Transgender child "bullied by adults, not children"

[hester]

www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/9245624.Girl__10__trapped_in_a_boy_s_body/

Anyone else see this?

My sister has gender dysphoria (born in male body). She knew she was a girl from when she was first able to think. It's very possible for them to know from a young age. She's had awful bullying her whole life, it's disgusting the treatment these people can get. I applaud the parents and the school for being so understanding. If she's been diagnosed (I would assume at the hospital in London that diagnosed my sister as it's the main specialist one) then she needs to be taken seriously. It takes very extensive psychological testing to get a diagnosis, they don't just do it because a girl likes to wear boys clothes or vice versa.

How does gender dysphoria fit in with some feminist claims (on MN) that all gender behaviour is imposed externally?

Actually I thought it sounded like the parents are doing the best they can under the circumstances. It's the other parents who are despicable in this, it's shocking to think that anyone could speak this way to a child.
I first started to understand about transgender issues during my psychology degree when a friend at uni was transgender. She explained to me and showed me some research articles that during foetal development there are two periods of 'gender development' - one that sets the sex of the body, and one which sets the psychological gender. For transgender people the psychological gender development in the womb doesn't proceed appropriately, and ends up contrasting to the biological sex of the body. It is not a case of confusion or following a fad, they genuinely are mentally the opposite gender to the body they're in. I guess gender is not something we know from looking down at our private parts or picking up on from cues of the social environment, it's something we feel. I absolutely believe that the transgender person can feel even from a very early age that they're in the wrong body, I only wish our society was more open and understanding.

I think the studies referred to above were cherrypicked for your benefit. Can you us point to any research published in reputable journals?

Thinking about it, I feel cynical about this particular story, since the news coverage claimed that he was called a "freak" by strangers in shops etc, as he was dressed as a girl.

I don't believe that anyone could tell that a ten year old boy, styled as a girl, was really a boy. It is puberty that brings about the appearance of masculinity. If you feal hyper sensitive about an issue, it is easy to misinterpret sympathetic smiles as smirks and to hear unkind words where none were used, and that may be what has happened here.

I've no doubt that the studies were "cherry picked", given that she wanted me to be able to understand it, obviously wasn't going to pick studies that refuted the possibility, and having a vested interest in reading about the phenomena and seeing how it can be biologically explained would also have read a much broader range of literature on the topic than me and so would pick the ones she thought best explained the way in which gender dysphoria could develop. I don't see that as a reason to presume the studies and journals in which they were originally printed must be disreputable.

I'm not going to get into a google scholar search (I imagine this could be time intensive given that I don't know the buzz words, and having done enough scholar searches in the past I know what a pain choosing the appropriate terminology can be to find the right articles and subsequently having to wade through), but it was easy enough to find the NHS page on gender dysphoria:

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Gender-dysphoria/Pages/Causes.aspx

^"In rare cases, the hormones that trigger the development of sex and gender may not work properly on the brain, gonads and genitals, causing variations between them. For example, the sex (as determined physically by the gonads and genitals) could be male, while the gender (as determined by the brain) could be female.
This could be caused by additional hormones in the mother?s system or by the foetus?s insensitivity to the hormones, known as androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS). In this way, gender dysphoria may be caused by hormones not working properly within the womb."^

They seem to be saying more eloquently what I was trying to put across before. I'd imagine they wouldn't be saying this if there weren't reputable studies already conducted to indicate this could be a possible cause.

I agree DizzyKipper. A lot about Gender Dysphoria and what causes it is unknown but I've read a lot of info that backs up what you say. Obviously there will always be conflicting information, this is science and nothing can be proven absolutely. I however believe it is a very real condition and would argue quite strongly that it is set in physiology rather than psychology. Either way though I feel we should respect someone who is diagnosed and treat them as they wish to be treated.

I'm not entirely convinced that the behaviour of each gender is purely cultural and therefore arbitrary, but that is apparently widely held to be true.

but if that is the case then surely Gender Dysphoria is just being at odds with what Fashion magazines and ToysRus define as proper behaviour and dress for your gender.

Why would we want drugs/surgery to make us fit in with what the media etc expects from us?

If this is true then all we need do is relax our narrow definition of gender and the issue would cease to exist?