Gender Dysphoria E-Book

Catherine Dumont

• Herausgeber: BookThug
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 39

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

The term "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria" was proposed by Dr. Lisa Littman in 2018. Her research revealed two important facts: on the one hand, several young women from Rhode Island had declared that they were trans after spending weeks researching on the Internet. On the other hand, the prevalence of trans among groups of friends increased 70 times in relation to the expected rates. The information gathered allowed her to speak of "peer contagion". Dr. Littman claimed that gender dysphoria was what anorexia had been in earlier years: not so much a medical condition, but a cultural response to the difficulties of puberty. Of course, Littman was completely discredited, but the debate continues as several cases have required a difficult and distressing de-transition. On the following pages, the opinions for and against what is happening with the new sexualities, the inclusion of those contents in the educational system and other aspects related to gender diversity.

Leseprobe

Politically Correct or Cancellation

The Western world seems to be guided by jerky cycles. One moment something is annulled, persecuted and fought, then it is timidly accepted, and later it is fully incorporated to the system, and then new groups or ideas are attacked. There are thousands of examples in history: from hippies to cannabis, from miniskirts to rock and roll.

In recent decades we have experienced the advance of “political correctness”, a current that has become so hegemonic that sometimes it stands on the limit of what it fights: inclusion, being open, accepting and respecting, often derives in new forms of intolerance. The discourse of acceptance is intolerant of all other discourse, which results in an obvious paradox. If there is a place where the narrative of political correctness has managed to position itself, it is the place of moral superiority, of what is “right” for humanity. Politics, culture and economics have surrendered to this narrative. Everything that deviates from its canons must be fought as wrong and unacceptable. For example: humor. You can no longer make jokes with dozens of topics because someone might feel offended. So: let’s cancel the comedian, take the microphone off him, take him off the air, exclude him from events and networks. For the culture of inclusion to succeed, an apparatus of exclusion must necessarily function. Today, this procedure can be summed up in the culture of cancellation.

In times when greys don’t exist, societies play all or nothing: either you support a cause, or you are its enemy. And there is no room for doubt, for questioning, or even for expressing out loud some sense of disagreement. Anything other than the total and blind support of a cause stands against the cause. It is not even considered that an idea, speech or position could be enriched from its questioning. Narratives are closed and only embrace supporters.

Talking about the gender issue in these terms could be unfriendly and will surely be the target of criticism: in the world of black and white, to analyze and even question the ways in which an ideology or narrative circulates, the ways in which the different areas incorporate it (education, politics, health), is to be a fascist, is to feed trans-hatred, and so on.

This is a sensitive issue since for many people it has been a genuine and hard struggle against prejudice, attacks and invisibilization. What is not considered is that the full and unconditional incorporation of queer theory into the system could end up going against, for example, the ideals and conquests of feminism, a movement from which it emerged. Is this a new phenomenon, which cannot be explained with the previous parameters and language? Is it a modern response to the discomfort of stereotypes, of having to fit into imposed roles? Is it part of a “trend”? However, the disputes about the topic are many, and they will be analyzed in the pages that follow.

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The Boom of New Sexualities

Since the 2000s, and in parallel with the hegemonic advance of political correctness, we have witnessed a “boom” of “new sexualities”. It is that the “queer” collective has expanded and diversified, and there are more and more types of sexualities. But it is not just about accepting and respecting, about people doing whatever they want with their body and their privacy, because the gender diversity narrative has made its way into education, politics, culture and entertainment.

Trans-sexual, gender fluid, non-binary, homosexual, queer, lesbian, bigender, bisexual, asexual, hetero-cis, cross-dresser, hetero-flexible, homo-flexible, intersex, pansexual, pangender. The classification of possible gender identities expands and becomes more complex over time.

From kindergarten, in the most “liberal” countries and cities (for example in United States, Spain or Argentina), children are told that they may be dissatisfied with their gender, and the “gender change day” is imposed: children must dress, behave, etc., as if they were of the other gender. In elementary and high schools, each young person can choose to be called by the pronoun they have chosen, the name can even be changed, and this can happen without the parents knowing. “Gender dysphoria” figures have skyrocketed in recent years, and studies show that there is a sort of “contagion” among young women who make their transition (whether social, hormonal or surgical). Sexual orientation clinics in the United States, when a young person comes in claiming gender dysphoria, usually prescribe hormones in the first visit: without a reference from a psychologist, for example.