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A Rant on Transitioning
I have been watching “New Amsterdam” on Netflix. I guess it originally appeared on NBC. It is a really good series with some very relevant insights into how big city hospitals function. Last night’s episode was not bad, but it was a predictable dive into the issue of transitioning kids. In this one, a kid in her late teens has been transitioning for several years, hormone therapy, etc. However, at this point, she/he wants what nowadays is called “top surgery.” The building psych says no since it is felt that her growth is not complete enough to allow the surgery without causing possible other harms. The recommendation is to wait a year.
The kid, as portrayed, is pretty obviously ambivalent about her/his sexuality. In 40-plus years of teaching adolescents, particularly ones with “issues,” I only had one in my class who I would say was legitimately likely to want to transition. This was a young man with very distinct feminine characteristics, both physical and psychological. He (he definitely thought of himself as a boy) preferred the company of girls, not in the way most boys do, but as companions. The girls sort of naturally accepted his company, and he seemed quite comfortable in that mode. That was long enough ago that no one talked about accommodating any change via drugs or surgery. However, it was pretty obvious that this kid was never going to be “normal.” There were no signs of homosexuality. He just had very feminine characteristics.
Back when I started teaching in Seattle, my first position was in a junior high school. The same day I met the principal for the first time, a new counselor also came on board. I was immediately struck by the distinctly feminine characteristics of this man. They were blatantly obvious. However, he was married and was to have a couple of kids of his own over the years I knew him. We worked together for 17 years. He was terrific, an absolutely competent and well-adjusted person. Despite his mannerisms, he was very direct and firm with kids, never wavered, and eventually went on to get his administrative credentials, and became an elementary school principal, at which job he was superb.
Now, whether he would have chosen to transition had the current fashion been in place in the 1960s and ’70s is something no one can answer. I don’t think he ever thought of himself as being “born in the wrong body.” He was who and what he was, and from what I saw of him over nearly two decades of a pretty close working relationship, he was extremely well-adjusted.
Humans exist in a spectrum, a range of what we called in biology phenotypes. We all possess the genetic materials contributed by both of our parents, male and female. Ultimately, hormones present in our bodies make the determination of how those genes are expressed. Both female and male hormones are present in everyone. I suspect that those kids now calling themselves trans or whatever, are more the product of social pressures than actual genetic predispositions. The idea that everyone has to behave in a certain way, fit into a particular pigeonhole, and display only the characteristic behaviors assigned to that location is absurd.
People display a wide variety of behavioral patterns, some learned, some, shall we say, inborn. It is only when inborn behaviors are discouraged or negatively reinforced by, say, bullying that these people who don’t exactly fit the mold might actually begin to feel uncomfortable in their own skin. I don’t believe that allowing or encouraging such kids to undergo medical procedures to change their physical characteristics toward something they are not is any more likely to resolve the issues than trying to force them to conform to “ideal” characteristics of the gender into which they were born. In both cases, they are neither fish nor fowl, and are just as likely to be uncomfortable, which explains the high number of suicides in those who have transitioned.
In my opinion, it would be far more productive to counsel them into being comfortable with who and what they are. Our society has come a long way in terms of how it sees homosexual individuals. I believe that an acceptance of this other position on the spectrum can be accommodated without allowing radical elements to push them into physical transitions that do not ultimately resolve the issue. This does not even touch the issue of young girls in droves wanting to transition to males. This latest fashion, being reinforced by radicals and other misguided people, has reached nearly epidemic proportions.
This entire issue has really gone beyond the absurd, fueled by people who have their own political and social agendas. Left to their own devices, they will create mayhem in our schools, if they already haven’t. It is infuriating that at a time when publicly funded schools are failing on so many levels that this issue is being pushed by unions and radically populated school boards. Rather than creating turmoil, schools should emphasize treating each child as an individual, respecting the individual characteristics of each child, and preparing them as best we can for their lives ahead by educating them in the basics and leaving other issues to parents and communities from which they arise. This can be achieved largely by teachers themselves modeling appropriate respect for each child. I did that in my classroom for more than 40 years, and no child was ever made to feel inadequate or as though he/she was born in the wrong body.
Published in General
I have a good friend who I met way back in college in the 80s. He was into theater, music, he was an art major, . . . he was kind of feminine to the point that a lot of people thought he was gay. Except the guy was a total horndog when it came to women. Had lots of girlfriends. Eventually settled down with one. His horndog ways did threaten their marriage at one point, but they worked it out (miraculously) and they have been married more than 30 years now.
Yeah, you really can’t judge.
When I was growing up, the “experts” lectured us that it was okay if boys liked traditional “girl” kinds of play, and if girls liked traditional “boy” kinds of play. This did not mean they weren’t boys and girls.
Today the “experts” tell us now that these behaviors in children are indicators that they’re “trans,” and they push for transitioning those kids.
I think the “experts” are full of it.
I fully agree. My experience is that afeminate behaviors are no indicator of homosexuality. I have known homosexual men who were brutes, big, burling, deep voiced and very masculine in most ways. The two characteristics, effeminacy and homosexuality have absolutely nothing to do with each other, nor do they require transitioning.
Mrs Nohaaj and I have also been watching New Amsterdam. It started out OK, but as the seasons and episodes continue, each show has now become an absolute, over the top, in your face, woke subject. The writers now have abandoned the hospital/doctor/patient dynamic and have dedicated each episode to some socialist, woke topic. Big Pharma is evil, Gay relationships are awesome, cops are bad, Kids should transition, you are actively racist if your are not actively anti-racist, climate change, etc. Is has become non-entertaining.
i suspected that that would be the case. I am just at the beginnings of the first season, so I will stay with it for a bit, or at least until it turns the corner. Thank you for the warning.
Same, same…my wife and I dropped the show a year ago, maybe two. Time flies.
To be fair, Big Pharma is evil.
TV shows aside, this is an excellent post emphasizing moderation and patience in understanding human behavior. I believe the left behaves like children. They want it and they want it NOW. This is why we all need parents. As we all grow older, we realize that some things we thought we had to have as youngsters would have done us great harm if we had gotten them. Be careful what you wish for. Adults who encourage physical bodily alteration, or even just give in to it, are allowing great harm to be done. It is disgusting.
Sort of makes you believe there’s such a thing as penis envy.
I believe that’s the show that did a show-opening 2-3 minute montage of doctors and people reacting to the Dobbs decision as if they’d just watched a plane crash into the World Trade center – people dropping their coffee cups in slow motion, hugging strangers in the street, staring blankly into the distance while a dramatic slow dirge played. In some ways it was one of the funniest things ever put on television.
Actually, that does sound hilarious. It is important to remember that the show is set in Manhattan which is one of the great leftist strongholds. It may well have exactly like that when the Dobbs decision dropped. I wasn’t in Seattle at the time, but I can almost guarantee that the reaction there was pretty much the same, as it likely was in Los Angeles. These people have absolutely no self-awareness. So, the scenes you describe might well have been satirical or merely unintentionally so.
Yes, you can find video of that opening embedded in this Tweet:
If that doesn’t work, try this:
I am once again reassured that I am missing out on nothing by not watching anything on network television.
You can understand why the guy in the opening of the clip is upset – now his daughter will never have a chance to abort his grandchild.
Plastic surgery makes sense in situations of deformity and disfigurement. What marks the difference between nose and boob jobs and reassignment surgery?
One of our friends has a “daughter” who was originally a boy. I’ve only interacted with her a few times, but she is a girl in every sense except for the DNA. I swear you could never tell she was born a boy.
I didn’t know it until after the fact, but at my wife’s 50th high school reunion (damn, we’re old!), one of her former female classmates was tallest among the women. I didn’t know until we got home that she was born a he, and transitioned well after getting maried and having children. My wife showed me the writeup in her class’s “what has happened since since school” bio, and there it was. The children were supportive, but I don’t recall anything about what the wife thought (maybe they got divorced, I don’t know).
The bottom line is that there are legitimate gender dysphoria cases where the ultimate treatment is full transition, but now there are activists who do their best to convince impressionable people (mostly youth) that all their woes are caused by not being the right sex. This must stop . . .
I have traveled in Afghanistan where young boys are dressed up as girls and look quite like girls. Prepubescent boys differ very little from girls in outward appearances, so long as their genitalia remains hidden. So, I am unsurprised that this young person could pass for a girl. “She” will never be able to conceive a child which, of course, is something that can be said of some fully intact females. She will be on some form of pharmaceuticals for the rest of her life to keep any male hormones from expressing themselves. Now, that may be your definition of someone who can pass as a female, but, functionally, that identity is does not pass the test. How that child will live the remainder of her life is a serious question that no one can predict.
As to the other person you mentioned, I would question whether that person has maintained their original plumbing, as Caitlyn Jenner has. If so, they are nothing more than a female impersonator.
I have mentioned in the past that my father was theatrical photographer in New York. He frequently photographed female impersonators who were most often intact, gay men. He had one who worked for him as a billing clerk. I got to know that person over the years and was amazed when I saw him dressed in his female garb. He was stunningly beautiful and nearly impossible to distinguish from a woman. He was, however, a man and, as far as I could tell, not interesting in being anything else.
I am sure that there are people who suffer from dysphoria. It sounds like a terrible burden. However, despite the current fashion to claim it is a normal position along the spectrum, I continue to believe that it is, in fact, a psychological disorder which can and should be dealt with psychiatrically, not surgically because no surgery can change the sex into which one is born. I do not feel that it is comparable to homosexuality which I do believe is genetic in origin and does fit on the spectrum.
The Trans-movement is big business for Pfizer, et al.
And a lot of doctors and hospitals. There is gold in them there ills.
How can they believe Big Pharma is evil, when they depend on it for “transitioning?”
Ibid.
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You are definitely missing out on some things. But you you are avoiding quit alot of dung. Watching network t.v. is like walking through a cow pasture while looking at trees in autumn. The autumnal leaves are beautiful but in order to see it you need to get poop in your boots.
I just don’t know if there are any legitimate gender dysphoria cases. I hear from smart and compassionate people that there are but I still don’t like the idea of chopping off body parts.
I am willing to accept that I might be wrong. I can’t really understand the plight of trans-individuals so what the heck what do I know. But all, these young and confused kids getting experimental hormones needs to be pushed against.
I recall that some Disney female corporate executive that had two non-binary kids or some such. Mathematically, it approaches zero that you have two non-binary kids that aren’t affected by social contagion. But everybody is supposed to politely clap and pretend that there isn’t an extremely high chance that one of her kids is a vanilla straight.
The main problem I see is that nobody can possibly know that they “should be” the opposite gender. They by definition have no idea what it “feels like” to be the opposite gender, so they could know that they “should” be that way rather than the way they are.
All they can know is that they don’t “feel right” the way they are, but that calls for some kind of psychotherapy, not surgery.
Sorry Basil, I was writing early in the morning. What I should have written is effeminate. It didn’t look right to me when I wrote it, but I got lazy about checking the spelling. It isn’t a word I seen or written in many years, so I probably should have checked it before I published. Thank you for pointing that out.
You have touched on the engine that is driving this.
All of the medical establishment benefits from trans nonsense. Someone at the Federalist did an amazing deep dive into the financials of transgender treatments and it’s not a pretty picture for the medical establishment.
When people say pharma and medicine has a financial incentive to keep you sick and dependent, it’s stuff like this that is just the tip of the ginormous iceberg.
Wonder why Kristi Noem caved in to the Transgender Lobby?
How Gender Ideology Conquered South Dakota
A timely expose was published today.
This is the “must-read” of the year.
I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids. Now I’m Blowing the Whistle.
Yes, the full article is much longer.
If anyone is interested, I’ve made an email containing the entire article, which I sent to relatives and friends. If anyone else would like to do the same, send me your email through a private message and I will forward it to you.