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Why the surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls?

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Re: Why the surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls?

#21
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that it sounds uncomfortable for a child to make just a permanent life-changing decision like that, but the counter point is that transitioning is significantly easier on the body and mind before puberty happens.

It's definitely a catch-22. In the vein of 'do no harm', I'd tend towards delaying it, even though it might be harder later, rather than proactively pushing a treatment that will later be revealed to be a mistake. It's too hard to present the options to a child without putting bias and pressure on them.

I agree on the value of delay. During childhood, we all wanted to be firefighters, police, the president, and astronauts. We don't start those children down a permanent path based on those choices, we (mostly) let them become adults before locking down career paths.

There are some exceptions to these rules, of course. One in particular is athletes. Society happily will fundamentally alter a child's or adolescent's body in pursuit of athletics.

Re: Why the surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls?

#23

I know this is controversial and I have adult friends that I believe are truly transgender and seem happy after transitioning, but man do I feel uncomfortable diagnosing prepubescent or adolescents as ‘transgender’. I think kids should absolutely be allowed to choose their identity and dress how they like and be called what they like. I’ve got a 2 year old boy and if when he’s five he wants to wear dresses and call h…

There’s a such thing as a tomboy, but a person who identifies with ONLY male attributes is, by definition, male. If a girl seems to display only male attributes when given the choice/ability, it’s possible she may identify with only male attributes, in which case she is actually male.

Re: Why the surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls?

#24
I think that as girls in US culture approach puberty they suddenly realize that being a more-or-less generic young person will no longer allow them to maintain an acceptable status. They feel the pressure to dress and do their hair and own nice outfits, etc. Some don't want to do that, period. Others sense that they will not be deemed attractive no matter how hard they try. They want to exit from the "game".

Re: Why the surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls?

#25
post #5

I can't help but wonder how much is attention seeking - wanting to feel special, different - which is a disservice to those who really would normally have this... Condition sounds negative, but I'll use it for lack of a better term.

> wanting to feel special, different

Also, boasting about being broken, having depression, mental issues and suicidal thoughts is now frowned upon, so gender dysphoria has covered that vacuum. Before that it was geekiness.

Maybe this is society's growing pains as it learns to cope with social media.

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