Alternative Considerations in Gender Dysphoria and Transgenderism
Transgenderism is increasing in the Western
world, especially in the United States.
According to a 2018 study, there has been a nearly
4,000% increase in cases of transgender related treatments between 2000 and
2014 (Canner, Harfouch, and Kodadek et al). This is concerning, because transitioning a
person’s gender usually does not resolve their mental health issues, and this
is true even after controlling for social stigma and discrimination. It’s also had a significantly negative impact
on society. This paper will examine
possible causes of transgenderism, and why it is more harmful and misguided
than helpful.
While it is often confused with
being an illness, transgenderism itself is supposed to be a form of “treatment”
for a condition called “gender dysphoria,” which is the illness. According to the DSM-5, a person only needs
to meet two out of six criteria to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, all of
which can be summarized as some aspect of wanting to live and be treated as the
opposite gender. These feelings could
very well caused by any number of traumatic events, such as childhood neglect
or abuse, which could be corrected through simple counseling, and should not
cause a mental health practitioner to immediately jump to the recommendation of
transitioning the person’s gender.
Unfortunately, in places like the State of Oregon, if a patient presents
such symptoms to a therapist, the law requires that the therapist encourage
transitioning, and forbids therapeutic goals that do not involve transitioning
(Oregon Statute 675.850, 2017.)
To better understand part
of what makes a person confused about their gender, it’s best to first examine
what gender is; in particular, what is “masculinity” and “femininity?”
Masculinity
is a set of concepts and traits connected with being male that are biologically derived.
Such traits are (but not limited to) confidence, ambition, aggression,
dominance, and objective oriented thinking. These are all traits you want
to have in a firefighter, a police officer, a soldier, a scientist, and
numerous other occupations. Used improperly, these are also the traits you’ll
find in drug dealers, thieves, murderers, and other criminals. Femininity, on the other hand, is
associated with traits like acceptance, supportiveness, agreeableness, empathy,
compassion, emotionally centered thinking (as opposed to objectively centered),
and friendliness, which are again biologically derived.
Leftist ideologues will put
forward that these characteristics are all “socially conditioned,” but that’s
simply not the case; it ignores millions of years of evolution, as well as volumes
of documented medical facts. For
example, personality traits between prepubescent boys and girls are quite
similar, but upon reaching puberty, the personality traits begin to markedly
diverge, and this happens both cross-culturally and cross-historically. This would not be the case if it were a
simple matter of social conditioning, because then we would not see such a
consistent divergence at exactly when puberty begins, and have it remain that
way for life. But that’s only one
example; a wide variety of biological differences between men and women’s
brains have been documented (Bruce Goldman, 2017). The Female Brain, a book written by Louann
Brizendine in 2006, also meticulously documents differences in brain
development between men and women, and how these differences are connected to
our evolutionary history. The “social
conditioning” theory is completely dead, is without merit, and has been for
decades.
Where then, does the idea of
being able to transition genders come from?
Note the list of behaviors from earlier associated with being male. One might ask, if a woman does these things,
isn’t she then acting “masculine?” Also,
people taken on various conceptual identities all the time: Republican,
Democrat, American, British, Christian, Muslim, etc. If these identities are mostly conceptual,
and a person becomes them when their personal experience informs them
accordingly, then why shouldn’t a person identify as a man or woman the same
way? There are a few answers. First, none of those other identities are
backed by biological and medical reality; some are entirely conceptual in
nature. Second, those identities aren’t
associated with a suicide rate that is nine times higher than the national
average, even after correcting for social stigma (Dhejne, 2011). Moreover, the rate of depression for transgender
individuals is 62%, while it’s only 16.6% for the general population (Hoffmand,
2014). If being Christian increased your
chances of suicide by 9 times, we’d have it banned. Third, transgenderism is most often arrived
at by total ignorance of what gender roles are, a lack of strong gender role
models, and is often associated with some type of extreme degree of abuse that
isn’t addressed or resolved by transitioning.
So it is not merely the case that transgenderism is only about
identifying as the other gender, and therefore is totally harmless and should
always be allowed.
Why then, does a person want to
change their gender in the first place? What
happens to a man that makes him want to become a woman? Ironically, it’s here that the social
conditioning aspect comes into play.
Men are bombarded from
childhood with a never ending onslaught of extremely negative messages about their
masculinity. They’ve been told they
think of sex every seven seconds, even though this is clearly not the case: see
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/men-think-about-sex-every-7-seconds-what-study-says/. They’ve been told if they have any sexual
thoughts or feelings about a woman, that they’re “objectifying” them: see http://www.apa.org/education/ce/sexual-objectification.pdf. They’ve been told that masculinity, itself,
is “toxic.” See https://www.apa.org/about/policy/boys-men-practice-guidelines.pdf
. In popular media, being a man means
being stupid, bumbling, or generally incapable, often as the butt of a running
joke: see https://www.huffpost.com/entry/retire-the-bumbling-husband_b_5602054. Even common everyday behaviors are being
criminalized; when a man sits with his legs slightly too far apart, he’s
accused of “man-spreading.” If a man
disagrees with a woman and engages in rational debate, he’s accused of
“man’splaining.” Even in Capella University’s
ethics course, a man is considered “ethically inconsistent” if he dares to show
any preference in when he sees the nearly-naked body of a woman (just imagine
calling a woman out for having such preferences, and the howling from feminists
that would go on for days). In fact,
simply type “white male” into google’s search bar, and marvel at page after
page of results that come up, blaming men for absolutely everything. Could one imagine that this is perhaps why
the male suicide rate is three times higher than it is for women?
Now imagine internalizing all
of these messages that have been funneled into popular media for decades. Combine this with the rise in single
mothers, where a boy does not have a strong male role model at home, has only
women teachers throughout grade school, and does not even see strong role
models on TV thanks to the prevalence of the “bumbling dad” trope. This makes for a grown man who genuinely
knows nothing about masculinity, what it is, how it works, where it comes from,
or how to properly express it. The only
thing he does understand is “masculinity is bad.” Is it any wonder we’re seeing the rise of so
many effeminate men? Masculinity is
something men either do not understand, or are trying their best to get away
from. And that’s one reason why we’re
seeing such a substantial rise in transgenderism in such a short time. Put on a dress, call yourself trans, and
suddenly you’re not this absolutely horrible thing called “a man” anymore. In fact, you’re special!
And just how special are
you? According to the now infamous Brown
University study by Lisa Littman in 2019, 60.7% of
pre-college aged children who came out as trans reported being more popular at
school among their friends. In that same
study, 60% of children who came out as trans belonged to a friend group that
openly mocked non-trans and non-LGBT individuals. From the study: “They are constantly
putting down straight, white people, for being privileged, dumb and boring.” Another participant elaborated, “In
general, cis-gendered people are considered evil and unsupportive, regardless
of their actual views on the topic. To
be heterosexual, comfortable with the gender you were assigned at birth, and
non-minority places you in the ‘most evil’ of categories.” Later, this same study describes how coming
out as transgender makes you “untouchable” in terms of bullying, because
teachers are now “at all pains to be hot on the heels of any trans
bullying.” The study also strongly
suggest that coming out as trans, due in part to all the factors mentioned, is
a kind of “social contagion,” where a person says they’re transgender because
it’s popular, encouraged, and as discussed earlier, gets a person further away
from being masculine. This clashes
heavily with the figures about transgender depression cited earlier. If being trans makes you more popular and
protects you from bullying, then the depression that effects more than half of
all trans people is absolutely not being caused by social stigma. It’s being caused by the act of transitioning
itself, and trying to be something you’re not, for all the wrong reasons.
And what happens when a person
finally does understand what it means to associate and relate with their birth
gender? There is one case study of
Athena Brown, prominent male-to-female transgender activist in Portland Oregon,
who, after conducting her own research on the matter, de-transitioned and went
back to being male. This was after being
medically diagnosed with gender dysphoria, receiving her medical paperwork,
legally changing her name, and living as a woman for 3 and a half years. Being informed on what masculinity is, what
it is not, and working through personal issues stemming from internalizing a
vast amount of negative social messages about being masculine, helped Athena
transition back to his birth gender. And
he’s not the only one. A documentary
released by Russia Today covered more examples of transgender regret, and
de-transitioning: see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pxxBQm114k. It’s more common than people are aware
of. Simply typing “detransitioning” into
youtube search brings up page after page of examples of individuals explaining
their de-transition stories, and interestingly, they often include all the
privilege they experienced while trans, and all the stigma and discrimination
they faced from the LGBT community upon detransitioning (which, aside from
debunking the myth that trans people do not have privilege, flies in the face
of the claim that this is only about being your true authentic self). Many of these individuals are now stuck with
life-long alterations to their mind and body that cannot be reversed, including
permanent sexual dysfunction. But even
more of such people commit suicide somewhere in the midst of all this, because
transitioning genders is not a successful treatment. It should only be reserved for individuals
where all other avenues have been explored and have failed.
Some people really are “born
into the wrong body,” or have intersex conditions. These people may, after lengthy exploration
of all the options, benefit from transitioning genders. That’s not in dispute. The problem is how our society is actively
encouraging anyone who even thinks they might have gender dysphoria to undergo
life-altering treatments that have been shown to be overall more harmful than
helpful. This needs to be stopped, and
other, more traditional therapies, should always be explored first.
ALTERNATIVE CONSIDERATIONS WHEN TREATING TRANSGENDERISM
References
Brizendine, L. (2016). The female brain.
This reference was used only to prove the point that the differences between the male and
female brain are extremely well documented. The entire book does a good job of this, so
no particular pages were needed, and the point stands.
Canner, Harfouch, and Kodadek et al. (2018). Temporal trends in gender-affirming surgery
among transgender patients in the United States. US National Library of Medicine,
National Institutes of Health.
CBS News. (2011). “Men think about sex every 7 seconds? What study says”. Retrieved from:
Dhejne, C. (2011). Long-term follow-up of transsexual persons undergoing sex reassignment
surgery: cohort study in Sweden. US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of
Health.
Goldman, B. (2017). Two minds: the cognitive differences between men and women.
Stamford Medicine, Sex, Gender, and Medicine.
Hoffmand, B. (2014). An overview of depression among transgender women. US National
Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.
Huffpost. (2014). “Retire the bumbling husband: he isn’t helping”. Retrieved from
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/retire-the-bumbling-husband_b_5602054
Littman, L. (2018). Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs
of
a rapid onset of gender dysphoria. Plos One. Par 44, 45, 48,
Oregon Statute 675.850. (2017). “Prohibition on Practice of Conversion Therapy; Definitions;
Discipline.” Retrieved from https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/675.850
Rabinowitz, F. Englar-Carlson, M. McDermott, R. (2018). APA guidelines for psychological
practice with boys and men. Retrieved from
It is difficult to cite a page number for this source, as nearly every single paragraph is
chock-full of far-left ideological nonsense that is completely devoid of any scientific
validity, and is meant purely to reinforce cultural-Marxist dogma. Though reading pages
two through nine should be sufficient to demonstrate the claims in this document, and how
they attempt to claim that masculinity is “toxic”.
Russia Today. (2018) “I Want My Sex Back: Transgender people who regretted changing sex
(RT Documentary).” Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pxxBQm114k.
Szymanski, D. Moffitt, L. Carr, E. (2011). Sexual Objectification of Women: Advances to Theory
and Research. American Psychological Association. Retrieved from:
https://www.apa.org/education/ce/sexual-objectification.pdf.
This reference was also used
only to prove that the concept of “sexual objectification”,
is treated seriously by the media and the psychiatric industry. The paper did not explore
that this concept is nonsensical and immediately refutable on its own merits with little
need for additional research.
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