The effect of lockdown on transitioning teen girls

[Thegenderbreadperson]

I mentioned this on another thread, but as a worker in a high school we have found out during weekly phone calls home that since lockdown that most of our FtM students have de transitioned, perhaps as there is no longer the group peer pressure or affirmation from teachers? I was interested to see if there are any more examples - the other thread was started about Dr Haddock, and I felt this was worthy of its own thread.

In our school there were nine girls out of a approx 160 student year 9 cohort who identified as boys. Seven have now de transitioned since lockdown and one is considering it. Out of those nine I would have said three of them weren’t as committed as the others and had said they were “thinking about being non binary”, but were keen to remain part of that friendship group. It really is infectious.

I wonder if there is also some level of bullying or trying to either fit in with a tribe (the trans cool kids) or reject one (the Uber girly girls)?

@scotsheather
It is transphobic - she did not see her trans boy pals as boys she would date, and classed them as girls - she also could not grasp the hypocrisy of this.

I've noticed a positive effect of lockdown on my DD of the lack of peer pressure and particularly the absence of boys. She said her small sibling constantly interrupting her was less annoying than the boys in her class constantly trying to either disrupt her work or asking her how to do their work or just simply trying to aggravate her.

When I read this I am SOOO happy that I went to all-girls schools from the age of 10.
One of the secondary schools I attended has since turned co-ed. The other one is still going strong as all-girls. I am very much in favour of single-sex education, at least for girls. But I guess you can't have that without all-boys schools , or majority-boys schools -- which would be even worse for girls.

Lamahaha I know what you mean. I went to a single sex college at University and it was such a relief after a mixed secondary school.

Still, I do think schools let boys get away with disrupting girls far too much - and some boys seem, even in primary, not to understand the word 'no'. I do think the changes that are likely as a result of coronavirus will really benefit my DD and girls in general - no girls sitting next to boys to help control their behaviour, own desk, no group work. She HATES group work.

Is anyone aware of any academics who are (brave enough time be) researching detransitioning?

Lisa Littman is doing a study - I've seen her recruiting for it (she's the academic who wrote the paper on ROGD). But she's an American.

I am sure the counter view will be that these poor children have been coerced into detransitioning by their transphobic families over lockdown.

I'm not even a little bit surprised at this tbh. It was pretty obvious that a large % of these kids were doing this under pressure.

It's so nice to hear that at least some have felt able to just be themselves again (their real selves)
I just really hope this phenomenon is country wide.
Wouldn't that be something?

@KittiesInsane
That’s true, it happened on the Twitter thread, comments that they felt sorry for the child trapped in lockdown with an unsupportive parent.

It's funny how they never tell these kids their dating pool will be drastically reduced.

Telling heterosexuals they are now gay and vice versa is absurd.

My stepdaughter has (tentatively) desisted since lockdown.

Our story went up on the Safe Schools Alliance website yesterday:

safeschoolsallianceuk.net/about/our-stories/our-stories-mother-and-artist-43-trafford/

She is also year 9, btw.

Really interesting thread. Just yesterday Colin Wright was tweeting about how TRAs had tried to cancel him when he spoke about social contagion and linked to this article nypost.com/2020/06/27/how-peer-contagion-plays-into-the-rise-of-teens-transitioning/

good grief - 9 (or even 6) out of 160 is an enormous number!! I can't add anything helpful from a professional point of view but having been a teenage girl I am very aware of how teenagers, especially girls can be influenced. I mentioned on another thread how when I was at school, we were visited by a Christian Rock band and they did a gig in the school hall. So many girls (who had previously been totally uninterested in that sort of thing) had, by the end of the day, become fully signed up Christians - happy clappy, joining a local bible college etc (I was slightly bemused, having been brought up with regular CofE church attendance and Sunday School and couldn't see the attraction in quite the same way :¬)) . The strength of their conviction on this was impressive and they kept it up for some months, until the influential girls got bored and then it all dropped away quite quickly with, crucially, no life changes being made. The thing with the trans'ing process is that it is obviously ongoing and with the unquestioning affirmation stance taken by many schools (our local secondary is currently in the process of helping a girl transition without the involvement of her parents), the further down the road you go, the harder it is to turn back, especially in the face of strong encouragement. I know of a teenager raising money to have a double mastectomy and masculinisation hormone treatment because she (born female) identifies as 'gender queer' (I can't quite get my head around that). The fundraiser is doing quite well and all the comments (a lot from her peer group) are very encouraging and affirmative (which I guess they will be if they are contributing) but I find it heartbreaking that she is so young and is being encouraged in her decision to make such a drastic and irreversible change. As discussed in some detail on another thread (If a person identifies as an amputee...), gender dysmorphia is described as when your brain feels that your body is the wrong sex but if an anorexic person's brain feels that their body is too fat, we don't affirm and encourage them to lose weight. If someone has BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder), they are treated with therapy. If someone identifies as an amputee (it does happen, healthy body but brain says that they should have one leg, not two), it isn't right to affirm and operate. I have great concerns that the approach promoted by the lobby groups is to affirm and set these impressionable kids off on a path that might well not be right for them. The human brain does not stop developing until the mid to late twenties - teenagers have not fully developed their prefrontal cortex, affecting planning and impulses and they are far more likely to engage in risky behaviours without considering the consequences. Causing them to question their 'gender identity' when no adult seems to even be able to define what a 'female' or 'male' gender identity is and suggesting that if they don't conform to a narrow definition of what is 'normal' just adds fuel to the fire. The ideology being promoted that 'gender identity is innate' and determined when very young is also disproved by the existence of ROGD (Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria). I'm glad I'm not a teenager now.

From dududu's story on the SSA webpage:

"The prevailing medical opinion on transgender children is that ‘persistence, insistence, and consistence’ are required for a diagnosis, yet my stepdaughter’s school want to change her official records, even without parental permission, based on no evidence of persistence, insistence NOR consistence, and no medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria."

That right there is first-hand evidence of the dangers of letting lobbying, biased organisations in to provide training for staff.

Thank you for your story DuDuDu. Heartbreaking! I hope your step daughter is ok. It is frightening that school is determined to ignore parental instruction - it leads to a safeguarding nightmare. How can she ever be safe there? They're driving a wedge between a child and her extended support network - how can that ever be ethical? The school have a obviously been supplied with fraudulent materials to be staying it's the law to affirm.

I've been wondering this about older trans women too.

It's that old question "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it - does it make a sound? "

If a person has a gender difference and there is no one to observe their clothes, mannerisms, hair and interests - are they less upset?

We haven’t ruled out legal action (or changing schools, but they are all in the thrall of Mermaids at present).
We’ll see how things go when schools go back.

Baroness Nicholson has published a letter regarding the legal position of schools keeping secrets from parents over trans issues, so I suspect waving that about a bit will help enormously.

@dududulangalangabingbong - I have just read your story and that is heartbreaking - at a time when you and your family have had so much to deal with the school is compounding it enormously. I'm sure they mean well but it is shocking that an educating establishment is swallowing such dangerous ideology without questioning it. As I said below, our local secondary is doing the same thing to a child without the parents consent and when I asked about it (my friend works at the school and is heavily involved in the situation), the stance was very defensive and we ended up having a horrendous conversation where they demonstrated that they have fully taken this ideology on board regarding all aspects of life. Now I daren't question what the school will be teaching for PSHE for my children as they will know exactly why I'm asking. I'm praying that the government gets this sorted before any more children and families get devastated.

Also, the new shadow education secretary, Kate Green, is my MP, so I will be making an appointment to speak to her as a consitituent ASAP.

She already knows my family a bit, and is quite GNC herself, so I am hoping I can get her to understand the awful mess we putting upon children at present.

Thanks for sharing that article DuLang
My DD is in this age group too and I am pleased that we have been talking about issues around sex, gender and identify for years already.
DD has friends who call themselves NB her best friend is almost certainly gay but not out. She's on the fringes of a lovely group of friends who are creative, fun, and also gay and gender questioning. You can see how easy it is within this group for NB especially to be embraced.
My personal observations on lockdown for my DD, she's been very happy to escape from the school environment and her sense of self and confidence is great, she's much happier and less stressed.

@dududulangalangadingdong - seeing your MP sounds like a great idea although a word of caution, it has been mentioned on other groups that Kate Green is fully TWAW so I'm sure you'll go fully prepared. This sounds like something that should also be brought to the attention of Baroness Nicholson and Gavin Williamson, the Education Sec and Liz Truss, the Equalities Minister.

My stepdaughter is marvellous, btw. Still distressed by puberty and the state of the world (who wouldn’t be?) but she’s chirpier now than she‘s been since this time last year.

We recently facilitated a very school-unfriendly home hair cut and colour that is feminine in a counter-culture way and she seems to have finally given up the god-awful woolly hat she’s been hiding inside for a year.

Schools (and counsellors/therapists) need to understand that affirmation doesn’t actually bring much happiness (and that teaching kids about sexual orientation before they are far enough into puberty to feel actual, genuine, sexual attraction is more bewildering than helpful).

There was meant to be a review on the 4000 percent increase in girls transitioning which never happened.

I think lobby groups worried about this tbh hence the learning packs and digifests and stuff that were brought out. And trying to make.kids feel they werent safe at home with their parents.

Schools need to wake up. Teens have been going through mostly harmless phases for decades, goths/hippies/ going orange with bargain bin foundation... never was this attention given to them the way it is now.

Re single sex schools and bullying - my DD went to a girls’ grammar school for sixth form (from a mixed sex high school) and was appalled at the organised bullying of younger by older girls. This was all based around anorexia, which was a big thing (late 1990s).
I don’t know if such schools are affected by trans ideology, but having attended similar in the 60s, I wouldn’t be surprised.

One of the top girls grammar schools in the country banned teachers from referring to pupils as ‘girls’ a couple of years back (despite it being in the school name) so yes, this is deffo an issue in at least some single sex schools!