Such an interesting article about the psychological burden of performing “gender”

But it's unrealistic.

We need to counter this.

Weirdly we have a counter anti-consumerist movement which is just as bad and is as unrealistic.

Both choose to ignore inconvenient truths (reality) in pursuit of a social image.

Social image IS the product.

Marketing taps into various basic drivers - including the need to be accepted / to be part of a tribe

sp you can manipulate what trial definition is - it used to be called fashion

But the point you are missing is that product won't sell unless there is a psychological need…& that's built into the human condition. We humans like to fight for resources that improve our capacity to survive & attractiveness is just another way of doing that.

If that were true there would be zero discussion about single SEX spaces.
Transgender might be the current preferred term, but it's always about pretending to be the opposite sex.

There we have it - trans is fashion.

Yet we are medicalising fashion.

And trying to say it's not cosmetic surgery - it's "life saving surgery".

It's all such complete bullshit.

I studied media in my teens. I think it was something of a vaccination against a lot (but not all) of this bullshit!

I'm not missing the point.

I'm saying that we are brainwashed into thinking we absolutely need something.

There isn't a human 'need' for it.

It's tapping into desire. Not need.

Desire is emotional.
Need is logical and practical.

Realising the difference is important.

Totally anecdotal, but over more than 40 years, the neighbours, friends and family members of my acquaintance who have killed themselves had almost all started taking prescribed anti-depressants in the two weeks before they acted.

I have many reasons to mistrust the pharma industry and its sales drives.

As I say, anecdotal and personal.

There's an entire body of work on manufacturing desires. Psychology 101, if you will.

I had a discussion with a retired doctor regarding this. She said that it is known that this can happen, especially in female patients. So, for the first few weeks of taking the medication, they can have a raised chance of taking their own life. She also said that when it happens in this situation, the suicide is usually successful because they often 'double up' on how they are doing it.

I did wonder if being retired meant that she was far more willing to be open about this. I wasn't given any statistics, just that it happens enough to be noticed.

I think this is a very vulnerable cohort and entirely distinct from those who essentially use this at risk population to push boundaries and get advantages for themselves.

There is a group of desperate, traumatised and exhausted people clinging on to the hope that passing as the opposite sex will solve their problems. They are not the ones forcing themselves into changing rooms and posting grim, porn addled pictures of themselves on line. Has it helped the former to relabel it as not a mental health condition, to have people like Sarah Baker speaking for them and to be used as a reason to drug kids? No, this group and their struggles are being appropriated and ignored so the ones able to shout the loudest can get what they want.

However, until the different subgroups are treated differently, I can't see that changing. We don't even treat trans identified girls differently to boys, assuming the "for boys" treatment of blocking puberty to make them shorter and weaker can just be rolled out to girls. The idea that a creepy fetishist is going to be separated out from the genuinely vulnerable, against his will, is going to take decades.

I agree with the OP, there are some very vulnerable people who are missing out on the care that they need because of the heated debate around trans issues. The problem is it covers such a huge range of people - from traumatised young female teens (often autistic) to middle-aged AGP men. We can't have one treatment for all as the needs vary wildly. And judging from the article the OP posted, it seems that medical staff approach them with the view that being trans is making them suicidal - without taking the time and effort to delve deeper into what is happening. I'm guessing some medical staff will be on board with the TWAW argument and the rest will be too scared to contradict them. So no further investigation happens. It's a grave disservice to these people.

Advertising uses the same techniques as literal brainwashing - as used by cults and nefarious governments.

It uses the same techniques as used in warfare to manipulate both your own side and the opposition.

It is a form of propaganda.

It is based on human weakness to desires and emotions.

It has absolutely fuck all to do with human 'need'.

It exploits human weakness and insecurity. It exploits human greed and vanity. That's it.

All these conflation with 'need' IS propaganda and a product of that advertising the impossible dream.

Why do people buy Heinz and not an own brand tin of bean? The need is sustainence. It's very basic.

Think about this.

Yup. Wasn't this all thrashed out 30 or 40 years ago?

ETA: Media & cultural studies alumni assemble!

Exactly

High fives the media alumni.

Media studies was branded a 'mickey mouse' subject. You have to even question this tbh: Media deconstructs the fabric of consumerism and government manipulation of the population. It holds power to account.

In an era of big pharma, massive consumerism and social media where YOU are the product, being able to understand and navigate this is absolutely essential.

At the heart of this is the conflation of the words 'need' and 'want'.

We don't need a holiday. We need rest.
We don't need branded trainers. We need functional shoes.

I am absolutely not a purist on opposing this. There are times when it's merely nice to have certain things over others but I don't need them. Part of privilege is understanding this. It should not need to be virtue signalled though. You just quietly do it.

For me I almost feel like some marketing is almost into the level of feeding of people in the same way that a gambling addiction might. And this becomes cult like.

It's notable that there was a report last week that highlighted the rise in violence of young people with no identifiable over ridding ideology. I might suggest there is, but it's one we are so blind to that we don't notice it because it's so ingrained into our society. It's about a marketed and manufactured lifestyle.

We don't have to reject consumerism to draw our own lines in the sands. We don't have to reject advertising. What we do need to do is be sensible and occupy a middle ground where we say 'this is an unacceptable aggressive marketing strategy that targets and exploits the vulnerable' and we should have some accountability here.

Some of the marketing we see today is what was viewed as military level propaganda and control thirty years ago. When you grasp this, it's frightening.

Isn’t it that it’s well documented that the vulnerable time for people to attempt to kill themselves is as they’re recovering from the depths of depression, rather than when they’re at their lowest?

I also know of a case of this. It was more than 20 years ago, but seemed to be a known side-effect even then.

Or the 'recovering from' narrative is an ass-cover for pharma whose products tip the vulnerable from depressed to suicidal.

The conversations at funerals never seem to include 'he seemed so much better since he saw the doctor'.

Anecdata but I think there's huge overlap. My ASD Dd thinks she is 'trans'. All her peer group at high-school who were 'gender confused' were ND in some way. At some small specialist IT Unis everyone is called eg Moth & androgynous. Imo it's about looking for acceptance (for all the window dressing in reality there is not much acceptance of ASD at school /college socially at least).

Trans is a huge umbrella and its impossible to have a set of 'truths' that fit everyone. That's why we have baffling arguments about trans people knowing they haven't change sex, but have the right to be in the opposite sex spaces.

Its also reflected in what 'help' trans people want and need. There will be some who do want to seen as the opposite sex and will be distressed when they arent. The question will always be do we help them achieve their aim, or help them come to terms with reality.

But I'd question how many actual want to be seen as the opposite sex.

If the majority want to 'live quiet lives', why have trans pride events and advertise that they arent the sex they present as? Why do so many trans teens and 20somethings say they are non binary?

I cant help thinking that a high proportion of people with depression may be attracted to trans ideology, not because they want to be seen as the opposite sex or believe that they are trans in a transexual way, but because its gives them the attention the want/need. There are no rules to be trans so everyone fits in.

But it comes crashing down when its not the solution to their problems. Its not the pressure to perform the opposite gender, its that theyve pin their hopes on the wrong cure.

Yes, SSRIs are well documented to slightly increase suicidal ideation before helping to reduce it.
It is even covered at the basic level of PWP practitioners (a bit like MH physician associates).
ALL GPS (the main prescribers) and other HCPs should be aware of this and act accordingly.

The part that stood out for me was that attempts are more likely to be successful during that stage due to the doubling up of methods to ensure that if one failed, the second would still succeed.

It seems to inadvertently support the notion that people have a Trans Persona, rather than being Trans. It seems much less exhausting to just be themselves.

because the post 2018 narrative is that they’re become actual woman, ie changed sex, which is obviously impossible, but they believe or say they believe it and a huge part of the validation/roleplay/fantasy/kink is complete validation of their new identity: acceptance without exception and all that bullshit.