Super Awesome Sylvia who WAS a great STEM role model for girls.

[TheWeeWitch]

I’m starting a new thread for this article and as a place to perhaps focus some more specific discussion about the impact of trans ideology on children and young people.

Here’s the link to the article:

www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/08/20/super-awesome-sylvia-vs-his-robots-and-your-assumptions/

See below for a screen shot of Zeph’s coming out cartoon.

In summary: A little girl was doing some amazing, high profile science stuff, but now she’s a boy because she felt “wrong” being a girl.

Read it and weep for girls and young women the world over.

I am off to bed now, though, but I’ll be back in the morning I promise!

Well, God forbid someone could be good at science and a girl.

I read up on that, and what I took from it was not that Super Awesome Sylvia didn't think she could be a girl in science, but that her being a girl in science was so exceptional, and she was under so much pressure to be Super Awesome when she wasn't really all that interested in science anyway, that she invented a whole new persona who wasn't Sylvia at all, never mind Super Awesome Sylvia, to escape it, and be a different person who could do what she really wanted to do.

What a shame.

I mean, obviously I'm glad that Zeph is feeling happier by being gender non-conforming, but showing a girl "just like you" who is keen on robots and tech is such a good thing to be able to do.

(As an aside, the WaterColorBot is very cool!)

Too much pressure and hype.

Once again I'm glad my DD ended up going to a girls school where girls doing STEM, building robots (maybe not 'awesome' ones) was normal.

Well, God forbid someone could be good at science and a girl

I don't think that is what this is about.

I think you're right - get as far away from that girl in the videos as possible.

I have a friend who did that with music (she was an extremely good oboist) - she got to about 14 and had just had enough and it wasn't fun any more. She took up hockey and street dancing, and stopped doing all music. She said she was sick of being "the musical one" so i can see how this could have been the same - "the science girl".

I don't think trans would have been a thought until recently though - a new hobby would have been more likely.

Looking forward to my interview for the university I want to go to. I shall be a boy when I go.

I think you’ve got it there Polkadots. Trans is the fad de jour for certain girls and young women who feel uncertain about themselves and overwhelmed by the world. Apart from the fact that girls have lost a possible STEM icon, there’s the very worrying creeping normalisation of the idea that children can “know” that their body is “wrong” in relation to how their brain “feels”. Should we be affirming the idea that there is some kind of error in a child’s physical and emotional being, or should we be looking to support the root cause of distress - which, in this case, is clearly a reaction to fame and notoriety.

I agree Polkadots. It sounds like Sylvia was an unhappy teen who found a way of escaping the overwhelming expectations placed upon her. In more sensible times she wouldn't have been famous and would probably have drifted away from science and taken up another hobby as her interest waned.

It's a shame that part of the pressure probably stemmed from being touted as a female role model. That girls do science should be completely unremarkable. Not a source of extra fame and responsibility for the girls who do.

I am always very nervous when a child is deemed to be an icon or role model or famous. It just puts way too much pressure on the child and I suspect is not very good for their mental health. See also Jazz Jennings.

Should we be affirming the idea that there is some kind of error in a child’s physical and emotional being, or should we be looking to support the root cause of distress - which, in this case, is clearly a reaction to fame and notoriety.

Yes - although I think some of the reaction in this case wasn't just to fame. It was also that it appears that while being overly lauded for breaking the stereotype on girls doing STEM (honestly its not that exceptional a thing! ), a large part of this child's USP was girlie presentation. Pink room, hair, dresses, and always the emphasis on being a girl rather than an individual.

Zeph sounds like a great kid, hopefully will be given some space to grow up and be herself - or possibly himself, though given the relationship with another transboy sounds most like really a somewhat techy but mainly arty gender nonconforming lesbian

Looking forward to my interview for the university I want to go to. I shall be a boy when I go.

I'm confident you'll be a woman. Whatever sort of woman you want to be.

I hope so Errol - thank you!