To think trans is the new anorexia?

[SouperMario]

Controversial but I just read this piece and cannot help agreeing with a lot of it. Both forms of body dysmorphia, both social contagions.

https://unherd.com/2023/04/is-trans-the-new-anorexia/

Oh my, I couldn't bring myself to wade through that article. It's
He is very wrong. He makes out that anorexia is something people choose to have because it trendy which is absolute bollox.

Sounds about right. Aspiring to be special by bypassing the usual route of intelligence or beauty and becoming socially 'different' but actually following a well trodden path of hysteria. Ironically, these people are told they are strong for walking this path but it actually takes greater courage to accept your cards in life, accept that "normal" is great and actually the secret to be happy is not to strive to be happy but be pleased with being level - just simply satisfied.

What a strange article.

People weren't having anorexia for attention. They might have said they did, but anyone who was actually anorexic was not doing so for a trend. People aren't trans for attention. Some people might say they are and play with the idea, but nobody is going through the slow and useless NHS process to transition and taking lifelong medication and surgeries for a trend.

Love that Shriver (who decried the later MeToo movement and has been criticised for the way she spoke about women who've been sexually assaulted) manages to get a dig at bisexuality in there, too. She's a real peach.

He is very wrong.

Lionel Shriver is a woman . Professional provocateur.
Poster girl for the anti-woke brigade. Utter arsehole.

Not anorexia but definitely bulimia/ self harm.

Can you expand on that please?

I'm curious to know how it's similar to SH

There are parallels but I’m more inclined to say it’s the new goth for the lighthearted adherents and the new religion for the heavy duty ones

It's the theory of social contagion of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria in teenage girls that is likened to anorexia.

Teenage girls having a mental illness as an external way to show how deeply unhappy they are.

If your teenage girl suddenly identifies as trans, never having shown any signs of gender dysphoria as a young child, then why is the solution cross sex hormones and radical surgery rather than psychotherapy? You wouldn't validate and give diet pills or a gastric bypass to an anorexic.

I don’t think for a moment people have anorexia for ‘attention’, that’s completely wrong. I do think as a condition though it can be addictive and can also be a sort of identity , both through ‘thinness’ and through a focus on food and dieting and restricting eating. So I do agree with that.

I wouldn't say anorexia but thinking back 5-6 years ago self-harm was very popular at school. It was like it was a contagious disease, although people who said they were doing it, actually weren't.

I agree with her. It is social contagion. She writes well and persuasively but I didn't find I took much persuading. There will be a few trans people who would have come to it on their own and who genuinely struggle, but many more that have jumped on the trendy bandwagon. Not to say they are not psychologically damaged or, as with anorexia - self-harming (by definition self-harm is harming oneself for whoever asked above) and putting themselves at huge risk, but they would not have come to it on their own without the influence of others.

Precisely. She's Katie Hopkins with a cloak of academic respectability.

There are some parallels.

I think it's more the social consciousness.

In that if you spend time with people who have it and are exposed to them, or seeing it all the time the chances of it affecting you are increased.

I'd say it's the new lesbianism. It was very trendy for girls to be gay, I know a lot who are now heterosexual. (Not bi.) It was the cool thing to be but many moved on and there were no lasting effects. Being trans is a a definitely more harmful.
Agree that therapy/help is and should always be the first answer.

er - it really isn’t the new lesbianism. Being a lesbian doesn’t involve invasive medical procedures and/or dangerous behaviour that risks your life!

Social contagion, shocking (to main actor as well as family) endorphin release and strong sense of identity in the community.

DD's friends all went this, around the age of 12/13.

.Well, yes, I think teenage girls do demonstrate psychological distress in each generation but the form of that expression is adaptable. I think that anorexia was the mode in the 90s, self harm in the noughties and we are seeing girls transing out of womanhood in this generation.

Of course that has always been and will be anorexics and self harmers but that doesn't negate the above.

Nailed it

The vast vast majority don't actually have any surgery or medication though.
Saying you are a member of the opposite sex is enough to be 'trans'.
You don't even need to charge your name or even attempt to look like the opposite sex.

@ChocolateHelps - I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Congratulations that's the most stupid thing I've ever heard.

Eating disorders are not "hysteria" or some kind of grand plan to become "socially different".

As someone who suffered with an eating disorder and have tried to commit suicide due to how unbearable life was I hope you rethink the stupid, thoughtless, ignorant attitude you have. Plain nasty.

There is a massive difference between saying you are trans or anorexic and actually being those things.
These things have existed forever and in lots of different societies across the world.
I'm amazed anyone thinks that article is well thought out or well written. It's awful

Lionel shriver is female

I don't think much of that article.

I do think, however, that the subconscious need which (some) trans-identifying girls are trying to meet through gender identity is one which (some) anorexic girls try to meet through control over eating- disassociation from the body as an attempt to recover the independence and freedom lost in going through puberty in a misogynistic society.