Anyone else hearing of backlash against trans ideology among their teens?

[KnittingDiva]

My 14 year old DS has been telling me that among his age group now there is no tolerance for Trans/NB TikTok influencers and that they are being ridiculed etc..

This is a very different attitude than when my older two (17 and 19) were at that age and it was the start of that trend and they would have been overtly respectful on that issue (would have avoided it mostly but not ridicule).

It seems it is now seen as being an 'older' person trying to be cool with the kids and a bit creepy.

Anyone else noticed this change or is it just here (Rep of Ireland)?

Conversation with teen last night. She totally gets that pronouns are bullshit but she believes so fervently that transwomen are women that she is content for them to be in women's prisons. And I am prejudiced for thinking otherwise. Ho hum.

DS 2 15 is very much of the #be kind type but is happy to discuss. Listened to a bit of a Helen Joyce interview together on a Marshall matters podcast. He immediately disagreed with it but when pinned down (not literally) he admitted that trans women should not participate in female sports nor be in 'sensitive' spaces for biological women like public bathrooms, refuges etc. Tbh he only knows of 1 'trans' teen at school (F to M) so don't think it's that much of a trend within his circle.
DS 1 20 is very much GC but he's fairly traditionally right wing, would have voted for Brexit etc.

I think it is good that they are thinking differently but it's not very nice to ridicule people. I wouldn't be happy if my DC were doing that.

My youngest (11) is looking at my middle (16) with pity and horror - there is nothing cool about the ‘trans teens’ anymore - the younger ones see them as miserable and embarrassingly self absorbed, they’ve been so busy ‘identifying as’ they’ve forgotten to develop any cool skills (skateboarding, playing in punk bands etc).

My eldest (22) has always seen gender as bullshit but spent his university years keeping those thoughts quiet. He’s out the other side of uni now and back to speaking his mind.

I wouldn't be happy if my teens told me they were ridiculing people on line.

I haven't seen this but I'm not surprised if it's happening. I hope it is! Trends change.

However, I'd also add that the majority of working class teens and children never bought as much into this in the first place. It is mostly the preserve of the privileged, middle class teen with clueless #bekind parents or status-seeking parents. In my experience, anyway.

Talking to a relative at a family lunch yesterday. He's gay, Gen Z. Openly making fun of Sam Smith, correctly sexing SS, saying non-binary is just the new emo/goth. A couple of years ago he appeared captured by the ideology but yesterday it was actually me reminding him that SS uses 'they' pronouns (I got mocked for doing so).

My 14 year old DD is quite scathing. No tolerance for pronouns and trans contagion nonsense in school, and lots of pisstaking dog / dogself etc. at home. I'm surprised really because I could easily see her being the 'bekind' type, but she is very funny, and I think the absurdity of it all appeals to her sense of humour. Her younger brother has an 'enby/fluid' gf and DD told me quietly 'she's one of those' with an eyeroll. DS is 13 and very GC in theory but is surrounded by it. He will use new names and pronouns at school but privately he doesn't. He speaks quite eloquently about it to be fair e.g. he totally accepted his male friend liking pink glittery accessories becasue he likes them, but takes issue with the same friend now saying he has a glittery bag 'becasue he's trans'. SDS 14 says his yeargroup is full of people lying about their gender which tickled me. I think the tide is turning. Now boring old adults (in their eyes) are fully on board I'm sure it is starting to lose its shine to teens.

DD17 is if anything more gender critical than me and has been so for a good many year. The requisitioning of a set of female toilets at school to be gender neutral when DD was about 13 did the job

Yy to using new names to people's faces. She has a tendency to call them it behind their back

Yes. My own kids are younger but late teen/ early adult family members are over it. Even the more social justice warrior type ones. My suspicion is that non binary was the cause. It's infinitely easier to adopt as an identity so numbers swell; it requires just as much buzz kill language and thought policing; the utter lack of logic really tests the imperative to "be kind" which after all was founded on sympathy for old school transexuals.

DD plays hockey for the county and it's often come up in conversation regarding hypothetical situations e.g. opposing a male player or in the changing/shower room. She thought that half her team would be okay with it last year, but this year the whole team have said they'd refuse to play or get changed with a guy. Their coach (female) has always discussed it with them quite openly and never given an opinion either way, but she has two hockey playing daughters and I suspect she's gc. I think that for sporty teenagers there have been too many examples of the unfairness in too short a time - the ideology overplayed it's hand.

DD (14) has always quietly thought the whole pronouns and non binary thing was attention-seeking BS, and doesn’t believe TWAW. She is sporty and was peaked by TW competing in female sports some time ago. We have had many interesting conversations about it.

What’s interesting though is that her group of female friends are now being much more vocal about not buying the gender woo stuff - socially, at school etc. Thete seems to be a lot of anger particularly about TW saying they have periods and talking about it on TikTok - this hasn’t gone down well with these teenage girls .

They don’t talk about it online, though, as DD says people ‘come for you’ if you say anything against trans ideology, which is still pretty depressing.

DD also has a girl friend at school who was ‘trans’ for about a year, then changed to non-binary and has now finally come out as a big standard lesbian and sacked off the gender stuff. My DD is really pleased about it and said quietly to me ‘I always knew she was just a lesbian’ .

bog standard

My dd’s best friend decided she was NB. The whole friend group found it exhausting, so while they were all bekind to start with, they got thoroughly fed up with it. The NB’ family never had any patience with it either, and she has quietly gone back to her name and she/her pronouns without any big fuss - thankfully!

DS is 13 and very GC, he jokingly claims to identify as an attack helicopter, no idea where he got that from, probably Tik Tok. He goes to a very traditional boys’ Grammar school and as far as I know, there are no boys there identifying as girls. My niece attends the equivalent girls’ Grammar and lots of the girls are claiming to be transgender (although they still seem quite happy to take up a place in a girls’ school). My niece doesn’t buy into any of it and just ignores it all.

I have two DSs 14 and 17 and they are at an all boys school, with a mixed sixth form.

it just doesn't seem to be a 'thing'. They don't know if any trans pupils. Not that they know of anyway.

They had visits from e.g Stonewall in the past and all asked to wear eg. rainbow coloured laces with a donation in the past, but that has about been the extent of it. As far as I know.

Just read the post up from mine, yes maybe it is as more girls identifying.

No, ours is very much live and let live. Certainly wouldn’t “ridicule”
anyone on line.

I coach at a rowing club, interestingly the last few years has seen strong resistance to both access to single sex spaces and participation in the sport itself by transwomen. We are talking about both young members (teens/early 20s) and older members. To compete in rowing requires a huge time commitment (think six days a week training) and margins of victory are often very small so the idea of a transwoman competing in women's sports is seen as very unfair. British Rowing have been a bit crap on this but the push back from members has been considerable.

The teen trend aspect of all this isn't sustainable just because of how different generations have their own cultural flash points.

Which doesn't mean all kids going forward will cease to identify as different genders/pronouns but I think we are somewhere near or already past the peak of them doing it on a mass scale.

At some point other things will become the 'in' thing to define upcoming generations.

I think it's perfectly acceptable to ridicule the ridiculous. Not looks, but ideas.... there comes a point where its OK to stop "being kind" and say " the emperor has no clothes on"

I think it's fine to ridicule an ideology that preaches tolerance, and practises no debate and bullying.

I'm also up for ridiculing some of Sam Smith's costumes.... I think that's almost universal. I'm sure that's helping peak every generation.

I'm of the opinion that would-be trans/NB "influencers" need ridiculing.

However, I'd also add that the majority of working class teens and children never bought as much into this in the first place. It is mostly the preserve of the privileged, middle class teen with clueless #bekind parents or status-seeking parents. In my experience, anyway.

///

This is definitely a pattern I've seen too.