sex hormones as the next step, it is clearly much wiser in most cases to take the recommended “watchful waiting” approach recommended by those who have studied this most closely.
There has to be a reckoning for all this. We are beginning to see it with the voices of the growing number of detransitioners. Perhaps it will be the lawsuits that bring us all collectively back to our senses and put that pause on what many are saying is already the biggest medical scandal in history.
Seems to me that some of the promoters and enablers of all this will need to be held accountable. Educators, experts, psychologists, and pediatricians surely have studied some child development as well as basic science. Are they – and schools promoting this magical thinking – putting themselves in legal jeopardy? Are they at risk? Are they putting themselves in legal jeopardy? Time will tell.
How Did We Get Here?
And why and how was it allowed to happen?
That seems to be a complex story with a number of elements. One is that the activist organizations – e.g.the Human Rights Campaign (US), Stonewall (UK), and others needed a new cause in the wake of the success of same-sex marriage. They had their infrastructure in place and needed to keep their revenue streams gushing. They switched their focus from LGB to TQ, et voilà – effective lobbyist groups with established connections and activist experience stayed in business.
Many people were primed to see this as the next civil rights frontier and wanted – this time – to be on the “right side of history”. We have been repeatedly and falsely told about “the most marginal and vulnerable”. And the irresponsible fiction was promoted that if we did not support young people’s demands they would kill themselves. (This suicide story has been thoroughly debunked).
The whole ideological house of cards on which this is built spilled out of academia in the last decades of the C20th. Like a virus leaking out from a lab, “gender theory,” “queer theory’ and the postmodern urge to break down boundaries seeped out into the mainstream and swept almost all before it.
The main boundary in this instance is the two sexes. People were already confusing sex and gender, sometimes using them interchangeably. One is biology the other is an idea. Get them in a muddle and declare it’s now a spectrum – a sliding scale from Barbie to GI Joe. And now in spite of where that birthing professional who “assigned” you a sex, you are now free to choose your own. Place yourself on that sliding scale and select any one of the exciting new identities. And then pick another when you change your mood.
This opting out of the sexed body is especially attractive for girls and young women who are routinely objectified and discriminated against in our very misogynist era. Anorexia, bulimia, and cutting were and remain socially contagious and spread in much the same way. The number of young women seeking treatment for dysphoria has skyrocketed over the last few years. Our young people are not doing well.
Now you choose an identity from the ever-expanding licorice allsorts box of “genders”. Or even make up your own, as I did here. Create a colorful flag to go with it. Such fun. Perfect for the distressed and troubled generation locked into Tumblr and TikToc. We can escape the limitations of our sexed body and be free to be whoever we imagine ourselves to be, liberated from the harsh realities. In other words – live your own fantasy. Too bad that reality is a hard teacher and there is no actual escape from our sexed bodies. Our sex was determined at conception, developed in utero, and observed and recorded at birth. And you can’t identify out of physical disability and the aging process either. It’s all magical thinking, and dangerously unmoored from the truth.
An anxious and depressed generation of young people, a genuine concern to help those struggling with painful emotional distress, and a social contagion boosted by the rocket fuel of social media influencers.
And of course, follow the money. Body modification – and the attempt to reassign sex with surgery – is big business. And growing. Clinics are popping up across America like mushrooms after heavy rain. Each person on the pipeline is a lifelong revenue source for the drug and medicine. There’s money to be made and investors are taking notice. Look at the recent numbers and projections from Global Market Insights.
Telling lies to the young may be wrong. But it’s good for business.
That Swindon material is INSANE! Who authorised that? I know it’s been withdrawn but wtf were they thinking?
Not thinking presumably. Or at least no thinking of children’s needs but rather their (whoever the ‘they’ are) own. Which is disturbing.
A Modish Proposal
A confession: I used to believe that height was a biological given, immutable and non-negotiable. But I’ve been on a journey – and it’s one you need to go on as well. It all started with a friend of mine. Let’s call her Joanne. I hadn’t seen her for a while and when I saw her she looked, well, different. Our conversation went like this:
“Hi Jo!”
She she cut me off. “I’m Joanne now. Please don’t deadname me, it’s a microagression that I find very triggering.”
“Right,” I replied, somewhat nonplussed. “You look . . . .”
She interrupted me. “Taller. I’ve transitioned.”
I was a little confused but being nice is literally the most important thing, so I hid my surprise and said “Congratulations! That’s great! You do you!”
“Thanks!” She smiled for the first time. “And hence my new, ‘taller’ name.”
“Ah, I see,” I said, returning her smile. “A longer name for a longer you.”
After that we picked up where we’d left off last time we met, except Joanne kept checking herself in every reflective surface and extending her legs to full length. I kept reassuring her that she really did look taller, heck, that she really was taller. I guess it was early days but she seemed to need a lot of affirmation. And that’s fine; I was – I am – so happy for her; she got what she wanted and what could be better than that? She is now her true self, the self she always knew she was.
Joanne told me her story. She’d always been of average height, maybe a little on the short side, but recently she’d had a growing sense that she should be – that really deep inside she was – tall. Looking online she found she wasn’t alone: there was a whole community of people just like her. They reinforced each other’s beliefs in very positive, loving ways. There were, apparently, lots of sharing of stories, hundreds of late night private messages, scores of before and after photos. It was the unconditional support she needed. Like her, many of them had faced incomprehension, ridicule or worse – and this resonated with her and bonded the community. She had found her tribe. After a lifetime of being bullied, neglected, excluded and misunderstood she at last belonged.
Not long after that Jo asked everyone to call her Joanne and started experimenting with prosthetics. At first these were just extra thick insoles but soon she had some special shoes made with built-up “platform” soles. Then she went to a clinic. There was a waiting list to be seen but everyone on the forums and in the social media groups said it was worth persisting. Eventually she was accepted for surgery. This is a very expensive and complex procedure that takes up a lot of NHS resources – and rightly so! We all pay for it through our taxes so it’s there for us when we need it. And Joanne needed it: this wasn’t some cosmetic operation to make a rich woman look ten years younger; no, it was literally life-changing – more than that, life-saving. Joanne’s legs were cut and titanium tubes were added to extend her femurs. But it’s not that simple: the soft tissue, nerves, blood vessels and muscles have to be lengthened, too. Recovery takes weeks; in Joanne’s case it was several months before she was able to return to work.
Was it worth it? Yes! Joanne is now so happy, so fulfilled. She is in near constant pain both physical and, when people deadname her or even don’t express explicitly how tall she is, psychological.
In fact, reconnecting with Joanne has started me on my own journey. Lately I’d been feeling flat, low, listless. I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong. But it’s slowly been dawning on me that I’d always wanted to be shorter. I distinctly remember as a child not being able to hide in my favourite spot under the table after a growth spurt. I hated how my body was changing as I raced up towards the six foot mark. My parents started treating me differently: less like a boy, more like a man. It felt wrong. So now I too am exploring my own transition: I realise now that I’m a short person trapped in an average height body. But now I know I’m not alone and help is out there.
And that brings me to my final point. Early intervention is not only cheaper and easier it literally saves lives. Catching kids while they are still growing is a far better solution than condemning them to years, decades even, of being the wrong height. Drugs, surgery, whatever it takes to make unhappy kids happy with their bodies and able to be their true selves.
Jon Swift
Lol.
We need to talk .
I shall email you but NB “Harry Olsen” is a pseudonym.
There’s also this:
Live Not By Lies
“And from that day onward he [hereafter he or she]:
· Will not write, sign, nor publish in any way, a single phrase which in his opinion distorts the truth;
· Will not utter such a line in private or in public conversation, nor read it from a crib sheet, nor speak it in the role of educator, agitator, teacher, or actor;
· Will not depict, support, or broadcast a single false thought or distortion of the truth as he discerns it in painting, sculpture, photograph, technology, or music;
· Will not cite in writing or in speech a quotation out of context to please someone, to make his own life more comfortable or to further his career, unless he fully shares the idea cited and believes that it is relevant to the matter at hand;
· Will not allow himself to be compelled to attend demonstrations and meetings or a rallies if his does agrees with their cause and agenda; will not take up and raise a banner or slogan in which he does not fully believe;
· Will not raise a hand in vote for a proposal which he does not sincerely support; will not vote openly or in secret ballot for a candidate whom he deems dubious or unworthy;
· Will not be impelled to a meeting where a forced and distorted discussion is expected to take place;
· Will at once walk out from a session, meeting, lecture, play, or film as soon as he hears the speaker utter a lie, or purvey ideological nonsense or shameless propaganda;
· Will not subscribe to, nor support, any publication that distorts or denies essential facts.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of the possible and necessary ways of evading lies. But he who begins to cleanse himself will, with a cleansed eye, easily discern yet other opportunities.
Yes, at first it will not be fair. Some will temporarily lose their jobs. And for the young, who seek to live by truth, this will at first severely complicate life: their tests and quizzes are stuffed with lies. Choices will have to be made. But there is no loophole left for anyone who seeks to be honest.”
(Solzhenitsyn)
PS is there a typo in your email address? Jholford@mail.com just got bounced back
Oops. It’s jholford@gmail.com
I look forward to hearing from you.
Hello Josie,
Yet another interesting piece, with which I entirely agree, but I fear the genie is out of the bottle & there’s no getting it back in, alas.
A few peripheral obs.:
The breadth of your posts/ blogs (? am still unfamiliar with the correct jargon) is truly Montaignesque.
Idly, “homophobia” et al. = strictly ‘fear of the same’. Funny how its meaning has mutated, but as the late Terry Coello ( a classicist if ever there was one) used to say, language is dynamic & misused words become correct through usage. e.g. alternate cf. alternative, although I was once amused/alarmed on an internal US flight to be informed by the pilot as we taxied to the runway, that, ” We shall be taking off momentarily”.
How our old grammar school days were loathed or loved in equal proportions by your contributors , a truly Marmite experience with life-long consequences , it would seem.
Keep up the good work.
Bona contine!
Ray.
Ah! Terry – He and I did S-level English with Mr. Caws. He may have passed. I didn’t. And of course, you (and he) are right about words and their meaning. The English language is like a cowpath – it goes where the cows go
And dispiriting though it seems – the genie is out of the bottle. And how depressing at this point to think that it will only be the detransitioner land malpractice lawsuits that may have a chance of bringing this ship back on course.
Thanks for the kind comments Ray. It’s always good to hear from you. And – take a look at what our fellow OH Ron writes on this thread. He has quite the Headlandian Magson story to tell.
Hello Ray
See if you can guess who I am (clue: I think I married your daughter). Read my nom de plume carefully and you’ll crack the code.
This is very good. I have one thing to add and that is Dentons.
They are the big international law firm that provided a blueprint for how to influence governments and get legislation passed. James Kirkup wrote about how it works in this article.
“The document that reveals the remarkable tactics of trans lobbyists”
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-document-that-reveals-the-remarkable-tactics-of-trans-lobbyists/
Here are two tactics:
“While cultural and political factors play a key role in the approach to be taken, there are certain techniques that emerge as being effective in progressing trans rights in the “good practice” countries.”
Among those techniques: “Get ahead of the Government agenda.”
and
“Tie your campaign to more popular reform.
For example:
‘In Ireland, Denmark and Norway, changes to the law on legal gender recognition were put through at the same time as other more popular reforms such as marriage equality legislation. This provided a veil of protection, particularly in Ireland, where marriage equality was strongly supported, but gender identity remained a more difficult issue to win public support for.”
The article ends on a hopeful note: “no policy made in the shadows can survive in sunlight.”
Yes – you are correct. The activist organizations seem to have followed the Denton playbook to get legislation passed by stealth. more people are aware of the issues now but too many are not really aware of what is happening. I do think that if people were fully informed – or even better informed – they would be quite horrified by some of what is happening.
Bhanks for the comment Brian.
Wow, Josie! You’re clearly not averse to taking on the US medical/industrial complex single-handed between breakfast and dinner time … I’m impressed! Being a newbie to your blog, I’ve only managed to skim through your discussion topics and I want to read them all … contributing is a tad more difficult as I am agnostic about joining social media, so no facebook, reddit, etc.. I initially StumbledUpon (RIP) your wonderfully penned musings when assigning the name ‘Magson’ to the evil character in a novel I’m writing in my retirement and checking to see whether anyone’s already used it. As with your own life story I somehow managed to survive to adulthood despite the concentrated efforts of Magson & Co. to knobble me. Looks like you’re a bit of an escapologist too! RB (Headlands 1961-8)
Hi Ron – the evil Magson.( Someone commented that he always reminded him of the Mekon from the Dan Dare in the Eagle comic.) Yes, works well as a name for a villain. Son of the Mag. Could even have two ggs. Magwitch – although he was not an evil character. Let me know when you finish the book. I’ll read it. Wondering whether your Magson will have that ‘way with words’ of our beloved former headteacher.
School did seem something I needed to escape from. Although that was compounded by the equally urgent need to escape from home. You were there just as all the big changes were happening. I left just before they landed. Where did you escape to?
Thanks for kind comments on the post(s). Thanks for reading and commenting.
Josie: What an amazing piece of work this blog is! I am so looking forward to reading the whole thing from start to finish – pretty well every topic that exercises your brain, interests me … and you have such excellent writing skills! Congratulations – I’m glad somebody else managed to succeed in life DESPITE Magson & Co.! My personal nightmare at Cricklade Road was from 1962-68, so I’m not sure whether we crossed paths, but I left just before the big changes you mentioned … can’t recall what those changes were, but I was well clear of them anyway, having truanted through most of my final year (no, not drugs, drink, fags and worse … I used to study in the reference library at Regent Circus – hence 5 A-Levels!). Despite being confined to the bottom of the lowest grade for the seven years, subjected to multiple canings and being on the brink of expulsion several times, I somehow staggered through the ordeal and ended up reading medieval english literature at uni. I then did post-graduate studies in film production and spent the rest of my life until retirement travelling the world as a tv journalist and independent film-maker. I’m now living a quiet life on an Alpaca farm in Australia, writing science fiction novels for pleasure.
I do recall The Eagle and Dan Dare for a particularly magsonesque reason … the only subject I was any good at was English and somewhere in the deepest recess of my garage I still have a blue Headlands exercise book scored through with red pen by some over-enthusiastic teacher who accused me of plagiarism because I had used the word ‘artefact’, evidently a word no self-respecting bottom of the class scum could possibly have known. I was dragged in front of the big ‘M’ who was spoiling for a reason to expel me. Parents were called and there was a showdown in the Main Corridor at noon with Son of Mag brandishing his steel tipped Rattan canes and me with a rolled up copy of The Eagle in which, underscored by me in red, the Mekon of Mekonta had waxed lyrical about his ‘artefacts’. So I won that one … written at the bottom of my essay was a single word: ‘Apologies’. I would have felt better if it had been a one word hand-written note from M passed up to the podium as I received my degree, years later!
Ron Branscombe
Hi Ron – That “artefact” story is so perfect. How could you have possibly known such a word – you being a bottom class thicko and probably trying to cheat like such people always do.
And what a marvelous little bit of revenge. But of course, the damage is already done – to kids in general I mean. Looks to me, that you at least had the wherewithal – the independence of mind and healthy subversive defiance – to survive and thrive. Good for you.
My lifetime sentence was 1959-1966 and while I spent a lot of time haunting the Regent’s Circus library, I stuck it out on Cricklade Road. I didn’t have the confidence or imagination to find an alternative and I’m not sure there was a realistic one for me. Anyway – your anecdote is perfect! I might have to co-opt/ steal it at some point to help make some argument or other.
Writing science fiction on an alpaca farm in Australia is just the perfect coda to that story. Given the Mag’s religiosity and the origins of the Eagle (founded by a vicar), it is delicious to think people associate TSM with the iconic arch-villain and anti-Christian Mekon.
Sounds like you’ve had quite the life. Thanks for the kind words and for telling those stories. Made my day.
– J
The teachers at my school have questions but feel there is no where to turn when it comes to asking them. I know that whenever I ask questions it means I will face hostility. From some at lease. Fortunately my immediate supervisor is open to ideas. There really is a chill going on and ordinary teacher voices are silenced because of fear. We were supposed to teach about the genderbread but one teacher made objections so the plan was shelved, No one wants to be called a transphobic. And to ask questions means that you will be called that. It hurts because i have always supported gay and lesbian colleagues and students. This is not about diversity of ideas but about an imposed conformity of ideology. And it is very scary because to oppose it means you could lose your job. And the ones getting hurt the most are the kids!
Your comment gives me some hope that there remain teachers who are still able to think for themselves on this topic and question the orthodoxy of all this. I find it amazing how these science-denying ideas have taken hold in schools and colleges. The consequences are so damaging to children and young people.
I would love to hear more about your experience and about any ideas you may have about saying to people in school: Hold on. Wait a minute. Let’s look at this more carefully before we take a whole ideology on board without thought. Let’s think this through. What will be the consequences? Where does all this come from? What are the implications? What other ways of looking at this are out there? What is the best approach for supporting confused kids? Where is the research? How reliable is it? What does the science tell us? What do we know about child development and child psychology? Let’s step back and think through what on earth is going on here and what is driving it.
And let’s get this debate out of the tangle of the so-called culture wars. This is not a matter of political left and right. This is about kids and their health and their future. And the left doesn’t always get it right. And nor does the right. We have to start thinking for ourselves and not rely on our go-to consultants, pundits, and politicians to do it for us.
Been saying this all along. So bloody obvious. Have people lost the ability to think and ponder rather than have ideas fed into their head. Grew up to voices that said”she looks just like a boy”. And why not. Boys get the practical comfy clothes and women, still, dress to conform and sell themselves. And maybe i wanted to be attractive to other women and not some pathetic girl wearing what i was told would make me attrative..to men, that is. Media is undermining kids..of all sexes etc.In many ways.Manipulation. Or shall we go back to feet binding, waist crushing corsets and crinolines. Its all about (usually male) social control and yes, making money and power…And hey yes that old trick, divide and rule further and distract from real problems. Wake up the power to think for yourselves.
Spot in Dierdre. It seems people have put their knowledge and critical thinking facilities out to pasture to chew the cud.
You actually don’t need to be an expert in child development to know that this is misguided at best and bonkers bad at worst.
Foot binding is a great example. Someone got the idea and then generations of girl children were mutilated and hobbled. For an idea,
To be a young person in this mad day and age must be truly terrifying. Growing up had its challenges when I was a kid but ye-Gods that was a breeze. There are so many factors that combined to create the obscenity you have written about. Money and greed, absolutely. I think also and I’m afraid this is an American thing, is the not wanting to ever be accountable for anything. You wouldn’t want your kids growing up confused about sex (which is my generation was vaguely explained by parent/s sibling. friend…you just sort of found out), so let there be sex-education at school. And then, down the line nobody wanted their kids to be God forbid, gay, so let’s see what can be done to prevent that. In America they always have a pill for everything, so why not that too. At the bottom of that slippery slope is one hot mess.
When I hear anything about “Pro-life” I grind my teeth for several reasons and I’m not sure which enrages me more. Perhaps it’s that anyone would think they have the right to concern themself about my soul or morals. As well as all the other reasons people rant about. But it particularly bugs me that they believe they are saving all those babies from never being born. It never occurs to them that those babies arriving unwanted into this world may very well end up wishing they had not been born and that is before you even consider this ghastly mess they will have to get through just to become a young adult.
I was always very interested in psychology but I believe that like every other human discovery it can be abused by charlatans.
I would hope the UK Government is trying to wind things back! There needs to be quite a lot of that over there, over here and pretty much everywhere else, from what I see!
Great article, Josie.
“God forbid, gay,” I think that homophobia is one of the big drivers of this. Better a transed child than a gay child seems to be the story. The former is special, stunning, brave and to be celebrated. Could even be a celebrity. The latter is not.
And how ironic that it is the Tories on whom – in the UK – we must rely on to say; “Hold on, wait a minute. this is nuts” when the driving force opposing this is left-leaning people and especially women.
You have interesting takes. I worked in middle school a dite, as an ed.tech where I routinely butted heads with a counsellor whose job it was to inform everyone that they are being bullied irregardless of whether they even knew it. This was before the trans gobbledygook. Great Caesar’s Ghost! Children can’t transition into suppertime without help and we’re to believe they can know ‘they’re in the wrong body’? Please. No place in school. I urge everyone I can to consider homeschooling, or co-op learning – off the grid. Public ed. is cursed. Even if it wasn’t morally maladaptive, common core creates a performance nexus circumambulating the lowest common denominator. Bad.
The trick to that particular situation might be to enter the victim stakes. Self-identify as the biggest and best victim and force all others into a defensive crouch. “My victimhood is greater than yours, so Ner! It is in fact the greatest, so stop bullying me with your oppression and privilege you utter monster.”
Thanks for being a voice of reason in “crazy land” where the current reality is actually a cult, and anyone who questions it is backwards at best or transphobic at worst. I am in constant mourning for our daughters– for my daughter.
The pain that so many parents are feeling over all this is another reckoning all of its own. Thank you so much for the kind comment. It is not transphobic to care about what is happening to young people and question it. It is not transphobic or hateful to care about women’s rights and about girls.
I am sorry that you are in “mourning”. Unfortunately, you are not alone. This tide must be turned for the sake of people like you. And the kids for whom this was just a phase of temporary magical thinking in a tough time. May they – and you – get all the support you deserve.
And thank you again.
Thanks for sharing this idea. Anita
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