Thanks for your thoughts, Stella. I’m not sure when ideations of body dysphoria become pathological, given its pervasiveness in all of us (example, being ‘too fat,’ or whatever else). Add to that the ‘quick solutions’ modern medicine offers (plastic surgery! Ozempic! ‘yeet the teets’, etc). Granted the idea that one can change sex is getting pretty far out there. Evidently, for some (many?) there’s recognition sex change is not possible, that they’re just going for passing as the other sex or some such.
Definitely need to change aspects of our culture (beauty standards, etc). I think your work writing about this stuff is a valuable contribution, so thanks again.
I appreciate how you took the time to really understand this issue from as many angles as possible before coming in strong with your insights and stances on it. The effort you put into the long analytical process set up a firm foundation to support your conclusions. Your compassion is informed by experience, knowledge, and understanding. (And I think that is why it actually helps people.)
We need more professionals to exercise the same discipline (and courage) on this issue.
I found this to be a good question, and I could apply it to one event that was spoken about in a WhatsApp Group recently; whereby, a street party might not go ahead and it seemed the deliverer of this news was greeted with total outrage and the end of the world is near.
What evidence is there of the benefits of such a Street party going ahead, compared to the disruption to the lives of the many people and animals who live nearby when the noise is above normal levels and the influx of the many Party Attendees in the local area!!
👏🏻🤯👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 ‘WHAT ARE WE TREATING? WHAT SUSTAINS IT?’
Stella, once again, you are unlocking doors that many of us do not have the expertise to discover on our own.
I feel like my brain is slow to pull it together so I’m typing as something clicks into place—-
Yes, kids and young adults experience as a normal part of life distress about many, many things like adolescence, puberty, unwanted attention, abuse, feelings of not fitting in, searching for purpose, sexuality, climate change (!), societal screams of male toxicity, societal disrespect and sexualization of females, childhoods controlled by technology, etc., etc.
Then, these young people learn, through a billion subtle messages from the totality of society, that the root of their distress stems from the fact that ACTUALLY they were born in the wrong body and that the only fix is to take drugs and cut off their healthy body parts. Anything less would be a crime against humanity.
So, the ‘TQ allys’ who are trying to either treat or dictate the treatments (affirm only), are in fact, treating the DEMANDS made by the kids, as well as real distress, which has been CAUSED by this very societal indoctrination.
Teacher activists, Presidents, Prime Ministers, librarians, medical people, non profits, social media influencers and political parties are the ones indoctrinating AND SUSTAINING this overvalued belief. And THEN, the medical profession, with the help of the drug companies, lawmakers and funding by insurance companies, set out to treat the very distress that they, THEMSELVES INTENTIONALLY CREATED!?!????!
So, are they treating the symptoms of their own socially self engineered crisis?
Perhaps, we need to keep our kids away from teachers, therapists, Netflix, books (except Harry Potter, of course) and social media. Kidding/Not kidding. 🙃🫡😩😩😩 I know, I know thats putting the child in bubble wrap and isn’t the answer. We need to understand, counter and suffocate the self destructive ideas.
Thank you for this.
P.S. victimhood/oppressor/oppressed and social justice narratives also sustain this b/c, you know, ‘street cred’ and hierarchy of oppression…my poor little white daughter with beautiful red hair, a full lunch box for school and two parents who love her. She was an oppressor until she could become oppressed…
It’s a yes or no isn’t it? Just because you can does it mean you should? And it’s so difficult to address because it has become that is just that, an ideation, something that is adopted by one’s own free will. Completely bypassing the marker that your body worked just fine before intervention and now it doesn’t.
Hi Stella, I am very much impressed with your work but this and the previous posts somewhat lost me.
The problem keeps going because of number of factors: social contagion, particularly at a time of most vulnerability for children, money, politicization by those who refuse reality of human biology. Why not start by teaching human anatomy and physiology starting middle school, while explaining the damage the cross sex hormones may bring to the system, which cannot be evident for years? Not to mention body destroying surgeries.
Also explaining that humans, as all mammals, have only 2 types of sex cells, gametes. Males produce small gametes - sperm, and females produce large gametes - eggs. No amount of hormones or surgeries can change this. Because in human development, there is a chance of anomaly in every organ, for example, there are babies who are born with a hole in their heart, there are sometimes anomalies, 0.18% of babies are born intersex. This has nothing to do with transgender.
I am including here a link to a conversation by evolutional biologists. If it will start with an ad, please wait until you can skip the ad.
I don’t think it’s the lack of knowledge of biology. Many of the ROGD kids are bright and have gone through biology and sex education before the TQ was taught in schools. The issue is that the cult side of T is grooming kids online, algorithms keep showing T content indoctrinating them into T. They are vulnerable because of feeling they don’t fit in and this solves their issue. Falsely, believe they have the brain of the opposite sex. The root of their distress varies. Sexologists, psychologists, surgeons, endocrinologists all play a part in going along with or promoting the delusion. Bob Ostertag wrote Sex, Science, Self that is very good detailing the history of sexologists trying to understand the effect of hormones on sex and more specifically, gays in the effort of finding a medicinal cure for being gay.
Hi I know thereare only 2 sexes and i know that there are 0.018% people with DSDs. I'm not sure what else I need to know here. I'm very aware of the impact of social contagion. Social contagion is also very impactful with anorexia and suicidal ideation
I am not trying to say that you don’t know. Not at all. I’ve been supporting your work, donating as well, I am trying to say that maybe adding a word ideation is helpful to professionals as an additional approach, but to change the societal psychology requires understanding of fundamentals of biology more than anything, which seem like escapes many. People to whom the word ideation is new and/or irrelevant mill miss it anyway, but the fundamentals of human biology are concrete and demonstrable. But then I am not a professional psychologist. and one more - we don’t politicize anorexia. Why this?
The vast majority of detransitioners and trans identified people I know are fully aware of biology. It’s only trans zealots and online extremists that seem to be denying biology.
My brain went into overdrive, went into Mental gymnastics, on hearing, "I am gender fluid." from a biological female, who has had a mastectomy and had previously declared she was Non-Binary' [within the last two or more years] and dresses decidedly 'like a man'.
I quickly heard my inner voice saying: what the hell does that mean anyway?
Thank you for explaining things so clearly and reassuring us that our minds are still working okay!”
All the best to you !
Psychological clarity that grounds the therapeutic process.
Your framing answers the questions: Where do we begin? How do we engage in and maintain sound, psychological, therapeutic work in the therapy room?
Absolutely necessary and endlessly helpful.
Thanks for your thoughts, Stella. I’m not sure when ideations of body dysphoria become pathological, given its pervasiveness in all of us (example, being ‘too fat,’ or whatever else). Add to that the ‘quick solutions’ modern medicine offers (plastic surgery! Ozempic! ‘yeet the teets’, etc). Granted the idea that one can change sex is getting pretty far out there. Evidently, for some (many?) there’s recognition sex change is not possible, that they’re just going for passing as the other sex or some such.
Definitely need to change aspects of our culture (beauty standards, etc). I think your work writing about this stuff is a valuable contribution, so thanks again.
Thanks, very good points!
Dear Stella, thank you so much for your work.
I appreciate how you took the time to really understand this issue from as many angles as possible before coming in strong with your insights and stances on it. The effort you put into the long analytical process set up a firm foundation to support your conclusions. Your compassion is informed by experience, knowledge, and understanding. (And I think that is why it actually helps people.)
We need more professionals to exercise the same discipline (and courage) on this issue.
Thank you so much for this, it's really appreciated!!
This is excellent. Thanks so much for writing it
Thank you 🙏
Stella, please check your DMs when you get a chance 🙏
Evidence for What?
I found this to be a good question, and I could apply it to one event that was spoken about in a WhatsApp Group recently; whereby, a street party might not go ahead and it seemed the deliverer of this news was greeted with total outrage and the end of the world is near.
What evidence is there of the benefits of such a Street party going ahead, compared to the disruption to the lives of the many people and animals who live nearby when the noise is above normal levels and the influx of the many Party Attendees in the local area!!
"it is our Right' the person muttered.
Evidence please.
👏🏻🤯👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 ‘WHAT ARE WE TREATING? WHAT SUSTAINS IT?’
Stella, once again, you are unlocking doors that many of us do not have the expertise to discover on our own.
I feel like my brain is slow to pull it together so I’m typing as something clicks into place—-
Yes, kids and young adults experience as a normal part of life distress about many, many things like adolescence, puberty, unwanted attention, abuse, feelings of not fitting in, searching for purpose, sexuality, climate change (!), societal screams of male toxicity, societal disrespect and sexualization of females, childhoods controlled by technology, etc., etc.
Then, these young people learn, through a billion subtle messages from the totality of society, that the root of their distress stems from the fact that ACTUALLY they were born in the wrong body and that the only fix is to take drugs and cut off their healthy body parts. Anything less would be a crime against humanity.
So, the ‘TQ allys’ who are trying to either treat or dictate the treatments (affirm only), are in fact, treating the DEMANDS made by the kids, as well as real distress, which has been CAUSED by this very societal indoctrination.
Teacher activists, Presidents, Prime Ministers, librarians, medical people, non profits, social media influencers and political parties are the ones indoctrinating AND SUSTAINING this overvalued belief. And THEN, the medical profession, with the help of the drug companies, lawmakers and funding by insurance companies, set out to treat the very distress that they, THEMSELVES INTENTIONALLY CREATED!?!????!
So, are they treating the symptoms of their own socially self engineered crisis?
Perhaps, we need to keep our kids away from teachers, therapists, Netflix, books (except Harry Potter, of course) and social media. Kidding/Not kidding. 🙃🫡😩😩😩 I know, I know thats putting the child in bubble wrap and isn’t the answer. We need to understand, counter and suffocate the self destructive ideas.
Thank you for this.
P.S. victimhood/oppressor/oppressed and social justice narratives also sustain this b/c, you know, ‘street cred’ and hierarchy of oppression…my poor little white daughter with beautiful red hair, a full lunch box for school and two parents who love her. She was an oppressor until she could become oppressed…
Thank you!!!
It’s a yes or no isn’t it? Just because you can does it mean you should? And it’s so difficult to address because it has become that is just that, an ideation, something that is adopted by one’s own free will. Completely bypassing the marker that your body worked just fine before intervention and now it doesn’t.
Hi Stella, I am very much impressed with your work but this and the previous posts somewhat lost me.
The problem keeps going because of number of factors: social contagion, particularly at a time of most vulnerability for children, money, politicization by those who refuse reality of human biology. Why not start by teaching human anatomy and physiology starting middle school, while explaining the damage the cross sex hormones may bring to the system, which cannot be evident for years? Not to mention body destroying surgeries.
Also explaining that humans, as all mammals, have only 2 types of sex cells, gametes. Males produce small gametes - sperm, and females produce large gametes - eggs. No amount of hormones or surgeries can change this. Because in human development, there is a chance of anomaly in every organ, for example, there are babies who are born with a hole in their heart, there are sometimes anomalies, 0.18% of babies are born intersex. This has nothing to do with transgender.
I am including here a link to a conversation by evolutional biologists. If it will start with an ad, please wait until you can skip the ad.
https://youtu.be/0vvd6hgdZ7M?is=fq6-7o_CJ_W2WJe8
I don’t think it’s the lack of knowledge of biology. Many of the ROGD kids are bright and have gone through biology and sex education before the TQ was taught in schools. The issue is that the cult side of T is grooming kids online, algorithms keep showing T content indoctrinating them into T. They are vulnerable because of feeling they don’t fit in and this solves their issue. Falsely, believe they have the brain of the opposite sex. The root of their distress varies. Sexologists, psychologists, surgeons, endocrinologists all play a part in going along with or promoting the delusion. Bob Ostertag wrote Sex, Science, Self that is very good detailing the history of sexologists trying to understand the effect of hormones on sex and more specifically, gays in the effort of finding a medicinal cure for being gay.
One more link.
https://hxstem.substack.com/p/how-many-sexes-are-there-two?r=54c3g&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Hi I know thereare only 2 sexes and i know that there are 0.018% people with DSDs. I'm not sure what else I need to know here. I'm very aware of the impact of social contagion. Social contagion is also very impactful with anorexia and suicidal ideation
I am not trying to say that you don’t know. Not at all. I’ve been supporting your work, donating as well, I am trying to say that maybe adding a word ideation is helpful to professionals as an additional approach, but to change the societal psychology requires understanding of fundamentals of biology more than anything, which seem like escapes many. People to whom the word ideation is new and/or irrelevant mill miss it anyway, but the fundamentals of human biology are concrete and demonstrable. But then I am not a professional psychologist. and one more - we don’t politicize anorexia. Why this?
The vast majority of detransitioners and trans identified people I know are fully aware of biology. It’s only trans zealots and online extremists that seem to be denying biology.
My brain went into overdrive, went into Mental gymnastics, on hearing, "I am gender fluid." from a biological female, who has had a mastectomy and had previously declared she was Non-Binary' [within the last two or more years] and dresses decidedly 'like a man'.
I quickly heard my inner voice saying: what the hell does that mean anyway?