The Sun 'is changing gender the new anorexia?'

Interesting article. There are parallels between having a sense of gender dysphoria and being anorexic (the article alludes to it but doesn't seem to expressly state it). Some girls become anorexic due to hatred of their body during puberty and a desire to get rid of developing breasts and 'curves'.

When I was a teen I frequented a lot of pro-ana sites, most notably a
Xanga and Livejournals groups and blogs.

When I started to revisit trans issues I didn't go to GC websites. I visited pro trans blogs and forums. I was really struck by how they reminded of "pro-anna" websites which I had visited a few years earlier (to check if it was a moral panic over the internet)

Oh God, yes though! Mermaids and Stonewall linked at the end

The Guardian and the BBC have a massive blockage in their ability to make links between sexism, sexual assault, girls' mental health (all of which they report on ) and transgenderism. A chasm. And I can only assume it's because they are hard-of-thinking or they have a large number of TRAs in their employ

hackmum I know a couple of the journalists who write for the Sum and DM and they are good people. The DM journo is hoping the new editor will change things quite dramatically.

Excellent thoughtful piece of journalism. In The Sun.

When I was at school people used to self harm. There was a social contagion element and we used to meet in the loos and "ooh" over the marks. Obviously there were some serious MH issues too, but at no point was any child told to "do what you need to do to be your authentic self", bought illegal razor blades off the internet by parents or encouraged to keep it secret.

Many of the children I read about who are now under the trans umbrella have very similar co morbid MH / ASD conditions and sexual assault / chaotic lifestyle history to my friends who self harmed.

A surprisingly rigorous article from The Sun.

You know what? The Sun publishes some bloody good articles, particularly in its Fabulous magazine. For years I've been sniffy about the Sun and the Mail because of their right-wing bias and their often deplorable attitudes to women and immigrants. But both publications have excellent journalists working for them who write well-informed, well-researched articles. On an issue like this, they leave the Guardian standing.

Fucking hell if all her friends talked about was dream weddings and must-have dresses no wonder the poor kid was distressed. I think she just needed new friends. Most of my friends were boys at that age and my wardrobe was jeans, band tees and DMs like them, but it never occurred to me to think I was a bloke!!

It would be interesting to know if cases of anorexia and pro ana spaces have seen a sharp decline in parallel to gender dysphoria and pro trans spaces rising.

As a recovered anorexic, the sentiments in this article corroborate the issues I needed to come to terms with in order to overcome anorexia.

Society asks girls/women to be all sorts of irreconcilable things. The stress this engenders manifests in myriad ways.

Perhaps tweet the journalist too?

mobile.twitter.com/journohope?lang=en

I've often thought this, my sister has said that if this trend were around when she was a teenager she would definitely have been on board. She is glad it wasn't, as she's happy with herself now, but she can see it would have been very easy to attribute her issues to gender dysphoria instead.

The mermaids/stonewall bit at the end makes a mockery of the point of the article!

I am just about to email them a complaint and suggest they include better resources: [email protected]

Ahem, cross post, without meaning any disparagement at you maisy!

I also have that moment of sinking dread where I know any "woke" people would say, "but it's The Sun".

The BBC and Guardian are seen as the gatekeepers of unbiased truth and until a few years ago I never properly understood how terrifying that it.

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd start thinking the odd article in the sun and the mail actually have a point.

I say I had EDNOS, I never had a diagnosis of anything and it was something I labelled myself.

I was a really mixed up teenager with extreme low self-esteem and the need to be part of something.

I’ve been thinking this for a long time.

What a very hard hitting article, especially this:

Worryingly, the website Transit.org.uk openly advocates bypassing the NHS to buy blockers and hormones online.

One of the site’s pages reads: “You have a moral responsibility as a parent to ensure the safety and happiness of your child… If you allow them to go through their genetical puberty, you could very well end up with a dead child.”

That is despicable.

Phenomenal article. When I was a teenage girl, there wasn't one of my friends who was comfortable with her body; it's a big adjustment, changing from a girl to a woman. It's normal to find it difficult!

I couldn't see any way to comment. Pity. The comments under articles like this in The Times and the Mail are almost 100% critical of trans ideology.

Brave and truthful article

When I was a teen I frequented a lot of pro-ana sites, most notably a
Xanga and Livejournals groups and blogs. A lot of the girls I knew on the sites, myself included, tended to have EDNOS(Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, although I think it’s called something else now) rather than Anorexia, though it’s still disordered eating.

The way that some teenagers, especially girls, thrive on the culture of Tumblr really does remind me of my days on Livejournal and Xanga.

Yes, I noticed that, but with luck any concerned parent will note from reading and re-reading that article that the CEO of Mermaids seems very keen on the affirmative approach and before ringing Mermaids they may go online and try to find out more, look at the Transgender Trend website and so on. I know I would. And if they do that in a good many cases they will conclude that Mermaids is not the best source of support for anyone unsure about what to do next. I hope they look up Lily Maynard's blog.

Good article from The Sun. I wonder when we'll see anything comparable from The Guardian.

Welll well. A surprisingly rigorous article from The Sun. Just a pity they point readers to either Mermaids or Stonewall at the end. But it is so good to hear coherent sensible stories from the other side of the "being my authentic self" stories.