“Just normal variations…”

[greenboots]

I came across an article on the BBC news App by Dr Hilary Cass who conducted a review into Children and gender.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k1vkmxgd6o

I was struck by the part in the middle.

Asked about why the number of children and young people who have gender dysphoria is increasing, Cass said it was "complex" but there was a different cultural context, with people "less locked into gender stereotypes".
"I think what has kind of misled children is the belief that if you are not a typical girl, if you like playing with trucks, or boys who like dressing up or that you have same-sex attraction that means that you're trans and actually it's not like that but those are all normal variations," she said.
"I think children and young people were being given a narrative that it's not okay to be anything but absolutely typical of the other girls on Instagram."

It’s still light on support for boys who want to be different, but it’s refreshing to see someone with influence acknowledging that the polarisation of the public debate is harmful. Also there’s a comment acknowledging that we don’t understand everything about gender dysphoria, whereas most commentators claim to be the ultimate authority, at least for their extreme views.

Let us hope that this helps to bring a more measured approach. Though how much will trickle through to secondary school children, and thence to men, remains to be seen (see Barleymower’s family story).

[Can’t easily find the link as I’m on my phone]

[Modoc]

I feel deeply for people struggling with gender identity issues. I'm sure that no one who isn't directly affected has any real idea what it must be like. The media hype has indeed turned the struggle into a circus and is not at all helpful to anyone, but that's the world we live in. So many are sure that they know what's right for everyone else. Things we are 100% sure of today may look very different to us tomorrow, and the problem is that we may make decisions today that are irreversible or totally devastating tomorrow. There is no easy answer.

[STEVIE]

Back in the stone age when I was but a nipper, I wanted to wear girl clothes.
Did I want to be a girl, I didn't know that was even possible.
As a pre-teen in the late 60s, I wanted to wear girl clothes.
Did I want to be a girl, still unaware of the possibility.
1970s and hormonally rampant, I wanted to wear girl clothes.
Did I want to be a girl, you've guessed it, but I felt I must try to look like one.
By 1982 and very firmly attached to my "boy bits", EUREKA, they can be arranged to girly bits.
Now approaching 3 score and 10, I still prefer the clothes from across the aisle.
Yeah, I am one of those "normal variations" and possibly saved by a lack of information but my formative years were still blighted by ignorance and prejudice too.
Today, a surfeit of information, but with much of the same prejudices to accompany it.
Steve.

[Barleymower]

As a person who has spent a large proportion of their life with gender dysphoria, I feel like I can speak with some knowledge on the subject.
Oddly I didn't ever fancy boys, I was completely and still into women. Quite handy really being equipped as a man in this respect.
I became so troubled by it that in 1992 my nervous system crumbled and I spent the next 10 years living a quite horrible existence that nobody understood, wanted to understand or even discuss. Lots of strong medication that didn't work and councillors who just said "how do you feel about that?".
I survived by some miracle and 24 years after the attacks ended I'm still here.
At this point in my life I am happy to say my dysphoria has largely calmed down. I like my life wearing skirts some of the time. I enjoy being a man I love my wife and my kids.
We are all different and I feel deeply for the plight of young trans people. It's a problem that has ro be handled very delicately and never with anger and hatred.

[timemeddler]

supposedely theres a lot of correlation between young boys wearing girls attire and autism as well.