Mermaids and the evolving understanding of gender identity.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Given recent events, I thought it would be interesting to trawl the Wayback Machine and see how the organisation has developed over time with regards to diagnosing children as transgender.

What is Gender Dysphoria?

2009
Gender Identity Disorders in infancy, childhood and adolescence are complex and have varied causes: in the majority of cases the eventual outcome will be homosexuality or bisexuality, but often there will be a heterosexual outcome as some gender issues can be caused by a bereavement, a dysfunctional family life, or (rarely) by abuse. Only a small proportion of cases will result in a transsexual outcome
<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090307015630/www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/gidca.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20090307015630/www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/gidca.html

2010
Gender dyphoria, also known as Gender Identity Disorder, applies to someone who is unhappy with their biological sex and who wishes to belong to the other one.

Gender Identity is the sense of belief that "I am male" or "I am female". A child becomes aware of its gender identity before or around the age of five years, in many cases as early as 2 or 3 years of age. In most people their gender identity is the same as their sex, i.e. a woman or girl feels she is female and a man or boy feels he is male, but in a few people their gender identity and their sex do not match, and this can cause problems.

Gender Identity Issues vary considerably, some may be transient in nature, and some may not. They may arise when a child exhibits cross-gender behaviour to some degree or other. Some may be boys who prefer to take the female role or vice versa; others may have a compulsion to play with toys mostly used by the other sex (for instance, a boy who predominantly plays with dolls or a girl who always plays with action men and 'army toys'). Some children may only feel comfortable when playing with peers of the other physical sex, or may cross-dress from time to time.

Some children may be unhappy about their own biological sex and either wish to belong to the other one, or feel that they actually do; some adolescents may experience a crisis over a problem of gender identity or sexual orientation, or both. These situations can lead to considerable concern and distress for all those involved.
<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100718215911/www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/New%20Mermaids/whatisgid.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20100718215911/www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/New%20Mermaids/whatisgid.htm

2012
For example, your daughter may say that she wants to be a boy, or your son may identify himself as a girl. Or perhaps you are worried about your child's cross gender behaviour, but they won't discuss it with you, and instead are isolated and withdrawn.

Or it may be you, as a young person, and you feel that your body is wrong, and that you should have been a girl if you were born a boy, or a boy if you were born a girl.
(Added to 2010 description)
<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121109215055/mermaidsuk.org.uk/index.php/what-is-gender-dysphoria" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20121109215055/mermaidsuk.org.uk/index.php/what-is-gender-dysphoria

They seem to have removed their page about gender dysphoria sometime after 2016. However, we can glean some information about how to diagnose children from their parent testimonials

2019
"Kelly"
“From the age of two we started to notice that Evie didn’t quite fit in. I thought that my son was going to be gay, but it became apparent that there was something more than that.

“Evie always wanted to play with dolls, and never had any interest in traditional boys toys, like cars or dinosaurs. We had an older son and the two could not have been more different.

“Evie loved bracelets and constantly wanted to wear one, and when I bought the children Guess Who? to play she unclipped all the female faces and put them in a handbag to carry around with her.

“Evie would look longingly at other little girls who were wearing dresses or skirts, and every time I picked her up from the childminder she would be have raided the dressing up box for a princess costume. She would come to the door to meet me in a sparkly pink dress and a tiara with a big smile on her face.

“At other children’s houses she would love putting on the princess outfits, and would have a meltdown when she had to take them off as it was time to leave.
<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190301090129/www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/parents-voices.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20190301090129/www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/parents-voices.html

"Denise"
“We didn’t notice Sally having any particular problems or issues as she was growing up, but her primary school was very small and the classes were mixed together in infants, so there was no real distinction between boys and girls or age groups.

“But looking back I can see there were pointers. Sally always wanted to play with the dressing up box, and she always wanted to be a princess. She always wanted long hair too.
<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190301090129/www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/parents-voices.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20190301090129/www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/parents-voices.html

What is 'gender euphoria?'

I don't think we're allowed to mention it here

TyroBurning, thank you! That is so interesting and confirming my fears.

HPFA, I started reading it, it seems brilliant. I will read it properly tomorrow.

So basically

1. They take adolescences in a very sensitive stage of their lives when it comes to identity.

2. They throw out a massive red herring that the big thing to focus on is gender identity which in best case is a massive simplification and worst case completely wrong.

3. There is no thought whatsoever that gender identity in itself to a very large extent is a social construct.

4. They give the children an “analytic framework” which massively distorts their ability to make a proper evaluation of their situation.

5. The people who do this are rarely professionals, but most often volunteers with no training, no deep understanding of the issues. Instead most of these volunteers have a strong personal link to the concept of transgender.

6. When -after all the above- a child/adolescent as much as mentions that they may be trans, anything that asks any questions or makes the child/adolescent reflect upon their reality (crucial in most developmental theory), an affirmation only approach has been proposed. This has been so strongly pushed that professionals that actually have a deeper insight have been prohibited from doing anything but affirm.

Is this about right?

"
Mermaids
@Mermaids_Gender
Do you still use the phrase 'born in the wrong body'?

We've been thinking about this phrase for a while and have noticed a lot of our followers have too. We've spoken to our patrons, staff and allies to see what they think!"

twitter.com/Mermaids_Gender/status/1309553254393548802?s=20

mermaidsuk.org.uk/news/do-you-still-use-the-phrase-born-in-the-wrong-body/

Well, well, well.

I feel for the trans allies here. The ones shouting at the barricades, defending the indefensible, swallowing the cognitive dissonance and suppressing the urge to turn to logic. It's suddenly gone quiet, they turn around and see only the retreating backs of those they thought they were helping.

Every woke millennial who has rounded on their mother with some choice words like TERF, Karen, transphobe or bigot when she tried to explain her concerns for safeguarding schoolchildren or teenage girls in the throes of C21st puberty. The non-trans spokespeople who are trotted out to blast indignation on breakfast TV and chat shows. And not least, all the loving parents who are trying to do their best for a child who just likes - or doesn't like - dressing up in pink sparkles or playing rowdy games of kick-around. The people who told them it was a major problem are suddenly saying it never was. I just hope not too many of them have gone too far to turn back without permanent damage.

Have you seen what Haddock is tweeting on the thread sunset gave? I just, what, what's going on?

twitter.com/Mermaids_Gender/status/1309553254393548802?s=20

Lots on that twitter thread seem to boil down to “people used to think born in the wrong body was a metaphor until we told them it was LITERAL now we don’t think that but they’re still wrong because they’re mainly old women eww!”

I’m almost embarrassed for them. Do they really think this is going to work??

A lot of ppl gave them the benefit of the doubt because #bekind & because they assumed that mermaids were the experts in a sensitive subject they knew little about

People do not like to be taken for idiots (no matter how much they played their own part in it)

All this frantic reverse ferreting and rewriting of history won’t save them - I also suspect that stonewall will distance themselves from them too. Stonewall hasn’t survived as long as it has without knowing when to cut troublesome allies lose

Mermaids are seeking to respond to the events of the week with studied cognitive dissonance:

A trans person is someone having the sexed body of one sex who feels themself to be a boy gendered entity in a girl's sexed body or vice versa.

vs

"No child is born in the wrong body"

Mermaids are hoping to carry on as if nothing has changed but intend to throw up so much chaff no one can get any sense of what their actual position is.

Good thread on twitter:

"The changing narrative, a thread:

Mermaids: we're not saying children are born in the wrong body.
Also Mermaids:
mermaidsuk.org.uk/news/support-m "

twitter.com/Snarkasaurus2/status/1309400932006813698?s=20

More evidence:

"Last year a gender identity lesson was secretly recorded at a school in which a senior Mermaids representative taught that some children are born in the wrong body. Today Mermaids agreed with the statement 'No child is born in the wrong body'"

twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1309199389177634824?s=20

"They are backpedalling fast. They've been talking toys and wrong body throughout their history."

twitter.com/Snarkasaurus2/status/1309331504502386689?s=20

More evidence.

"You almost have to admire the chutzpah of those saying "Well OF COURSE we never said people are "born in the wrong body".

Apart from: [Thread]"

twitter.com/thespiralquirk/status/1309484475089383425?s=20

A counter-argument from a trans activist:

medium.com/@Chican3ry/born-in-the-wrong-body-76b858cae49d

They’re really not that smart are they. Of course organisations should take time to try evaluate the ethos which underpins their organisation & question their belief systems

Had mermaids gone quiet for a while & then come back in 3 months with “we took time out to review our thinking and as a result have revised our position etc etc” Ppl might have said ‘ok fair enough’

But this frantic volte face in less than 24 hours is just embarrassingly amateur

[quote SunsetBeetch]A counter-argument from a trans activist:

medium.com/@Chican3ry/born-in-the-wrong-body-76b858cae49d[/quote]
So the point of Mallory’s article is that in the trans community and in gender studies a lot of people dislike and have critiqued the problem that you are born in the wrong body. That’s fine and I accept that although that is the line that Mermaids did push.

What she did not say is what they did see being transgender as. How is their position different from ours? The only explanation of what being transgender means that have understood is Rose of Dawns which is that you have gender dysphoria and you transition to help you deal with that. They don’t like that and her. What makes someone trans?

How am I (some one who is female but very gender non conforming and wanting to break out of stereotypes) different from someone who is non binary? Is it only that they say they are? Is that all? Please help. The watchers on Twitter I am genuinely lost. I am autistic and I know a lot of trans people and one detransitioned person. The explanations I have been given are all the dysphoria wrong body, gender stereotypes one that are now oh so wrong.

You haven’t missed anything sia. It’s all bollocks and you’ve seen through it. It’s that scene in the Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls the curtain back and they see it’s just an old man. There is no wizard.

Is it only that they say they are?

Yes, this is the entirety of it. When it comes to identity politics, the only thing that counts is what you say your identity is. (The exception to this is that only special people can choose their identity, non-special people have to accept the identities imposed on them.)

Put simply, you can be anything you want to be so long as you're a special person. Who is special and who is not is a nightmare that is all about the exercise of power which fluctuates continually.

If you want to know how to deal with such a confusing situation, the answer would be to avoid situations and people who are playing these games. Or if you have the inclination and the means to resist, then prepare yourself for a fight.

@Datun

What exactly are they going to be training people with?

They can't say born in the wrong body, they can't claim the bodies are wrong. They can't describe transgender in relation to anything, to do with clothes/toys/playmates.

There is now no such thing as social transitioning, because that relies completely on gender stereotypes like clothing.

They can't rely on gender dysphoria as being a symptom, because sometimes it isn't, and anyway, it's now being called a sexual disorder.

So it's nothing to do with stereotypes, your body, or (sometimes) a diagnosis of a sexual disorder.

What exactly is going to be on the training leaflet?

How does Mermaids make money? Mermaids is a belief. A unicorn charity. They don't have to do anything but say they are supporting oppressed and vulnerable children.

People are so suckered into this nonsense that Mermaids just have to continue to exist, and they make money.

As long as they stick to the script people won't read up too heavily if its the trendy cause. As long as its the trendy cause.

But then people like to vote for unicorns and swear blind they knew what they were voting for all along.

Oh dear.
It just needs ONE court case to go the distance.

I hope someone has the guts to do it and to make the house of cards collapse.

If one court case causes Mermaids to unravel, what else does that cause to unravel as people who supported Mermaids distance themselves from other things that might 'be a bit messy'?

Does trans stay as the trendy thing to support? Or is it PR potential damaged?

There are solictors willing to take this on? Wow. Thats important. Sounds like an unexplored field in the UK. It might be an opportunity to make a name for yourself as breaking a massive scandal... if you were up for doing that or its a great atm machine.

The problem is though is precisely the house of cards.

I think there are cases in the US where people are suing for negligence but they've been directed towards medical practitioners not lobby groups charities. I think that is where it all gets more difficult.

How do you go about proving that a charity influenced behaviour and is legally liable when you also have another gatekeeper further down the line with medical professionals? In terms of safeguarding where does the buck stop? The charities commission? Local authorities who failed to step in? Other organisations who didn't identify a problem? There's a pretty big list of people who didn't do due diligence if it ends up with Mermaids getting taken to pieces in court.

Not forgetting they've already survived one criticism by explaining it away as an isolated incident.

We have lots of people with a vested interest. Lots of people who won't want a potential case to hit a court, because if it hits a court and Mermaids are found to be up to their necks in a world of shit, then what happens?

The pressure to get an out of court settlement or something else to make the problem 'go away' would be intense. I expect the smear campaign against the potential claimant would be horrendous...

Trouble is the continued existence of Mermaids is a fundamental problem. It can either be wound down or it remains as a potential ticking timebomb. Hence it being an easy atm to make claims vanish.

Mermaids also can't just be suddenly closed for that reason either. It has to continue and either disappear slowly whilst reverse ferreting. A sudden closure draws bad publicity and attention.

My point here is that a lot of people have a lot to lose and no one wants to end up with egg on their face... this still has a lot of factors which although a court case would be a sight to behold, the chance of getting a court judgment, are one that I still feel slim.

All the same I watch hopefully that someone will still do it, realising the extent of the importance of doing so.

I’d also like to know why Susie Green refers children to the Tavi if their own GP won’t. What are her qualifications to make referrals?

twitter.com/mermaidsparent/status/1309589870378188801?s=21

(Photo shows Susie saying “If your GP refuses to refer to the Tavistock then I can do it for you.” and another with Susie saying, “Dave we can refer”)

It's just a language difference, Siablue, with the caveat that language shapes our understanding of the world and of ourselves.

If everyone shared Rose of Dawn's view - which looks like a much healthier and more self-aware position than many people with a trans identity have managed - we'd be in a very different place right now.

TRAs right now:

No one ever said that....

We put it that way to try and help people understand but it's not actually that....

That is what we have been saying all along....

What a ridiculous thing to suggest that...

I have never heard anyone say that....

God, the gender crits are so thick they actually thought we meant x when we said that....

Trans ideology has to be the most fickle thing I have ever seen.

Biological sex is a spectrum, it's definitely not binary.... Duh, nobody ever said biological sex isn't real, of course its real.

Children who are born in the wrong body need irreversible drugs and surgery otherwise they will kill themselves.... Duh, no one ever said children are born in the wrong body and obviously being trans isn't a mental illness.

Signs that your child may be trans include them being drawn to toys or clothes of the opposite sex.... Duh, transgenderism is nothing to do with gender stereotypes and nobody ever said it was.

They keep changing the goalposts of what it is to be trans, they keep telling us what it isn't, but can never seem to be able to tell us what it is.

Its getting rather tedious now I have to say.

They were pretty clear a few years ago- it’s having a girl brain in a boy body!

No one ever said that....

We put it that way to try and help people understand but it's not actually that....

That is what we have been saying all along....

What a ridiculous thing to suggest that...

I have never heard anyone say that....

God, the gender crits are so thick they actually thought we meant x when we said that....

I remember Mermaids retweeting a video of 3 teen siblings, one was trans, the brother said his sister (now trans boy) had always been interested in "boys sports". That pissed me off. Wtf is a "boys sport"?

I also remember them tweeting an article about Helen Mirren which was presented as her supporting the trans stuff, but it wasn't really, even if she thought it was, it was all mixed up. Anyway one of the examples she gave was about men being the good map readers. That pissed me off also. Here's the article www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/10/01/dame-helen-mirren-really-wants-you-to-know-trans-women-are-women/

Dame Helen Mirren really wants you to know that trans women are women
OCTOBER 1, 2019
Dame Helen Mirren has said she’s “not a TERF” and trans women are women in an interview with the Radio Times
The 74-year-old actor also said that gender and sexuality are both on a spectrum.
“I came to the conclusion an awfully long time ago that there is black and there is white, and we’re all somewhere in the middle in a wonderful mix of male and female,” Mirren said.

“There is no such thing as binary sexuality, when you’re male or female. I don’t believe that at all.”

She continued: “I think I was very lucky to be in my world, the world of acting and drama, because I think an awful lot of actors have male and female in them. A lot of great actors, great masculine actors, are actually very feminine.

“Great heartthrobs have a very present feminine side to them. A lot of very strong female actors, have a very strong male side to them.”

Mirren, who previously played Queen Elizabeth II in 2006’s The Queen, added that she does possess some attributes which could be perceived as masculine.

“I hate to talk about my feelings, I never want to go to the doctor, and I’m a brilliant map-reader,” she said. “I have a lot of what people might call male qualities. But I certainly look like a woman.”

Mirren has been a vocal feminist throughout her career. When questioned on the subject of trans rights and older feminists, Mirren was very clear.

“Do you mean Germaine Greer saying women are women and men are men?” she asked.

“Well, she didn’t quite say that,” Mirren went on to clarify, “but if being a TERF [trans-exclusionary radical feminist] is not accepting that trans women are women then I’m not a TERF.”

On The Graham Norton Show on September 27, Helen Mirren talked about Drag Race UK and was given her drag name by RuPaul himself – Sir Lady Cheek Bones. "

www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-10-01/helen-mirren-sexuality/

The Goodwin Sands are more consistent than trans ideology