Teenage son likes to wear a dress

[Barleymower]

A good article on boys love of dresses. Lesha Mulla is definitely on the right lines. I wish there were more like her.

https://www.parentalquestions.com/my-te ... r-dresses/

I would go further and say the boys in her article go on to be men. It's not just a childhood thing.

[Modoc]

The issue of gender identity being tied to the wearing of skirts and dresses is always a bit of a rub for me. I fully understand the reasoning for this, but yet I can't help but long for the time when wearing a skirt or a dress is seen as nothing more than a personal choice in clothing.
Barleymower, your closing comment did give me cause to wonder how many men, if any, were allowed to wear skirts and dresses while growing up If they wanted to, and how that factors into their clothing choices and gender identities now.

[Coder]

Not to stomp on the link, but that article feels like it was AI-written - anyone else think so?

[Bill]

Yes, Coder, It does read like an AI-produced article.

There was even a subheading that the person who posted (copy/pasted) the narrative forgot to highlight.

Third paragraph begins: "Understanding Gender Expression Gender expression refers to the way in which individuals present themselves to the world through..." - and that does not seem correct.

[STEVIE]

A good article on boys love of dresses. Lesha Mulla is definitely on the right lines. I wish there were more like her.

https://www.parentalquestions.com/my-te ... r-dresses/

I would go further and say the boys in her article go on to be men. It's not just a childhood thing.

AI or not, a good article and perfectly valid in my view because, I was that kid.
BM is correct, I grew to manhood with quite an obsession for things girly.
Label it however you wish, but I repeat let the gender anxiety go.
Society, in the shape of family, peers, educators, the whole damn world created this issue.
It's now up to us to prove how wrong they were and still are.
We talk a lot around here about encouraging the "newbies", well here's the ultimate. Talk to all and sundry about your experience.
Carry one simple message, "Anyone, any age, any time, any place is free to wear any item, any colour, just anything at all"!
Just quit fretting guys, be YOU and please don't make me repeat this again, it's getting boring.
Steve.

[familyman34]

Not to stomp on the link, but that article feels like it was AI-written - anyone else think so?

I too think it's AI.

I had written a detailled stylistic analysis of the article in support of this opinion, but was called away for 30 minutes and found on my return that my reply had vanished - that'll teach me to save it as I go along next time!

However, I also clicked on the writer's name to get the complete list of her posts, and found that there are 185 pages, with ten articles per page, the earliest being on 28th November 2023.

If she can write 1850 articles in the period 28th November to 21st December without a break, that means that she's turning out 77 articles a day! or nearly eight per hour for ten working hours every day.

Unlikely in my mind.

Therefore AI.

[STEVIE]

Not to stomp on the link, but that article feels like it was AI-written - anyone else think so?

I too think it's AI.
Therefore AI.

Fair enough, but in this case, the point is still perfectly valid.
The issues surrounding MIS are very real, there is ample evidence for that around here.
For a hell of a lot of us the problems started in our very early years.
Traction for acceptance will have a much better chance if sons are allowed to explore their clothing choices as freely as daughters.
However they are created, articles such as this stimulate thought and hopefully, communication.
An "influence", I'd actually endorse for a change.
Steve.

[familyman34]

Not to stomp on the link, but that article feels like it was AI-written - anyone else think so?

I too think it's AI.
Therefore AI.

Fair enough, but in this case, the point is still perfectly valid.
The issues surrounding MIS are very real, there is ample evidence for that around here.
For a hell of a lot of us the problems started in our very early years.
Traction for acceptance will have a much better chance if sons are allowed to explore their clothing choices as freely as daughters.
However they are created, articles such as this stimulate thought and hopefully, communication.
An "influence", I'd actually endorse for a change.
Steve.

Agreed, Stevie. The sentiments that underpin the article are morally correct.
When I was younger, there was no AI (or even any web) to put these ideas into circulation, so I cannot be holier-than-thou.
It's just that I feel a bit uncomfortable when a "writer" turns out to be (partially) non-human; how can a remote server somewhere across the globe where electricity is cheap, describe honestly the liberating feeling of the breeze under a single-tube garment?

[Barleymower]

AI or chatgpt is programmed to give the person asking questions an unbiased moral reply (at the moment). It doesn't enter in biased discussions on faith or for example blame the Russians.
I have no evidence either way to say wether the article is AI written or human but it is a bit right on. Can't be bad?

[crfriend]

AI or chatgpt is programmed to give the person asking questions an unbiased moral reply (at the moment). It doesn't enter in biased discussions on faith or for example blame the Russians.

"Moral" in which sense? Will it not "blame the Russians" even when the Russians are blatantly to blame? This is one of the problems with the current crop of what purports to be AI -- it's a black box. We have no idea where its algorithms come from, nor do we have a handle on what its training data looked like. Note also that it is not intelligent in any meaningful way as it cannot tell fact from fiction nor truth from falsity and will happily parrot back what its creators thought was "right" by way of the training data it was fed.

In short, given the current state of the art and the uses it's put to, it's not worth the electrons to drive it.

[Barleymower]

AI or chatgpt is programmed to give the person asking questions an unbiased moral reply (at the moment). It doesn't enter in biased discussions on faith or for example blame the Russians.

"Moral" in which sense? Will it not "blame the Russians" even when the Russians are blatantly to blame? This is one of the problems with the current crop of what purports to be AI -- it's a black box. We have no idea where its algorithms come from, nor do we have a handle on what its training data looked like. Note also that it is not intelligent in any meaningful way as it cannot tell fact from fiction nor truth from falsity and will happily parrot back what its creators thought was "right" by way of the training data it was fed.

In short, given the current state of the art and the uses it's put to, it's not worth the electrons to drive it.

OK to put it another way. From what I have seen of these AI programmes they gather a consensus opinion, snip off the extremists and put in a lot of waffle. But, do you what? they are not a bad read. I hear what you are saying that they are are load of b****ks but it is what it is. I even spent hours arguing with Scott (the bot).
Are the Russians clearly to blame? I don't know. Was Trump all that bad? I never met the man. Did Jesus turn my coke to Pepsi? Who knows.
AI is certainly no worse that the evangelistic lady spouting its OK for women in pants but men in skirts will go to hell.

[crfriend]

The very best response I have to modern "AI" is to invoke a dictum from 1960s era programming: "GIGO" (aka, "Garbage In, Garbage Out"). Until it gets vastly better, it's better to reduce the carbon-footprint and consign it to a bin somewhere.

As far as the "evangelical lady" is concerned, her head is still in the Biblical world of a thousand years ago. Things have changed quite a bit since then. "Get with the times." Most of all, stop making proclamations to people who don't believe the dogma. She's entitled to her opinion, of course, but when she tries to impose her opinions on others, that's where the line gets crossed. "Your right to wave your arms ends at my nose."

[Faldaguy]

Con men are often very convincing. Cohen is in the midst of possible loss of parole based on AI generated "Cases" in his appeal. Other's have met similar fates. I'd say the very fact it is AI generated makes it unworthy of any merit but perhaps entertainment so long as it is clearly labeled fantasy. Anyone using an AI generated assertion would be automatically dismissed in my book as not only a potential fraud, but certainly as untrustworthy. I don't think citing an AI report, regardless of if we agree with it helps the cause -- to the contrary, I think it opens anyone using 'fake' news to the shame they deserve.

[STEVIE]

I don't think citing an AI report, regardless of if we agree with it helps the cause -- to the contrary, I think it opens anyone using 'fake' news to the shame they deserve.

Strong words Faldaguy.
However, "fake news", in some forms has existed since the dawn of communication, the main difference being the speed and range of promulgation.
Propaganda, confidence trickery and damned lies have a long unsavoury history.
Fortunes made, fortunes and lives lost all because a lie can circle the world before the truth has got its boots on.
All done by human ingenuity for whatever reason and pretty much accepted without a murmur.
I'm sure you are as aware of a few examples as I am.
As I write this, I am wearing the most sumptuous silken clothes, sipping fine wines in my very own castle, or am I in a plain denim skirt, drinking tea in my bedroom in my house.
Obvious, of course, but you cannot know for sure, it could all be complete hogwash, I could be wearing Norman Normal Trousers.
Every assertion of being a man in a skirt that appears in the cafe, could be open to question, now isn't that a shame too?
Sure we have to be wary, but sweeping statements do little for our cause either.
Steve

[SkirtsDad]

Traction for acceptance will have a much better chance if sons are allowed to explore their clothing choices as freely as daughters.
However they are created, articles such as this stimulate thought and hopefully, communication.
An "influence", I'd actually endorse for a change.
Steve.

Couldn't agree more on young people having more freedom. My takeaway from the artilce probably isn't as positive as yours. Whilst most of the information seemed acurate, I didn't feel that it was that well presented. Certainly at the beginning I got a sense that it was intimating that teenagers are weird and you need to support them in that weirdness. I realise that it was about "Teenage son likes to wear a dress", but I felt that it tried to justify this rather than accept it, and didn't highlight that the same can be true at any age.