As a clinician who works with trans identifying teens and young adults I can confirm that eating disorders and body image concerns are present in 100% of my patients. With trans identification the ED recedes into the background but then comes right back up as the individual desists from whatever stage of gender transition s/he is at. Sometimes, disordered eating euphemized as a “healthy lifestyle” is part of the family culture that the kid is saying “FU” to by coming out as trans. If mom can get Botox and liposuction and dad can be on Ozempic and train for two triathlons every year, then why shouldn’t the kid think it’s ok to get hormones and surgeries? Body modification is body modification.
This was exactly the case with our daughter, including the eating disorder coming back as she desisted. She was at first obsessed with the idea of getting a corset to try to make herself look smaller. There is a whole subculture of women doing corset training and making videos on YouTube and she found those. We said absolutely not and her therapist agreed and stood with us on that. A few weeks later she came back with a non-binary identity and saying she needed a binder to feel more comfortable in her body and that was something we could not say no to because otherwise it was trans phobic. And then suddenly that therapist was on board with this
Disordered eating is So difficult. I’ve seen a lot of kids and friends struggle! Even with lots of decent counseling and some rotten coping mechanisms.
I will offer that corsets can be very positive for body image. It’s not all bad. I did a deep dive into the history of fashion circa 1890 - 1920. There’s a lot of you tubers who do historical dress costuming. The Kim Kardashians abuse corsets and plastic surgery and yes there’s a whole world of “waist trainers” that could be harmful. $10 Amazon plastic tubes that are sweaty and demoralizing.
There’s medical corsets for scoliosis and back support. It’s can be the beneficial warm hug that an anxious person finds helpful.
The binders constrict breathing and break ribs. A properly fitted Victorian corset can be freeing like a well fitted bra. Jack Kennedy worse a men’s corset under his suit jackets for his medical condition.
I find it darkly ironic that girls declaring that they're boys are actually engaging in some of the most feminine-coded behavior on earth with their concerns about body image and desire to control others' perceptions thereof. They are hoist on their own petard, as it were, with regard to sex stereotypes.
Perhaps there is a therapeutic intervention that can be constructed along the lines of--hey, you want to be a boy, right? So here's how you do it: move confidently and adventurously through the world without giving a flying fig about appearances or what others think of you; use your body and talents to benefit yourself and give yourself pleasure; walk, move, think and live as if you deserve to be here; develop your strengths into a surplus that can benefit others; rejoice in your ability to climax; rejoice in the fact that you have a functioning set of half the equipment needed to reproduce with a loving partner if that is what you desire. No blockers, no hormones, no surgeries necessary. That's what healthy little boys do.
Thank you all, as always. In the midst of their "gender related breakdown", the NYT today offers an exposé of Planned Parenthood, without mentioning "gender affirming care" at all, a scandal well reported by "friend of the pod" Jennifer Block. All that gender reporting and yet, when it comes to the country's largest provider of cross-sex hormones...not a word?
I read this article and just tweeted on this. They didn't even bother to discuss the fiscal implications regarding their pivot to trans. I am not sure why I continue to be shocked, but I am shocked and how often trans is both reported on and then completely ignored.
Thank you, Lisa, for the mention of Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender (DIAG). Re, how can we get the msm to talk to us: one very easy way to help is for every Informed Dissent listener to go right now to di-ag.org -- that's D I hyphen A G dot org -- and click the Join Us button. Joining is FREE and you can be anonymous. Check out our numbers map of supporters by state. Growing those state numbers is a great way to get the attention of the media, the Dem party, and the education establishment. Remember Horton Hears a Who? There are thousands (millions?) of us Whos out here fighting the good fight from the Left, but the world won't know it unless we all shout it, together: "We are here, we are here!"
A question for Jamie: isn't it considered bad journalism ethics to report on a person, especially in a way that can harm their reputation or on a controversial subject, and not give that person an opportunity to comment?
As for the New York Times article saying that language referring to biological sex, that sex is established at birth and can't be changed, and that there are only two sexes races transgender identities? Don't transgender identities and gender dysphoria rely on an unchanging, binary, and established at birth definition of sex in order to transition to or from or not be identified with or to get medical interventions in order to look like? I'm genuinely not asking this as a snarky sarcastic question. Do activists or people who believe in this have an explanation for that? What is there to resist or feel dysphoric about or rebel against or align with if none of those things exist or can be talked about?
Regarding Jamie Reed saying they won't talk to her, it is that same polarity thing like Biden refusing to talk to Putin. The implication is that the person is so ruthless and horrible that there is not point talking to them. And if they do they would be tainted, infected with badness.
Lisa is like a Waldorf kid with the felting thing. I used to work at Brooklyn Waldorf and they do that there.
I definitely think you should prepare a press packet that lists and describes potential news sources on trans issues. Sure, maybe they are all dug in and it won’t work. But that’s no reason not to try. Make it so they won’t have an excuse.
My other suggestion is that, when you have the opportunity, ask them why they don’t consult other news sources. Ask with genuine curiosity. Use the Socratic method. Learn about them. And then quote them.
Perhaps. But you should always want to talk to all sides. It’s how you learn. The idea that there are certain people you just shouldn’t talk to never made sense to me.
Re: gathering data- Like many narcissists they have a persecution complex.. and such complexes can be made deeper and more severe when everyone “affirms” And goes along with the idea that they are in any danger-all of the “be kind” activists are being incredibly UNkind by giving scaffolding and recognition to the delusional belief of persecution.
In 1979, I graduated from College with a BA in Journalism. The goal was to write as clearly and objectively as possible. Objectivity was a sacred goal. Researching your subject manner so that you didn't go down the primrose path and actually understood the contents of the story you were writing about was fundamental. Also, who, what, when, where and if possible why - were important components of a good article. All of those values have clearly been lost through time, with each decade eroding those values further.
The NYT seems filled with articles that are feature stories with little narcissistic personal stories taking up the first few paragraphs before they even really get to the actual story. Much of what I read from the NYT feels like very subjective, ultimately. So that in the big picture, The New York Times is propaganda. I say this as a pragmatic Democratic concerned about the future of objective writing because without it; the truth gets lost. And the public just waits to see which way the wind is blowing. The truth which once seemed so important is a casualty to sensationalism and ideology and maybe dirty money.
I was in junior high in 1978. Our English teacher taught us how to debate by making us gather all the information provided and con about a subject. It wasn't until "showtime " that you actually knew which side you were on. I miss the days of respecting others viewpoints even if only in public!
They don't want lists because they strongly believe that this is an identity, not a psych condition. They are completely unaware that they can only get safe and proper care if it is tracked properly, like every other condition that requires medical treatment. What we know, and they might suspect in the furthest dept of their subconscious, is that if it were tracked, the treatments would stop due to the physiological damage this care causes.
This gives me so much hope to hear how uncool pronouns are among young people. The first time I overheard younger kids in a very liberal church Sunday School making fun of someone else’s pronouns. Maybe a teacher? was a joyful moment.
I’m not American and I live in the Uk, so I’m in no position to judge, but the New York Times claims the percentage of US high school athletes who are trans is 0.002 per cent - which in numbers would be about 10, wouldn’t it? Then I see an NYT article about New Hampshire high school trans athletes who are lobbying Trump. There seem to be several in the picture. I know ‘facts’ served up by lobby groups are not necessarily facts, but what’s the truth here?
As an old queen survivor of the AIDS era in my 7th decade (decayed), only meaning of trans I use is transition, as in life, the rest has been corrupted, commodotized & used to exploit the young & @ risk, they are dying because of their gender affirming care & feminists' lives threatened #terfisaslur, while idiots go on about trans genocide.
The note I took says “amorphous to protect the desire to get whatever you want” - can’t argue against what you can’t touch or even define.
The one time I attended a lesbian speed-dating event, the vibe was kind of ruined by the fact there was a guy there filming us for the local news, which none of us understood until the event actually started and he was shoving a camera in our faces. Surprise reality show! You know who doesn't want to be unexpectedly filmed for the local news? Most people attending a speed-dating event.
This was at a nerd convention (C2E2 in Chicago) circa 2012, so in retrospect, I’m somewhat surprised it actually managed to be lesbian. They also ran a gay session on the other side of the room at the same time. I can only imagine what an event like that might be like now. 😅
interesting about the link between trans and obese and/or odd looking.... when chastity/chaz bono came out all those years ago that was my first instinct too: that it's easier to be a fat man than a fat woman. plus, imagine having cher as your mom? how to compete with that? chastity was (I'm sorry) fat and ugly but, when given a new name/gender, was celebrated and allowed to eat as much dessert as they wanted with no judgement. I totally understood why they did it.
About the NYT, and the left more generally, it does seem like all of the attempts to move towards a more...materialistic take on the Trans issue have been successfully crushed since inauguration day. I'm sure there are plenty of silent leftists who are secretly relieved that someone did something about a thing they know is a colossal mistake, even if that person is Trump, but they're still largely silently hoping someone else will fix it for them. Has any major news org crossed the aisle since Nov, or are they all in the same place they were last October?
At this point it feels like the next mid terms are the Republicans to loose, which given some of the other things they're doing is entirely possible. If Trump and Musk don't completely fuck things up, and the Dems continue to double, triple, and quadruple down on Gender Ideology, I wonder what the odds are that the Dems could actually loose seats in 2026.
LSDs comments around the 4 minute mark about the NYT saying that terms like "biological reality" and what not being an attack on trans people were hilariously bleak to hear. It's both sad and funny hearing respected institutions debase themselves for such an absurd ideology.
About the lack of a desire to track outcomes among the TRA community. Even if the data came back and showed that post op transgender people were living miserable, lonely lives on the fringes of society, and that they died younger and had a higher than average suicide rate the TRAs wouldn't care, they'd argue that it was still a better outcome than what would've happen had they been denied the treatments. Anything is better than a teenage suicide, which is what they say will happen to children denied GAC. (This line of thought made me think of the assisted suicide bill that the UK gov seems intent on passing with as few safeguards as possible, and it made me wonder, if it goes through, and the UK ends up taking the Canadian path, is that going to make it harder in the long run for the Trans community to weaponize suicide threats? How long after assisted suicide gets normalised as a heroic, selfless, and generally an all round virtuous thing to do will it take for regular old suicide to get the same treatment?)
About LSDs comments starting around the 23 minute mark. The internet shredding the old newspaper and MAGA-zine financial model and replacing it with clickbaity opinion pandering is probably one of the reasons we are were we are, and I don't think we as a society have come close to realising how important the old fourth estate was for our democracies, and that what passes for modern journalism is a very different beast from what we had before.
That lesbian speed dating and comedy show event sounds like a car crash if what LSD said about 80-90% of the lesbians being male is true and it wasn't part of an elaborate gag. I followed the link provided and it seems Bridget Phentasy is involved and from what I remember she's pretty trans skeptical but it's been a while so maybe she changed sides or something. Did the hostess actually try and pair any of the male lesbians off with any female lesbians?
On conservative being the new punk. I think with Transgenderism the left has found an idea crazier than the American rights on-again-off-again love affair with creationism that as far as I know peaked in the 00s. I think the kids who've had to put up with this for the last ten years or so will probably end up pretty hostile too it, the same way I grew to resent having to pray in school or listen to mini sermons from the teachers during our daily school assemblies. I once had an RE teacher single me out for a lecture in tolerance and open mindedness just because I said I was an atheist after he decided to ask every kid in the class what religion we were. He didn't lecture any of the kids who said Christian and none of the kids either before or after me said anything other than Christian. I suspect there's going to be a lot of kids across the west who finish high school with a pretty health contempt for transgenderism because they were forced to participate against their will or singled out for not going along.
On Jamies comment about music not being that important to kids anymore. Based on my experiences with my nephew and niece, plus about 10 more kids in my extended family, plus several of the young people I work with, I would say that music is nowhere near as important as what it was in the 90s and 00s (my own era), and probably what is was in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Video games and smart phones seem to have replaced them. Heck, watching other people play video games on YouTube seems to be more popular than listening to music for a lot of kids. Lot's of them have Spotify or Apple Music (paid for by their parents), but having access to that much music just seems to have left them with no way to really find what they like, whereas in the past you would listen to what was available and then have to carefully select what albums and singles you would buy. Only one of the kids in my extended family could really be said to like music and she's the one who buys CDs from charity shops to listen to on an old Walkman I found in a drawer last year while I was decluttering...
On "weird and unattractive kids identifying as trans". In all honesty I'm not sure how correct that is. I think it gets kids all across the spectrum of attractiveness but for slightly different reasons. It's an off ramp from womanhood for girls who have (often correctly) accessed that they can't live up to contemporary standards of female beauty, but it's also an off ramp for girls who can but don't want to. I'm not even sure how to approach the male motivations, but those motivations aren't unique to unattractive males.
As a clinician who works with trans identifying teens and young adults I can confirm that eating disorders and body image concerns are present in 100% of my patients. With trans identification the ED recedes into the background but then comes right back up as the individual desists from whatever stage of gender transition s/he is at. Sometimes, disordered eating euphemized as a “healthy lifestyle” is part of the family culture that the kid is saying “FU” to by coming out as trans. If mom can get Botox and liposuction and dad can be on Ozempic and train for two triathlons every year, then why shouldn’t the kid think it’s ok to get hormones and surgeries? Body modification is body modification.
This was exactly the case with our daughter, including the eating disorder coming back as she desisted. She was at first obsessed with the idea of getting a corset to try to make herself look smaller. There is a whole subculture of women doing corset training and making videos on YouTube and she found those. We said absolutely not and her therapist agreed and stood with us on that. A few weeks later she came back with a non-binary identity and saying she needed a binder to feel more comfortable in her body and that was something we could not say no to because otherwise it was trans phobic. And then suddenly that therapist was on board with this
Disordered eating is So difficult. I’ve seen a lot of kids and friends struggle! Even with lots of decent counseling and some rotten coping mechanisms.
I will offer that corsets can be very positive for body image. It’s not all bad. I did a deep dive into the history of fashion circa 1890 - 1920. There’s a lot of you tubers who do historical dress costuming. The Kim Kardashians abuse corsets and plastic surgery and yes there’s a whole world of “waist trainers” that could be harmful. $10 Amazon plastic tubes that are sweaty and demoralizing.
There’s medical corsets for scoliosis and back support. It’s can be the beneficial warm hug that an anxious person finds helpful.
The binders constrict breathing and break ribs. A properly fitted Victorian corset can be freeing like a well fitted bra. Jack Kennedy worse a men’s corset under his suit jackets for his medical condition.
I find it darkly ironic that girls declaring that they're boys are actually engaging in some of the most feminine-coded behavior on earth with their concerns about body image and desire to control others' perceptions thereof. They are hoist on their own petard, as it were, with regard to sex stereotypes.
Perhaps there is a therapeutic intervention that can be constructed along the lines of--hey, you want to be a boy, right? So here's how you do it: move confidently and adventurously through the world without giving a flying fig about appearances or what others think of you; use your body and talents to benefit yourself and give yourself pleasure; walk, move, think and live as if you deserve to be here; develop your strengths into a surplus that can benefit others; rejoice in your ability to climax; rejoice in the fact that you have a functioning set of half the equipment needed to reproduce with a loving partner if that is what you desire. No blockers, no hormones, no surgeries necessary. That's what healthy little boys do.
And it's what healthy little girls can do too.
Puberty is natural body modification & saved this bullied queer kid's life.
Thank you for this tremendously valuable information as a clinician who sees this “on the ground.”
Thank you all, as always. In the midst of their "gender related breakdown", the NYT today offers an exposé of Planned Parenthood, without mentioning "gender affirming care" at all, a scandal well reported by "friend of the pod" Jennifer Block. All that gender reporting and yet, when it comes to the country's largest provider of cross-sex hormones...not a word?
I read this article and just tweeted on this. They didn't even bother to discuss the fiscal implications regarding their pivot to trans. I am not sure why I continue to be shocked, but I am shocked and how often trans is both reported on and then completely ignored.
Is there any data about how much money PP lost trying to build their own EMR? I heard this from a former employee…
Thank you, Lisa, for the mention of Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender (DIAG). Re, how can we get the msm to talk to us: one very easy way to help is for every Informed Dissent listener to go right now to di-ag.org -- that's D I hyphen A G dot org -- and click the Join Us button. Joining is FREE and you can be anonymous. Check out our numbers map of supporters by state. Growing those state numbers is a great way to get the attention of the media, the Dem party, and the education establishment. Remember Horton Hears a Who? There are thousands (millions?) of us Whos out here fighting the good fight from the Left, but the world won't know it unless we all shout it, together: "We are here, we are here!"
Second, third, and fourth this. Visible numbers on the Democratic side who care about these things is tremendously important.
A question for Jamie: isn't it considered bad journalism ethics to report on a person, especially in a way that can harm their reputation or on a controversial subject, and not give that person an opportunity to comment?
As for the New York Times article saying that language referring to biological sex, that sex is established at birth and can't be changed, and that there are only two sexes races transgender identities? Don't transgender identities and gender dysphoria rely on an unchanging, binary, and established at birth definition of sex in order to transition to or from or not be identified with or to get medical interventions in order to look like? I'm genuinely not asking this as a snarky sarcastic question. Do activists or people who believe in this have an explanation for that? What is there to resist or feel dysphoric about or rebel against or align with if none of those things exist or can be talked about?
Paradoxes abound! That’s why thought-stopping cliches (“transwomen are women”) are so useful to the movement.
Regarding Jamie Reed saying they won't talk to her, it is that same polarity thing like Biden refusing to talk to Putin. The implication is that the person is so ruthless and horrible that there is not point talking to them. And if they do they would be tainted, infected with badness.
Lisa is like a Waldorf kid with the felting thing. I used to work at Brooklyn Waldorf and they do that there.
I definitely think you should prepare a press packet that lists and describes potential news sources on trans issues. Sure, maybe they are all dug in and it won’t work. But that’s no reason not to try. Make it so they won’t have an excuse.
My other suggestion is that, when you have the opportunity, ask them why they don’t consult other news sources. Ask with genuine curiosity. Use the Socratic method. Learn about them. And then quote them.
I imagine they believe that talking to any dissenters is like talking to a Klan member during the Civil Rights movement.
Perhaps. But you should always want to talk to all sides. It’s how you learn. The idea that there are certain people you just shouldn’t talk to never made sense to me.
Nor to me. But these younger people live in a world where “platforming” dissenting views is “harm.”
They also seem to believe in the hypodermic needle theory of influence: if the audience hears a dissenting views, they might be unduly influenced!
Re: gathering data- Like many narcissists they have a persecution complex.. and such complexes can be made deeper and more severe when everyone “affirms” And goes along with the idea that they are in any danger-all of the “be kind” activists are being incredibly UNkind by giving scaffolding and recognition to the delusional belief of persecution.
No profound comment here, just need to express admiration/appreciation for you all. You bring me smiles and laughter.
I signed up as a paid subscriber because you’re so worth it. <3
thank you :)
In 1979, I graduated from College with a BA in Journalism. The goal was to write as clearly and objectively as possible. Objectivity was a sacred goal. Researching your subject manner so that you didn't go down the primrose path and actually understood the contents of the story you were writing about was fundamental. Also, who, what, when, where and if possible why - were important components of a good article. All of those values have clearly been lost through time, with each decade eroding those values further.
The NYT seems filled with articles that are feature stories with little narcissistic personal stories taking up the first few paragraphs before they even really get to the actual story. Much of what I read from the NYT feels like very subjective, ultimately. So that in the big picture, The New York Times is propaganda. I say this as a pragmatic Democratic concerned about the future of objective writing because without it; the truth gets lost. And the public just waits to see which way the wind is blowing. The truth which once seemed so important is a casualty to sensationalism and ideology and maybe dirty money.
I was in junior high in 1978. Our English teacher taught us how to debate by making us gather all the information provided and con about a subject. It wasn't until "showtime " that you actually knew which side you were on. I miss the days of respecting others viewpoints even if only in public!
They don't want lists because they strongly believe that this is an identity, not a psych condition. They are completely unaware that they can only get safe and proper care if it is tracked properly, like every other condition that requires medical treatment. What we know, and they might suspect in the furthest dept of their subconscious, is that if it were tracked, the treatments would stop due to the physiological damage this care causes.
This gives me so much hope to hear how uncool pronouns are among young people. The first time I overheard younger kids in a very liberal church Sunday School making fun of someone else’s pronouns. Maybe a teacher? was a joyful moment.
I’m not American and I live in the Uk, so I’m in no position to judge, but the New York Times claims the percentage of US high school athletes who are trans is 0.002 per cent - which in numbers would be about 10, wouldn’t it? Then I see an NYT article about New Hampshire high school trans athletes who are lobbying Trump. There seem to be several in the picture. I know ‘facts’ served up by lobby groups are not necessarily facts, but what’s the truth here?
As an old queen survivor of the AIDS era in my 7th decade (decayed), only meaning of trans I use is transition, as in life, the rest has been corrupted, commodotized & used to exploit the young & @ risk, they are dying because of their gender affirming care & feminists' lives threatened #terfisaslur, while idiots go on about trans genocide.
I know this doesn’t directly answer your question but you might want to check out
https://www.hecheated.org/
The note I took says “amorphous to protect the desire to get whatever you want” - can’t argue against what you can’t touch or even define.
The one time I attended a lesbian speed-dating event, the vibe was kind of ruined by the fact there was a guy there filming us for the local news, which none of us understood until the event actually started and he was shoving a camera in our faces. Surprise reality show! You know who doesn't want to be unexpectedly filmed for the local news? Most people attending a speed-dating event.
This was at a nerd convention (C2E2 in Chicago) circa 2012, so in retrospect, I’m somewhat surprised it actually managed to be lesbian. They also ran a gay session on the other side of the room at the same time. I can only imagine what an event like that might be like now. 😅
interesting about the link between trans and obese and/or odd looking.... when chastity/chaz bono came out all those years ago that was my first instinct too: that it's easier to be a fat man than a fat woman. plus, imagine having cher as your mom? how to compete with that? chastity was (I'm sorry) fat and ugly but, when given a new name/gender, was celebrated and allowed to eat as much dessert as they wanted with no judgement. I totally understood why they did it.
About the NYT, and the left more generally, it does seem like all of the attempts to move towards a more...materialistic take on the Trans issue have been successfully crushed since inauguration day. I'm sure there are plenty of silent leftists who are secretly relieved that someone did something about a thing they know is a colossal mistake, even if that person is Trump, but they're still largely silently hoping someone else will fix it for them. Has any major news org crossed the aisle since Nov, or are they all in the same place they were last October?
At this point it feels like the next mid terms are the Republicans to loose, which given some of the other things they're doing is entirely possible. If Trump and Musk don't completely fuck things up, and the Dems continue to double, triple, and quadruple down on Gender Ideology, I wonder what the odds are that the Dems could actually loose seats in 2026.
LSDs comments around the 4 minute mark about the NYT saying that terms like "biological reality" and what not being an attack on trans people were hilariously bleak to hear. It's both sad and funny hearing respected institutions debase themselves for such an absurd ideology.
About the lack of a desire to track outcomes among the TRA community. Even if the data came back and showed that post op transgender people were living miserable, lonely lives on the fringes of society, and that they died younger and had a higher than average suicide rate the TRAs wouldn't care, they'd argue that it was still a better outcome than what would've happen had they been denied the treatments. Anything is better than a teenage suicide, which is what they say will happen to children denied GAC. (This line of thought made me think of the assisted suicide bill that the UK gov seems intent on passing with as few safeguards as possible, and it made me wonder, if it goes through, and the UK ends up taking the Canadian path, is that going to make it harder in the long run for the Trans community to weaponize suicide threats? How long after assisted suicide gets normalised as a heroic, selfless, and generally an all round virtuous thing to do will it take for regular old suicide to get the same treatment?)
About LSDs comments starting around the 23 minute mark. The internet shredding the old newspaper and MAGA-zine financial model and replacing it with clickbaity opinion pandering is probably one of the reasons we are were we are, and I don't think we as a society have come close to realising how important the old fourth estate was for our democracies, and that what passes for modern journalism is a very different beast from what we had before.
That lesbian speed dating and comedy show event sounds like a car crash if what LSD said about 80-90% of the lesbians being male is true and it wasn't part of an elaborate gag. I followed the link provided and it seems Bridget Phentasy is involved and from what I remember she's pretty trans skeptical but it's been a while so maybe she changed sides or something. Did the hostess actually try and pair any of the male lesbians off with any female lesbians?
On conservative being the new punk. I think with Transgenderism the left has found an idea crazier than the American rights on-again-off-again love affair with creationism that as far as I know peaked in the 00s. I think the kids who've had to put up with this for the last ten years or so will probably end up pretty hostile too it, the same way I grew to resent having to pray in school or listen to mini sermons from the teachers during our daily school assemblies. I once had an RE teacher single me out for a lecture in tolerance and open mindedness just because I said I was an atheist after he decided to ask every kid in the class what religion we were. He didn't lecture any of the kids who said Christian and none of the kids either before or after me said anything other than Christian. I suspect there's going to be a lot of kids across the west who finish high school with a pretty health contempt for transgenderism because they were forced to participate against their will or singled out for not going along.
On Jamies comment about music not being that important to kids anymore. Based on my experiences with my nephew and niece, plus about 10 more kids in my extended family, plus several of the young people I work with, I would say that music is nowhere near as important as what it was in the 90s and 00s (my own era), and probably what is was in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Video games and smart phones seem to have replaced them. Heck, watching other people play video games on YouTube seems to be more popular than listening to music for a lot of kids. Lot's of them have Spotify or Apple Music (paid for by their parents), but having access to that much music just seems to have left them with no way to really find what they like, whereas in the past you would listen to what was available and then have to carefully select what albums and singles you would buy. Only one of the kids in my extended family could really be said to like music and she's the one who buys CDs from charity shops to listen to on an old Walkman I found in a drawer last year while I was decluttering...
On "weird and unattractive kids identifying as trans". In all honesty I'm not sure how correct that is. I think it gets kids all across the spectrum of attractiveness but for slightly different reasons. It's an off ramp from womanhood for girls who have (often correctly) accessed that they can't live up to contemporary standards of female beauty, but it's also an off ramp for girls who can but don't want to. I'm not even sure how to approach the male motivations, but those motivations aren't unique to unattractive males.
Media studies has been dismantling journalistic objectivity since the 1970s. We were trained to assume all news coverage was in service to hegemony.
Sigh.