The wrong body

[BovaryX]

There is an interesting article in Quilette written by an endocrinologist who raises questions about the 'wrong body' paradigm and the way it is used to 'diagnose' children as transgender.

While these claims about gender identity did not attract systematic scrutiny at first, they now have become the subject of criticism from a growing number of scientists, philosophers and health workers. Developmental studies show that young children have only a superficial understanding of sex and gender (at best). For instance, up until age 7, many children often believe that if a boy puts on a dress, he becomes a girl. This gives us reason to doubt whether a coherent concept of gender identity exists at all in young children. To such extent as any such identity may exist, the concept relies on stereotypes that encourage the conflation of gender with sex

quillette.com/2019/09/24/no-one-is-born-in-the-wrong-body/

Nice quote. Completely agree. Children that young don’t really understand abstract ideas like gender and barely understand differences in sex (unless part of a naturalist family).

Cognitive functioning and executive decision making parts of the brain, the ones that deal with logic, aren't fully formed until around 25 years of age.
We know what kids can grasp. Abstract concepts like maths are taught in gradually increasing complexity to mirror children's age and stage of development.
We know from other areas of study, such as bereavement, that children's grasp of permanence is limited.
This is one of the aspects that has baffled me about gender and children being medicalised - we know that children don't have the skills to fully understand but it's being done anyway.

I thought that the "born in the wrong body" mantra had now been ditched by gender-woo central?

I thought that the "born in the wrong body" mantra had now been ditched by gender-woo central?

It might have been ditched in those terms but it'll continue to be used but in reframed terms, something like a trans person having a gender identity that doesn't match their sexed body.

As the gender identity ideology currently stands, the need for young recruits is so strong that "wrong body" at some conceptual level is essential.

Another undeveloped skill is empathy. So if you have a limited concept of gender and permanence, and limited reasoning and empathy skills, how can you in anyway understand what being another gender and seen as a very different person entails? That's before you have to risk assess the medical aspects (when by nature of being a young you are already less risk averse and more ego centric.)

As the gender identity ideology currently stands, the need for young recruits is so strong that "wrong body" at some conceptual level is essential

I think that is absolutely true. How does one identify a child as 'transgender' at the age of eight? Assertions like this are treated as incontrovertible by some of the most powerful politicians on the planet.

@nauticant

It might have been ditched in those terms but it'll continue to be used but in reframed terms, something like a trans person having a gender identity that doesn't match their sexed body.

As the gender identity ideology currently stands, the need for young recruits is so strong that "wrong body" at some conceptual level is essential.

Agree with everything you've just said.

But I thought that the stonewalls etc. had sent out a memo just recently saying not to use that expression anymore for some vague reason? And didn't some people remove those words from their SM history?

I do hope you're right and they have to use more creative language to try and sneak it through. (It will be perfectly bloody obvious to anyone with a brain cell.)

I assumed that Stonewall had ditched the "wrong body" narrative but having had a look, I'm now not so sure. They gave the statement below but I'm not sure what they said specifically about "wrong body":

Mo Wiltshire, the director of education and youth at the LGBT charity Stonewall ... added: “Stonewall has always been clear that teachers shouldn’t make assumptions about whether a child is trans because they don’t conform to gender stereotypes, in the same way that we have always advised that teachers should not make assumptions about a child’s sexual orientation.”