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Transgender children and gender dysphoria

theguardian.com

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Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria

#11

Post by imh »

Reading this article made me realize I have no idea what "gender" is. It used to be synonymous with what parts and chromosomes you have, where there are no questions of "I identify as XYZ," but now what the hell is it really?

All the fluidity and tension created by gender makes me think why don't we just get rid of it? Stop making children conform to social norms/behavior/dressing/everything based on their sex. Drop all social expectations of gender and let people do whatever they naturally want to do. But then we're just left with sex, which is basically where we started. So what the hell is gender?

Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria

#12

Post by motoboi »

imh wrote: post #11

Reading this article made me realize I have no idea what "gender" is. It used to be synonymous with what parts and chromosomes you have, where there are no questions of "I identify as XYZ," but now what the hell is it really? All the fluidity and tension created by gender makes me think why don't we just get rid of it? Stop making children conform to social norms/behavior/dressing/everything based on their sex. Drop…

Bible talks about man and woman. I suppose this doesn't help.

But there are some other religious topics that got to a point (after a long long painful way) where they are treated like metaphors or simplification (like the genesis) because science brought another explanation.

Gender will probably get to this point. But not in the near future, I think.

Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria

#13

Post by orthoganol »

The elephant in the room for me during conversations like this is theory of gender. It doesn't seem like we have one. I sideline myself, or at least error on the side of compassion, because it feels like we just don't know how to think about gender, either in a scientific way, or if significant features of it are non-scientific, how to approach it then at all.

I think more attention to it as a subject of serious research could help us all a lot.

Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria

#14

Post by gnah »

If I had grown up in a culture this accepting of transgender people I would have transitioned. That would have been the worst decision of my life. I've grown into my identity as a man since then and I'm thankful for my parents and society pushing me in the right direction. We need to be careful to avoid putting borderline cases like me into a group with such high rates of suicide and depression.

Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria

#15

Post by retrogradeorbit »

Worth watching on this topic is a recent Louis Theroux piece on this (if you can source it). [1]

When I watched this I couldn't help but wonder if some of these kids are actually intersex, have Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome or something similar [2]. There was no mention in the documentary about any chromosomal testing being done by these doctors. The testing seems to be behavioural. I wonder what the overlap is between trans kids and Sex Chromosome Abnormalities?

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qkzt2

[2] http://www.who.int/genomics/gender/en/index1.html

Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria

#16

Post by [deleted] »

gnah wrote: post #14

If I had grown up in a culture this accepting of transgender people I would have transitioned. That would have been the worst decision of my life. I've grown into my identity as a man since then and I'm thankful for my parents and society pushing me in the right direction. We need to be careful to avoid putting borderline cases like me into a group with such high rates of suicide and depression.

[deleted]

Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria

#17

Post by chimeracoder »

jonesb6 wrote: post #10

I think the fact that our society is being more thoughtful towards gender identity is a good thing. But is it possible in our attempt to be thoughtful we sometimes will over analyze individual situations and change our environments, interactions, and treatment, towards those we are trying to help in such a way that it is actually detrimental to them? In the case of allowing children to choose their identity in the wa…

> a short-term change that could be detrimental to a child's development (socially, academically, etc)?

Why should letting a child explore their gender identity be any more detrimental to their development than letting them explore their sexuality?

It'd be far worse to tell them to repress it and not let them come to understand themselves.

Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria

#18

Post by [deleted] »

peteretep wrote: post #9
SN76477 wrote: post #2

I feel like we are confusing children with people that have actual gender identity issues. My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is, much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her life.

> My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is, > much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her > life. I think you may be confusing gender dysphoria with people waking up one day and thinking "Heck, it'd be kinda cool to be another gender!", rather than a pervasive and persistent deeply held belief that their body is wrong.

[deleted]

Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria

#20

Post by simplexion »

SN76477 wrote: post #2

I feel like we are confusing children with people that have actual gender identity issues. My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is, much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her life.

Why would you compare a decision on a favourite colour to an innate feeling surrounding identity? It feels like you didn't really think about this at all.
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