I’m confident that Therapist Stephanie Winn captures something which is at the root of Gender Ideology and its current affirming practices: shame of our created bodies.
[And, I might add, a desire of those pushing this ideology for humans to be their own creators.]
“….it’s the idea that the body is wrong and the mind is fine. That seems like an interesting way of defending against shame. If you look at the facts that so many of the vulnerable young people who are presenting with gender dysphoria are autistic. Many of them have trauma history. They’ve been bullied they’ve been abandoned.
We know these kids are over represented in Foster Care and Adoption, right? So often times there’s a deep attachment wounds, deep issues with having a loving stable connection with one’s family. So the natural responses to that is shame and inadequacy, right? And that shame can be so painful and so overwhelming. It really takes a lot of maturity to learn how to integrate our shame and tolerate it.
So this idea that there is nothing wrong with me, my identity, my mind, my psyche, it’s my BODY THAT’S WRONG. That’s why I’m different. It’s a really convenient explanation for defending against the shame of…the ones who’ve been bullied because they are autistic…they don’t understand how to process that. They don’t know why they’ve been moved and made fun of but they sure feel badly about themselves. So there’s already enough shame there. So it’s very tempting to have something that says: ‘oh, this why I’m different, this is why I’ve been made fun of, then I don’t have to feel that shame.’
The idea of therapy though, proper exploratory therapy, our watchful waiting, feels intrusive because if you’re walking around with this intolerable level of unprocessed shame that ‘there’s something fundamentally wrong with me, there’s something corrupt about me that people just don’t like and I don’t know what it is and I don’t know how to control this.’
Full Interview. [Standard link disclaimer1Links from this blog to online resources don’t necessarily mean I support everything found there. But as adults we should embrace viewpoint diversity. And make alliances where we can.]
These confused kids seek healing. They don’t need the easy answer that “something is wrong with your body. So let’s ‘fix’ that.” The harder answer is to process that pain and shame with the goal of accepting the whole self, body and soul. And, from a Christian point of view, help them understand the entire Christian restorative process. We were given bodies as humans because God meant us to have them. And God intends to restore body and soul, visible and invisible, earth and heaven, completely. That’s what the Church should teach those within, and those without.
We are fully accepted by God as we were created.
Companion Post & Podcast
I’m a Classic Christian and think Gender Ideology is anti-creational to the core. This blog is about “God’s Good Creation.” That’s why I’m writing about Gender Ideology. And “speaking up” as I’m confident Jesus would.
"Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female.'" [Matt 19:4]
Oil on Canvas
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Love Refuses To Affirm Confusion.
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