this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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People didn't talk about wanting a sex change, but loads of us hated our bodies and wanted to wake up in different ones. Given the option and institutional support and reassurance that transitioning would help us, many of us probably would have been convinced to do so
This is actually one of my primary concerns regarding transgenderism in the modern day. I think it's a tool in the toolbelt for when it's necessary. I also think it's a tool we reach for much more often than is necessary.
The comparable example I like to give is adhd. It isn't binary. You don't just have it or don't have it. Some people have symptoms that need no intervention. Some people have symptoms but are misdiagnosed as adhd. Other people get by with therapy alone. Yet others find medication necessary to be functional.
Giving gender affirming care to all people with gender or body dysphoria is like giving high dose Adderall to all people who have trouble paying attention in history class. It's the nuclear option, and you're using it on someone who may not even have adhd, or may not require such a strong intervention.
I know everyone hates this word, but starting with more conservative treatments first is the norm throughout healthcare for exactly this reason. We've made an exception for transgender people for political reasons, not scientific ones.
You already have to go through tons of therapy and other conservative treatments before you get a sex change operation. That exists TODAY. Same with abortion.
No one can get it on a whim. Doctors require requisites to make sure it's right for you, and it should stay up to the doctors' discretion.
It's nonsense saying it's overused as if doctors and the patient don't know what they're about to go through.
I'm not the guy you responded to, but I have a similar concern...not with institutional gender affirming care, I don't know enough about that to comment on it. My concern is with the social aspect, especially with kids. There's no such thing as a feminine man anymore; now if you're anything less than hypermasculine there's pressure to announce yourself as trans. It's silly, and it's a fad, and I hope (and assume) our medical/therapy professionals are willing and able to see past it.
Wow, not my experience at all.
Today's younger generation is way more accepting of differences than any previous generation I've seen, and I'm Gen X.
Today's teenagers have friends who are gay, straight, trans, questioning, masculine, feminine, asexual, etc. and they're totally cool with it. They're like, you be you.
Gives me hope for the future.
There's, like, 2 billion kids in the world, so I'm sure it depends on which kids you know. I'm not plugged into the broader cultural scene for kids nowadays, and I don't have any of my own, so this is all from anecdoes from my nieces/nephews/friends' kids/random teenagers on reddit
All of which to say, what I've heard about the peer pressure may not be the norm. I hope it's not.
In other words, you didn't actually do any real research—you made a bunch of assumptions based on what someone you know said and some propaganda you heard floating around. And it is very clear that is the case.
If you have not investigated the matter then you should not speak because whatever you have to say of it will be nothing more than babble. Maybe let us transgender folk speak to our experience. There's plenty of feminine men out there. There's a whole aesthetics for that particular flavor of queer, most most famously femboy. There are also demi-sexualities where someone not quite one or the other such as demiboys.
Maybe sit down and take the time to learn about things instead of having a knee-jerk opinion on the matter. There's a lot to parse and if you think it is too much, that's on you. For us, we know what we are and most of us have known for most of our lives. I didn't transition until I was 35, but I knew what I was when I 4 or 5. I just didn't have any way of expressing it and understood if I did I would be either in trouble or in danger. Contrary to popular opinion, children can and do pick up on those subtexts. No one transitions out of peer pressure—if anything the pressure is on us to not transition. That's true regardless of age and the fact you don't understand this shows you haven't done any research.