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Saving our Children
The resolve of the Woke community to propagandize and control our children has continued to steamroller ahead, especially in the
area of transgenderism. The Left is targeting them on multiple levels and in numerous venues, and we seem to be helpless to stop them. A recent article reminded me that since the Left is so determined to “follow the science,” science is one area to focus on to make sure that our children’s wellbeing is not permanently destroyed. I’ve also identified other steps we can take to at least slow down the transgender movement; at this moment, it seems like an out-of-control speeding train. But if we want to have a generation that can carry on a future that is moral and productive and to protect this country we cherish, we must act. Now.
Medical Facts
The first medical fact that parents must know and medical professionals must acknowledge is that there has been an explosion of transgenderism among adolescent girls. Up until recently, however, gender dysphoria, the confusion over gender identity, has primarily manifested with young boys; eventually, most children revert to their natal identity:
As explained in the medical volume Treating Transgender Children and Adolescents, ‘follow-up studies have demonstrated that only a small proportion of gender dysphoric children become trans … at a later age,’ and ‘The gender dysphoria of the majority of children with gender dysphoria or gender variance does not persist into adolescence.’
For reasons still not fully understood, 75 to 90 percent of children struggling with gender dysphoria at young ages revert to identifying with their natural sex and gender by puberty. This is also supported in a careful 2020 re-evaluation of the Dutch approach published in the journal European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry explaining, ‘In a majority of the cases, the adolescents themselves ended the (transitioning) process due to a discontinued wish for medical treatment.’
It is difficult enough to imagine that parents are being brainwashed into believing that their children are transgender in their adolescence, but that the medical community would contribute to this lie is unconscionable.
Social Media
The inroads that the transgender crowd have made with teenage girls are legion. A primary reason for this “progress” is that teenage girls, more than ever, feel isolated. They feel awkward, alienated, misunderstood, and confused, and social media provides an outlet and resources to reassure them that they are not only transgender, but they have found a community to support them. In her book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing our Daughters, Abigail Shrier describes the devastating impact that social media has had in converting teenage girls to its transgender agenda. Instead of seeking help for depression and confusion, these girls are embraced by forces they may never have experienced previously. And many accept these gestures with gratitude and relief.
Familial Estrangement
Parents have tried all manner of strategies to help their daughters through this barrage of propaganda; some parents are on the Left side of the political spectrum and don’t realize the dangers ahead for their daughters; other parents are on the political right and are concerned, eventually alarmed, by the efforts of their daughters to “fit in” with friends, but often don’t imagine how far their conversion will go. By the time they realize what has happened, it appears to be too late to turn back. And then there are those parents who are delighted that their children have chosen this bizarre and disturbed lifestyle.
Schools
Teachers and administrators, school nurses, and counselors are at the front of the line for holding the hands of these lonely children. And they are quite happy to provide sources, solace, and opportunities for conversion. They work hand-in-hand with willing parents, creating an unbreakable team effort for brainwashing and corrupting these adolescents.
* * *
At first glance, the situation sounds beyond redemption, doesn’t it? But have you thought about the future of these young women if we give up on them? Many of them do not have loving relationships once they’ve abandoned their families. Many may decide not to have children; others will have mastectomies. Although they may present to the world a happy exterior, they will clearly be troubled and continue to feel isolated. As Shrier said in her book:
Only 12% of natal females who identify as transgender have undergone or even desire phalloplasty. They have no plans to obtain the male appendage that most people would consider a defining feature of manhood, As Sasha Ayad put it to me, ‘A common response that I get from female clients is something along these lines: ‘I don’t know exactly that I want to be a guy. I just know I don’t want to be a girl.’
What will they do with their lives? Will they find jobs? Will they pursue education? Will they have genuine friendships? Will they marry? Have children?
* * *
What can we do? All of the following steps will be difficult to implement. And there’s little point in going after the activists because they will shout us down. But I think the strategy can target school administrators and boards, finding ethical medical professionals who will pay attention to the data and parents themselves.
With the schools: If you’ve been following the pushback on Critical Race Theory, you’ll see some of the strategies that will work. Fight the school boards at their meetings; attack them on social media; promote the actual medical facts in every venue. Keep the pressure steady and determined.
With medical professionals: Promote the truth with actual data through medical journals. Hold conferences to communicate the truth. Establish professional medical groups that are focused on helping children. Enact rules and laws that prohibit the use of puberty blockers or deforming surgeries before a certain age without parental permission.
With Parents and Families: Be aggressive about telling parents where they can get the information they need; side-step everyone who tries to stop you. Form support groups and networks. Provide teen groups that offer healthy and functional young women who want to live happy and productive lives. Find ways early on to limit a child’s access to social media; negotiate their staying off damaging sites that will try to convince them that transgenderism is healthy and attractive. Offer a balance of compassion and clear rules that show that all of us, to live meaningful lives, must find the balance between getting everything we want in life and finding happiness. Stress the value of being a good person, of having relationships, of being a contributor to the world.
* * *
Although some people might be tempted to write off these children as impossible to rescue, I hope others might take up the cause. In many cases, these were bright and social children who, once they entered puberty, became sidetracked. These kids are our future. They deserve a chance to emerge from this nightmare.
They have deserved the right to simply be themselves.
[My thanks to Rodin for recommending Abigail Shrier’s book.]
Published in Culture
It used to be that teen girls had a body dysphoria manifestation as anorexia, bulimia or cutting. I don’t hear as much about those things these days. It could be those same girls are now exploring transgenderism, but I suspect those are really different groups of people. Anybody seen any studies on this?
I think a bigger problem for teen girls is that males are less desirable these days. Teen boys seem to grow up to be…older teen boys. Women will need to adjust how they pick their mates. They will need to learn to happily “marry down”. That is going to be a painful.
Those disorders still exist in the mix of destructive behaviors, @dong. They haven’t disappeared.
Regarding the picking of mates, it might depend on whether the girls pick another transgender person; I would assume that would be their choice. So whatever they think the ideal mate is (changed from girl to boy), those will be the determining factors.
With all the teen angst I may have suffered (and I was lucky to have friends in high school), I never wanted to be anything other than a girl. This rejection of the female is baffling; why would I want to even consider being anything else? But with the incessant bombardments from social media, these girls see this change as a way to relieve their suffering. So tragic.
Maybe we should have a minimum age for social media. If we say 21 is the minimum age to buy beer, wine, liquor, and tobacco products, maybe we should label social media as “dangerous and habit forming” and keep kids off them until 21.
OTOH, we bought our daughters their first cell phones when they started driving, for emergency use only. Exceptions can be made . . .
I think the remedy is to find a way for parents to limit access on phones, whether they want it or not, to destructive sites. With the technology available today, there must be a way for parents to take charge here. I don’t think the government should be involved.
I read (what I thought was) an interesting article somewhere, some time ago (sorry to be so vague, but I really don’t remember where it was) whose premise had to do with the window of transgressive behavior shifting over time, and things that were shocking 50, 25, even 10 years ago, no longer being so. If one takes it as a given that many of the young have a natural inclination to act out in ways that disturb, grieve, alarm, their parents and other old fuddy-duddys in their lives, then perhaps that explains the lengths to which they have to go today to get a reaction and some attention.
What’s most disturbing to me is that reaction. I would never want to react to children who came to me and told me they were unhappy in their containers and wanted to be something, or someone they’re not, in a way that would make things worse for the child. And I think the OP bears out the fact that a cautious, loving, response is overwhelmingly likely to result in the children sorting themselves out over the course of a few years. What appalls me is the way many parents seem to have embraced this phenomenon, displaying their child almost as a trophy of their wokeness and progressivism, and pushing the child to the edge and beyond.
I would never write these children off. Some of their parents, however….
And therein lies the rub.
But in our fast-food society, we want to get in line first! Never mind that we are in process of destroying the lives of our kids. Thanks, She
Munchhausian.
An interesting thought, TBA.
I do sometimes despair of fixing this mess.
A major driving force is the Supreme Court. Legal protection of the transgendered (and the sodomites) is now the law of the land, by a rather absurd judicial interpretation of the Civil Rights Act penned by supposedly conservative Justice Gorsuch, joined by supposedly conservative Chief Justice Roberts. This means that employers and institutions are required to accommodate the trans-madness, under pain of all of the sanctions available under the anti-discrimination laws.
Or with permission.
Take the idea of gender dysphoria out of the picture.
Instead, you have a parent that talks his kid into FGM or taking steroids to compete better in sports. Think these will fly? No.
Conspiring with a doctor to damage your child is a crime.
Added: Jail the doctors who perform these operations.
I think some do, but part of knowing that you’ve made the transition is being convincing to people who aren’t in the know.
I think it is because girls are told that boys have all the advantages while girls have all the responsibilities (proving themselves in careers, fighting predatory males, fighting the patriarchy – whatever that happens to mean at the time – having babies, providing sex as ‘ethical’…I’m sure there is more).
Why not opt out of all that weirdness?
We do. It’s called parenting.
It is not very popular.
I guess I missed out; I wasn’t told this. My folks were more practical than I realized!
Hypergamy is a real thing.
FIFY (sigh)
The only thing I hope is the young rebel against their parents
The sad part is, they think they are not rebelling against their parents–at least those who become transgenders.
I was thinking there’s also something to the complete rejection of what sets women apart from men. There’s a kind of shame and frustration that the entire reason why female anatomy and physiognomy is what it is is built on our design for having babies.
Rejecting that as the purpose for the female half of the species kind of leads down the road to why am I even female to begin with? Why must I deal with a period and weight gain and boobs if I am not made for having babies? Those are serious inconveniences if you are pursuing a career, sports, and don’t want babies now, if ever.
I can see why teen girls might be asking what’s the point in being female anyway?
Traditional expressions of masculinity are “toxic”. Traditional femininity is a betrayal of feminism. Marriage is a trap and children hinder careers. Coming “out” in some form other than normal is courageous. Virginity is unacceptable and pathetic. Promiscuity is normal but heterosexual intercourse is presumptively rape and consent can be retroactively withdrawn. Transgenerism is just one symptom of mass-induced confusion.
I’m not sure “confusion is the word I’d choose–maybe mass “delusion?”
Ellen Goodman (yes I knew) wrote a column c. 1980s where she decried Madonna’s conical breast-wear, saying something to the effect of ‘be shocked early so your children don’t have to rebel so hard’.
Part of becoming an adult (and this happens long before any adult behavior shows up) is separating yourself from your parents.
Shocking them is a piece of this.
Ellen’s point was that rock ‘n’ roll parents are loathe to be square.
And being square is part of the job description.
That used to be done to doctors who performed abortions.
The classic is Charles McKay’s Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, though there are others. (James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds riffed on that title.)
The technology of implanting such delusions is unfortunately fairly mature.
I was surprised to read in Shrier’s book that the parents, at least early on, were not a factor in pursuing this disturbing lifestyle. The girls are usually incredibly lonely and isolated, and they find solace in their girl groups and on social media. The girls may share some of their thinking early on with the parents to test the waters, but very little. Their efforts seem to be all about connecting with other girls. It’s not until much later when the girls start to change drastically that the parents realize what has happened; some of them sound like pretty good parents, too. But by the time the parents protest, it’s too late; they are accused of being hateful and uncaring. It makes me nuts when I think about it.
But not wise.
“My parents suck” is a passport into subculture.
It depends on the content, doesn’t it? Look at the Disney Princess propaganda industry, which I submit has a good deal of influence on how preteen females think and feel. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it has contributed to our children needing to be saved. Look at how it’s moved the Overton window on “normal.”
Speaking theoretically: if you have a significant biological drive for hypergamy (true, some of what constitutes hypergamy for any particular female is biologically driven and some cultural) but you’re indoctrinated to go against that drive, and then fail to achieve what you’ve been conditioned to think you’re supposed to achieve, where does that leave you?
I have no idea where it leads you.
I grew up with my share of propaganda, but I was not a girly-girl, nor was I a tomboy; I didn’t play with dolls, nor did I play with tinker toys. My mother warned me that I had to take care around boys (in my teens), and it was clear that my folks wanted me to marry a Jew (but no serious pressure to do so, and I didn’t). My mother worked once we got into school, so I knew I could be a mom and a worker, but only pursued the latter.
But could you elaborate on the sentence above?