Category: Transgender Ideology

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Helena, There & Back Again

Many of my readers will not be “Tucker fans” like the person who made this comment to the Tweet below:

I’m not a Tucker fan AT ALL, but am so grateful for him getting this out there. And Helena too!

I’m grateful as well. Tucker Carlson aired a brief interview with Detransitioner Helena Kerschner.

Helena was introduced to Gender Ideology on the social media platform, Tumblr. As a self-described “fifteen-year-old kid playing with pronouns on Tumblr,” her life went seriously off the rails.

…what leads a girl with no history of discomfort with stereotypical “girl” toys and clothes, or even the slightest desire to be a boy in childhood, to want to be a “man” through hormonal injections as she approached adulthood? In a vacuum, such a profound confusion leading to such drastic measures sounds like it should be rare and a sign of some sort of severe mental disturbance. Was I a fluke? Was I some kind of idiot who mistakenly believed I was trans because I’m crazy or just downright irresponsible?

Helena

You can read about her journey in the link below. As you read her story notice all the co-morbitities she suffered from: e.g. eating disorder, early trauma (age 7), etc….

Yet today these issues get swept under the rug by clinicians and gender clinics (Planned Parenthood in this case) in the rush to Transition patients to their ”authentic selves.”

You might be surprised to know that according to Helena, many of today’s Social Justice Warriors who use words like “oppression” “marginalization” “equity” and “inclusion” are very much wedded in their overall objectives. Proponents of Critical Race Theory and Queer Theory, something I wrote about in a previous post, are joined at the hip with many Gender Ideologues. Here’s what Helena had to say about that:

A major aspect of Tumblr culture has always been social justice ideology. Things that are now being played out and witnessed by the general public on platforms like Twitter and TikTok, like dissociative identity disorder LARPers, demisexuals, neopronouns, otherkin, and everything you see on @LibsOfTikTok, have long existed in an uncannily identical form on tumblr.com. The oppression hierarchy of racial and gender identities now being written into law in many of our once serious nations was the state religion of the People’s Republic of Tumblr long before your political junkie uncle knew the term “CRT”.  As cultish religions tend to operate, open devotion to the religion is mandatory. Perhaps the outsiders most likely to understand the way social dynamics worked on that website would be survivors of Scientology or the Jehovah’s Witnesses. On Tumblr, the situation was such that any claim to being “oppressed” would accumulate social credibility, while any unfortunate “privileged” status was justification for verbal abuse. As a “privileged” person, you were expected to constantly grovel and apologize, you had no right to speak on any issue involving the group you were “oppressing”, and you could not object in any way to any mistreatment hurled against you because of your race, gender, or sexuality.
I found myself in a bit of a double bind. On one hand, I had found what felt like the perfect group of friends who understood me on an intuitive level, who I was able to talk to openly about the things I liked and made me “weird” in real life, but on the other hand I was a “cishet white girl” in an environment where that was one of the worst things to be. Since Tumblr users are mostly biological females, the “cishet white girl” holds the position of most privileged and therefore most inherently bad group. In this climate, you are made to feel guilty and responsible for all the horrors and atrocities in the world. No hardship you could possibly go through could ever be as bad as the prejudice and genocide POC and LGBT people face every. Single. Day. Insert clap emoji. LGBT people and POC can’t even walk out of their houses without being murdered by cishet white people just like you!

So what does a disillusioned, confused privileged white girl do to become accepted in that environment? 

Its understandable that any young person exposed to this kind of belief system would grow to deeply resent being white, “cis”, straight, or (biologically) male. The beauty of gender ideology is it provides a way to game this system, so that you can get some of those targets off your back and enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded youths. You can’t change your race, pretending to have a different sexuality would be very uncomfortable in practice, but you can absolutely change your gender, and it’s as easy as putting a “she/they” in your bio. Instantly you are transformed from an oppressing, entitled, evil, bigoted, selfish, disgusting cishet white scum into a valid trans person who deserves celebration and special coddling to make up for the marginalization and oppression you supposedly now face. Now not expected to do as much groveling and reaffirming to everyone how much you love checking your privilege, you can relax a little and talk about your life without wondering if you are distracting from the struggles of or speaking over marginalized groups, because you are marginalized too. With the new pronouns often comes a wave of positive affirmation from friends and followers, and the subconscious picks up quickly that there’s a way to make the deal of being on Tumblr even sweeter.


Online she could be a “fictional character in a fictional universe.” And take the target of “white privilege” off her back by “changing” who she was.

Adolescent girls are uniquely susceptible to this kind of social contagion blackmail. [See this post and this one for details.]

The adolescent brain is in a developmental stage primed to incorporate experiences into the process of identity formation, and spending so much time in fantasy without building much of an identity through real social and life experiences can lead to the identity and fantasy elements becoming indistinguishable.

Living in the Tumblr virtual universe Helena was insulated ”from experiences and perspectives that might have challenged the views I was developing about myself and the world.”

A message to all parents. Monitor your child’s social media usage. You paid for it. Also, should your child get swept into this social contagion, Embrace, Don’t Affirm. As you’ll read her mother could have handled things better, but one thing she refused to do was “affirm.” Helena’s mother is a doctor.

Helena confirms the fact about School Secrets in her article. And the ever growing Detrans community.

I remember finding the reddit r/detrans forum, which at the time had only around 100 subscribers, if memory serves me (it now has tens of thousands). This clued me in to the fact that at least a handful of people out there were feeling regret too.

This is a very in-depth article about Helena’s journey. If you want to know why there has been a huge spike in the Western world of white adolescent girls identifying as Trans, and you want to hear it from someone “on the inside” this is a must read.

She ends it by saying:

My story is not a fluke, and I am not uniquely troubled or irresponsible. What I am though, is fortunate, because there are others for whom the harm has been exponentially worse. Though there is much strength to be found in overcoming, the fact is that today, any young person who remotely struggles with self-esteem, making friends, fitting in to common gender roles, or body image is now vulnerable to being subjected to what amount to medical experiments that may permanently destroy the prior functioning of their bodies before they have had the chance to build identity and strength through the normal means of overcoming life’s challenges. I have seen firsthand that for some people, the medical and psychological damage is far beyond what could be considered a healthy amount of adversity.

If you care about this issue, please read the whole thing. Helena is a ”rose”…

By Any Other Name
The story of my transition and detransition

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For anyone interested in an extended review of the Gender-Critical Pro-Creation argument presented on this blog, but without having to scroll through every post, please visit the Menu at the top of each page and click on the Top Posts link.

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“Women” & Contested Definitions

Here we are in this time & place. We need to retrace our steps, I think.

If anyone needs a Primer on the definition of “Man” & “Woman” please read my “What is Sex” post. Also see “Defining Woman” from a few days ago.

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For anyone interested in an extended review of the Gender Critical Pro-Creation argument presented on this blog, but without having to scroll through every post, please visit the Menu at the top of each page and click on the Top Posts link.

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Defining Woman

Did you ever think we would get to the place in our culture where we thought it necessary to ask political and judicial leaders to define the word Woman?

It’s happening in the US. And in Great Britain. In the US the questions are being asked mostly by conservatives. In Great Britain, long time Labour supporters (self declared socialists) are asking the same question of their political leaders.

Here are two videos documenting the facts.

First Video

The Judge can’t answer the question for two reasons. The first reason she gives: ”I’m not a biologist.” The second reason is because she says this issue might come up before her in a supreme court case. As it might.

I give her a pass on the second reason. Unfortunately, this will likely come up before the Supreme Court at some point. That’s how irrational public policy has become in the 21st century.

But, her first reason (she had to know this question was going to be asked) indicated that she truly did not know the answer. Why?

Because she is not a biologist.

This is an example of what I call credentialism. Ya gotta be an expert before you can speak about anything. But surely if any question would seem to be within the general knowledge of ordinary Dick and Jane’s out there, the uncredentialed hoi polloi, as it were, surely the question about what is a ”man” or ”woman” would be one of them. Wouldn’t it?

I mean, does it take a lot of expertise, or scientific trial and error to figure this one out?

Regular, unprofessional, dare I say, common, folk have apparently known the difference between a man and a woman for some time now. The species continues to reproduce, does it not? Even among the most “unenlightened” among us. That would seem to be a good indicator of some knowledge of the difference between male and female among the uncredentialed. Yet, a woman who would seek to be one of the most powerful women on the planet can’t answer that question.

If two men have a sexual relationship. Or two women. This has never produced children. It can’t. Surely the uneducated have noticed. And acted accordingly. I mean, if they intend to have children and allow the species to continue. This would seem to be a basic human instinct.

Woman = adult human female.

Unfortunately, this basic human understanding evades British leaders as well.

Yvette Cooper refused three times to offer a definition of what a woman is, saying she was not going to go down a 'rabbit hole'
Yvette Cooper, Labour Party Shadow Home Secretary refused three times to offer a definition of what a woman is, saying she was not going to go down a ‘rabbit hole’
Anneliese Dodds, Labour's equalities spokesman, said the meaning of the word depended on 'context'
Annelised Dodds, Labour’s equalities spokesman, said the meaning of the word depended on ‘context’

Second Video

We really have gone down a Lewis Carroll rabbit hole. Western Politicians are pedaling fantastical nonsense.

The inestimable J.K. Rowling weighs in

Questions:

  • Can I answer the question: ”Is it raining?” If I am not a meteorologist?
  • Can I answer the question: ”Is it a dog?” If I am not a veterinarian?
  • Can I answer the question: ”Is it a female dog?” If I don’t identify as a female veterinarian?
  • If you can’t define ”woman” how will you be able to protect ”women’s rights?”

If anyone needs a Primer on the question of what is a Man or Woman, please read my “What is Sex” post.

Essentially, we tell the difference based on reproductive capacities.

Again, this is not about loving confused people. But you are not loving someone if you affirm their false perception of who they are. Simply attaching ”marginalized” to a person or group is not enough to decide the matter, and shutdown debate. There is much more at stake here than someone’s feelings.

Matt Walsh is known for stumping transgender activists by asking them to define what a woman is. The author appeared on an episode of “Dr. Phil” in January and asked LGBT activists Ethan and Addison just that, tripping up the activist:

“What is a woman? Can you tell me what a woman is?” Walsh queried.

“No, I can’t,” Ethan admitted, “because it’s not for me to say. Womanhood looks different for everybody.”

Speaking to Addison, Walsh stated, “You stood up here and said, ‘Trans women are women.’ What is a woman?”

“Womanhood is … something that I cannot define,” Addison said.

“But you used the word,” Walsh pushed back. “So what did you mean when you said, ‘Trans women are women’?”

“I do not define what a woman is because I do not identity as a woman,” Addison responded. “Womanhood is something that is an umbrella term.”

“That describes what?” Walsh interjected.

“People who identify as a woman,” Addison said.

Walsh, again, pressed, “Identify as what?”

“A woman,” Addison said. “What is that?” Walsh pressed.

“To each their own,” Addison said, adding that “each person” is “going to have a different relationship with their own gender identity and define it differently. So, trans women are women.”

“You won’t even tell me what the word means though, so that’s the problem,” Walsh responded.

Speaking philosophically, you’ve just witnessed radical individualism on display. According to these advocates, individuals are entirely self-defining and autonomous. Their perceived ”reality” is purely subjective, with no unimaginative boundaries. Any genetic contribution made by someone’s male and female parents doesn’t matter. Neither does God’s contribution.

The radical individualist says: ”I can be whatever I want to be!”

No, actually, you cannot.

If you think you are a bird and can fly. You cannot.

If you imagine you are a penis-having, testicle-carrying, person-with-prostate, woman. You are not.

Come down off the ledge you’ve been encouraged to leap from. Plenty of people want to help you.

Speaking theologically, and as a Christian I must, there are two components to God’s created reality. Call them the invisible world and the visible world. Or to shrink it down to a more personal level, Mind/Soul & Body. The goal of any Therapist, Christian or otherwise, is reintegration of Mind & Body. Not a fictitious, perhaps technology assisted, separation of the two.

Please see my post “Collaborating with Madness” for more details.

That post quoted Paul McHugh, former Chair of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital:

I have witnessed a great deal of damage from sex-reassignment. The children transformed from their male constitution into female roles suffered prolonged distress and misery as they sensed their natural attitudes. Their parents usually lived with guilt over their decisions—second-guessing themselves and somewhat ashamed of the fabrication, both surgical and social, they had imposed on their sons. As for the adults who came to us claiming to have discovered their “true” sexual identity and to have heard about sex-change operations, we psychiatrists have been distracted from studying the causes and natures of their mental misdirections by preparing them for surgery and for a life in the other sex. We have wasted scientific and technical resources and damaged our professional credibility by collaborating with madness rather than trying to study, cure, and ultimately prevent it.

To see how far this kind of madness can go, read my post Species Fluidity? Transpups?


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As a Classic Christian I encourage everyone to “Embrace, Don’t Affirm.”

Individuals with a Gender Identity Disorder (Gender-Dysphoria) need Truth-filled Love. Please read this post for more details.