to find CBBC's 'Just a Girl' programme re a transgender child inappropriate?

[PatButchersEarring]

..totally prepared to be told I am being U on this one, but...

My 7 year old daughter is currently watching 'Just a Girl' on CBBC. This seems to be a dramatisation about a pre-teen, transgender girl- so born a born, but living as a girl. Also either currently or looking into taking hormone blockers.

AIBU to think this is an inappropriate topic for a young age group?

Another screen shot from the linked page

@PinkyOfPie, being transgender is not a mental disorder either. The WHO has published studies to that effect. Being transgender is not being a tomboy - and I don't know anyone who is suggesting that tomboys (or boys who like dolls) should transition.

Link to article re: WHO study on transgender identity NOT being a mental disorder.

It's nothing like watching a programme about being gay. It's like watching a programme about someone who is gay being given medication to make them straight.

Of course it's a mental disorder!!

Thanks agingrunner - those are interesting to read!

Transing of children is dangerous and I urge those letting it slide to have a long hard think about what it men's and why children 'identify' as trans

This, yes.

I don't think anyone would describe you as abusive, Elsa. I certainly wouldn't. You aren't trying to tell the world your tiny child has been. "born in the wrong body".

You seem to be doing the best in a fiendish situation. I think its important to define whether the desire to transition is driven by the parents or the child. Unlike some of the parents who seek attention and want applause for transitioning very young children, you took lots of time, refused to go along with assumptions about gender roles, and are holding out against the tide of medical transition. I think that's the most important thing. Names and clothes can be changed. The other stuff can't.

You sound totally reasonable to me, and you have my sympathy for what must be a heartbreaking situation.

I notice you say that since you refused hormones your family gets no support. This is something I've heard many times before. There's a strong drive among gender health professionals to move from social to medical transition and if the family won't play ball they are left out in the cold. There's something cult like about it. Not a lot of hard science going on.

I appreciate you're defensive, but my reading of what you've said suggests you're coming from much the same place as posters who think transing small children is abuse. I imagine you're already on lots of gender critical blogs. I love Gender Critical Dad, partly because he's the only British one I've come across.

ElsaAintAsColdAsMe

Whilst not the same situation my eldest DD is gay and, with the benefit of hindsight, always was obviously different at a time when differences were simply not acceptable. I've been reading the posts above with alarm bells ringing in my head "how can you people know what these children/families are going through?" "Who are you to say what is the right course of action for another's child?" and "You people have NO idea what it is like to raise a child going through gender/sexual identity issues."

It's lovely that people think it's fine to be different (or in this case all the gender neutral same) and that your difference doesn't or shouldn't define you however at a very basic level our gender/sexuality does define our existence and IMO it's short sighted and naive to believe otherwise.

As a child I wished I was a boy because I didn't like the gender specific roles I saw around me. That did not mean I felt I was male and had been born into the wrong body. The expects are able to easily distinguish between those who wish to role play the opposite sex and those true transgender children who believe they are the opposite sex. As a young adult I got involved in feminism but suffered a lot of discrimination in my supposedly gender neutral professional life.
To get back to the subject a 7 year old will only take from a programme what they are developmentally ready to take. They view programmes of children acquiring magical powers and don't really believe this will happen to them.
The OP was ingenuous when starting this thread as she already had an agenda regarding this topic and did not have a genuine query as to whether her DD ought to watch the programme. Then she has the gall to say she believes her DD ought to be able to choose to view programmes on the Internet without her supervision but that the BBC ought not to air anything she does not agree with. Never mind the rest of the population who are of a contrary mind

No, our gender does not define our existence.

Our sex defines our existence to the extent that having a female or masculine body effects your life choices. However, there is currently no way to change sex.

Society''s expectations based on concepts of gender can of course define existence, however that is a bad thing.

Tigersteeth, you've got a 7yo DD who says she wants to be a boy and you describe this as gender questioning? I'd say she's being 7. This sort of thing is normal at her age, as lots of other posters have pointed out.

No it isn't. It isn't dirty. Or freakish.

The sooner this is accepted, the better

I honestly cannot believe the direction we are going in- a five year old child wants to wear dresses, and the "tolerant" approach to this is to recognise that this means he's a girl. I don't even know where to start.
I worry that if my son doesn't conform to gender stereotypes, some bloody dick head right-on nursery worker or teacher is going to suggest to him that he might be trans. This whole thing is scary. And i totally agree we should not be normalising this with kids TV- maybe a few more programmes about girls playing football or boys doing the cleaning instead? Oh sorry, am i being a bigot?

It is 'freakish' in the sense of a biological abnormality.

The sooner it's accepted, the better for who?

Certainly not women.

And while we're on the subject, the sooner what is accepted?

Men dressing as women? Absolutely!

Men eroding women's rights? No way.

Thank you everyone and sorry too

It just makes me so angry to see people saying 'If my child said that to me I would simply.......' or comparing the issues surrounding this to a child wanting to be a horse or a puppy or whatever.

It makes me angry that there is nowhere to turn for people like me who don't want to use hormones but need some support because it is a struggle and comes with its own issues, changing rooms, swimming, puberty, clothing etc.

There is nowhere to turn. I've spoken about it on here before and been insulted, I've spoken about it on mermaids and been insulted, all the counsellors have said my child knows their own mind and has no mental illness so they can't do anything. Meanwhile I'm stuck in a limbo of having nowhere to turn at all.

Nobody where we live now knows my child isn't really the sex they present as at the moment which I guess adds to the isolation I'm feeling too.

This is a very lonely place to be at times and it's not nice to read people being awful about a situation where the only choices there are are bloody hard ones and there is no 'right way' to go about things.

Elsa

Musicposy - agree with your every word. My upbringing was similar to the 11 year old's you mention, her craving for long hair brought it all back to me. I endured a childhood of physical and emotional abuse for being "only a girl". No doubt if trans was around in those days I'd have gone down that path - anything to be liked (never expected to be loved).

My developing femininity was derided, it had no value and I ended up being grateful to anyone who showed an interest in it - easy prey for any passing pervert.

I'm now a happily married grandmother, needless to say was NC with my parents once I escaped.

Please stay close to this poor confused little girl, she is going to need people like you to give her some comfort in the turbulent teenage and young adult years ahead.

When is this programme on? I've Googled and can't find it. I'd prefer my DD not to watch it until I have talked with her.

ElsaAintAsColdAsMe

My take on child abuse in this case is when doctors and parents start administering drugs and treatment to change a child's body or when parents and society push this agenda because of their own hang-ups, none of which applies to someone like you.

I just looked this up on TV and it's a web exclusive (had to google when it wasn't showing on my YouView from this morning, so any child watching this would have to view it on a computer/phone/tablet as its not on the actual channel.

thats a pretty normal way of watching tv these days though, surely? all ours are on smart tvs or apps

I hate this too. Can't kids just be kids. I don't mind what my kids are into or enjoy buy DD is female and DS is male. There's nothing that can change that. Boy in a dress is fine to me; plying him with hormones from a young age child abuse.

Benedikte2.

For the record, I did have a genuine query in that I instinctively didn't like what I was seeing, for all the reasons that posters more eloquent and better educated than myself have elucidated on. This thread has therefore helped me clarify my opinion.

And yes, I allow my (very sensible and trustworthy) 7 year old to watch I player unsupervised- providing it is solely cbeebies or cbbc- which as other posters have pointed out, is deemed to be age appropriate.

Your argument that children only take from programmes that which they are developmentally ready for is a truly naive position.