Polly Carmichael on influence of Social Media/Transgender Characters on TV

[rogdmum]

I think Polly Carmichael is one of the most frightening people involved in the rise of GD young people, but even she sometimes says things that make sense

Sorry for the Daily Mail link- one quote from her paper according to the article is:

“Increased media content (specifically via social media) might act as a double-edged sword or a means of social contagion… whereby some individuals erroneously come to believe that their non-specific emotional or bodily distress is due to gender dysphoria and being [transgender],’ it says.”

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8608307/Expert-transgender-characters-TV-fuelling-rise-young-people-seeking-help.html

Hmm. Polly's seen which way the wind is blowing.

That is a really significant if PC is acknowledging that social contagion is a factor in children deciding they are trans

Dr Carmichael appeared in I am Leo, didn't she?
Saying that "puberty blockers" are reversible.

www.transgendertrend.com/uk-cbbc-childrens-tv-i-am-leo/

www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/boy-starts-hormone-treatment-twelve-1981022

"In a busy waiting room, parents listen for their children’s names to be called as a boy of four emerges from the scrum at the toybox triumphantly clutching... a Barbie doll.

This is the home of the UK’s only Gender Identity Service for under-18s.

Here children as young as three are treated for Gender Dysphoria – defined by the NHS as “a condition in which a person feels there is a mismatch ­between their biological sex and their gender identity”.

As well as seeing very young ­children, the service at the NHS Tavistock and Portman clinic in Belsize Park, London, ­prescribes 12-year-olds like Leo with hormone treatment to deal with the condition.

Dr Carmichael says: “People think just because children are young they don’t have an awareness of their own gender identity but we find some children have strong feelings about it from very early on. One four-year old girl kept asking her mum when she was going to grow a willy.

“Another parent told me about a young son who would wrap a towel around his head and pretend he had long hair like a girl. These things don’t always mean a child has gender ­dysphoria but when the behaviour is persistent it can be a worry for parents. That is where we step in to help.”

The team encourages families to come to the clinic for counselling but they also go into local communities to help them find ways of fitting in.

“We meet teachers, social workers and other adults involved in the child’s day-to-day care,” says Dr Carmichael. “We discuss things like which toilet the child is to use and concessions about school uniforms.”

In the last year alone, 314 new ­patients have been seen by the service but the total caseload is closer to 500. Of 733 children referred since 2009, 130 have been aged just 10 or under.

Dr Carmichael and her team are currently helping 14 five-year- olds, eight four-year- olds and one patient who is just three.

Like Leo some patients go on to have hormone treatment when they turn 12 to stop them developing into their assigned sex so they don’t have to deal with the distress of becoming even more obviously the “wrong” gender.

“Imagine a child who is biologically female but identifies as a male.

"To grow breasts and start to menstruate could be very distressing for them,” says Dr Carmichael.

“The hormone blockers stop that from happening.”

Sorry for the Daily Mail link

Oh fgs can posters please stop assuming other posters are too fragile and delicate to read the Daily Mail.

I would have thought the penny might have dropped by now, given the number of time it is The Mail or The Sunday Mail which is linked to, that actually these papers might have something to say on issues affecting women and children which the respectable liberal media aren't saying.

@DidoLamenting

Sorry for the Daily Mail link

Oh fgs can posters please stop assuming other posters are too fragile and delicate to read the Daily Mail.

I would have thought the penny might have dropped by now, given the number of time it is The Mail or The Sunday Mail which is linked to, that actually these papers might have something to say on issues affecting women and children which the respectable liberal media aren't saying.

Well said, Dido.

I’ve changed my mind. The Daily Mail has left a key bit out of that quote which makes it clear it is “others” who think this (and then the authors go on about the low regret rates...):

“However, we are also mindful that others have speculated that increased media content (specifically via social media)...”

jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2768726

From the abstract of the paper referred to by the Daily Mail article

"This study found evidence of an association between increasing media coverage of TGD-related topics and increasing numbers of young people presenting to gender clinics. It is possible that media coverage acts as a precipitant for young people to seek treatment at specialist gender services, which is consistent with clinical experiences in which TGD young people commonly identify the media as a helpful source of information and a trigger to seek assistance."

www.researchgate.net/publication/343271528_Association_of_Media_Coverage_of_Transgender_and_Gender_Diverse_Issues_With_Rates_of_Referral_of_Transgender_Children_and_Adolescents_to_Specialist_Gender_Clinics_in_the_UK_and_Australia

So nothing to worry about!

Read my above link- it gives a rather different picture that it’s postive that this happens. E.g.:

“Second, by providing young TGD people with the realization that professional services and clinical pathways exist to assist them, media items might help to validate and legitimize their experiences and thus counteract the disbelief and nonaffirmation from others that many of them face after coming out.“

I was almost prepared to believe that Polly Carmichael had started to roll back her views in the light of evidence of harm caused, revealed by Dr David Bell, Marcus and Sue Evans, Kirsty Entwistle and many other experts.

But clearly not.

What drives her on and what are her motivations?

Fuck her.

Hark! Dr Carmichael, do you hear lawsuits coming over the hill? Because I do.

"And she claimed exposure to social media could be persuading some children to ‘erroneously’ believe they are transgender."

'Erroneously’. Well! That's at some odds with affirmation-only, 'acceptance without exception,' and 'they know better than you who they are'.

I expect great steaming hissy-fits from the Gender Identity pushers.

Thank you rogdmum. Yes that's very disappointing that the link is spun to be a positive thing.

Yeah, I should have gone to the source before posting.

DidoLamenting
Sorry for the Daily Mail link

Oh fgs can posters please stop assuming other posters are too fragile and delicate to read the Daily Mail.

I would have thought the penny might have dropped by now, given the number of time it is The Mail or The Sunday Mail which is linked to, that actually these papers might have something to say on issues affecting women and children which the respectable liberal media aren't saying.

I agree, Dido. Why this faux concern over daily mail links. They’re frequently the only paper telling the truth and they’re enormous. Not some niche embarrassing paper but one of the most read and one of the FEW exposing the trans movement.

Another parent told me about a young son who would wrap a towel around his head and pretend he had long hair like a girl.

So why not just let him have long hair?

It's not as though no man has ever wrapped his long hair in fabric.

“We discuss things like which toilet the child is to use and concessions about school uniforms.”

It's amazing that in 2020 schools are still enforcing gendered uniforms and hair styles.

when the behaviour is persistent it can be a worry for parents.

Might the problem be the parents' gender expectations, and not the child?

I think that Carmichael knows she's painted herself into a corner and the only thing she can do, other than become an apostate, is get lots of sound bites into the public domain that, if need be, she can point to in the future and say "look, I was sceptical and spoke up a number of times urging caution".

@merrymouse

when the behaviour is persistent it can be a worry for parents.

Might the problem be the parents' gender expectations, and not the child?

Exactly that.

Seems to me that there is now a pattern of little boys being transed young due to family homophobia (even if subconscious rather than overt) and teenage girls transing themselves due to societal lesbophobia & misogyny.

“Another parent told me about a young son who would wrap a towel around his head and pretend he had long hair like a girl. These things don’t always mean a child has gender ­dysphoria but when the behaviour is persistent it can be a worry for parents. That is where we step in to help.”

Maybe we should be teaching the adults to not sweat stuff like this. My youngest boy loved dolls and spent many hours in a Snow White dress with a tea towel on his head held in place by a hair band.

I would say he was in the persistent category too, from toddler age to about 8/9. He grew out of it but as a teen he does still love fashion, design and has a bit of an androgynous vibe going on. Taking him to GIDs because I was 'worried' would have done a huge amount of harm.