A wee victory, and hope for the next generation to see through gender nonsense

[KitchenDancefloor]

Sharing as I think all glimmers of sanity are helpful.

My teenage DD is applying for a volunteer role in a charity. She was filling in the application form and asked me to read over it in case she'd made any mistakes.

I noticed that she left the pronouns box blank.

She also didn't fill in the equalities section, except ethnicity as she is passionately anti-racist, and indicated that she is of mixed heritage.

The gender word salad list was ignored.

I checked that she hadn't left anything blank by mistake and got an eye roll and got told she had filled in everything relevant.

That's my girl.

We've never directly had the conversation about my feelings about gender-woo but it seems she has found her own way through.
I'm hopeful that this school-age generation is going to rebel in their own way; by reacting against the crap they are being told by the establishment which has largely swallowed the Stonewall propaganda.

DS is the same. He is mixed heritage too but refuses to fill that one out too (I’m a Londoner!’).

I suspect people are getting fed up of ticking flipping boxes…

Well done! My teenagers have gone from “you make me feel uncomfortable when you say that women’s bodies and spaces need to be protected “ (whilst also allowing spaces for those who wish to dress how they wish as well, but different ones) with a complete 180 to that’s not possible biologically and it’s complete attention grabbing nonsense. Happy days. Feel like my work there is nearly done.

People should stop answering all of these kinds of questions, it's inevitable they will begin to be seen as a way to get to diversity targets in the organization.

DS is 13 and he and his friends are very sceptical of the whole gender nonsense. He says it’s mainly girls at his school who say they are boys/NB, but they don’t change anything, they specifically don’t start hanging out with the boys. I think this is Gen Alpha? Maybe as a whole they will rebel against this.

My DD and her friends are also over it. There must be a tipping point where such a high proportion of the attention seeking kids adopt it.

Recently another boy in their year announced he was a girl and I listened to DD and her friends discussing it. Supposedly it's so rude that he thinks all girls do is make stupid pouty faces and pose for selfies. DDs friend even said that if he wanted to be like a girl, he should try and get into the top maths group. They are only P7, but I feel relief about them going up to their (very pronoun-y) high school.

DDs friend even said that if he wanted to be like a girl, he should try and get into the top maths group.

That is superb 😁

Very encouraging. I worry that the only gender critical people are middle aged parents with no real influence on the views of vulnerable youngsters caught up in gender confusion. It’s good to know many young people see through it too. It really matters.

It is. Top parenting, that woman!

Is this because trans nonsense is being imposed on them from above, i.e. by the school and other adult-run organisations, so disregard or antagonism towards it is anti-authoritarian, whereas in wider society trans stuff is pushed as protections for the (supposedly) vulnerable and marginalised underdogs.

My DD (20) has always agreed with me, but felt very uncomfortable doing so because of the social pressure and didn't like to talk about it because she felt she was saying something bad. A couple of weeks ago though she told me about stuff she'd seen on TikTok with a young woman challenging the whole idea of gender stereotypes, so I think having seen people of her generation say it's bollocks has given her more confidence to speak out. Honestly, though it's like they've only just realised that you can be a girl and still like football and trains, DD was telling me a little bit like this was some sort of fantastic revelation!

And to think that these kids WERE the generation who were told that boys could play with dollies and not ‘catch the gay’, and girls didn’t have the be swathed in pink. I know parents who bent over backwards to present their kids with ‘non gender stereotypical’ toys.

It’s almost as if kids don’t listen to their parents!

The teens I know are highly gender critical. There's a tonne of memes and tiktoks etc out there if you need the evidence!

Eh, Why did my comment saying my DS (18) thinks it’s all so cringe and attention seeking get deleted?

My year 9 DD has done a 180! Last year she was (apparently aromantic, thanks fucking pride club) but this year is fully out as a gender critical feminist! A boy said that girls know nothing and should just study cooking so they cna be good wives and she (and her friend) made a power point on sexism and women who have changed the world!! It was actually shown during assembly. Very proud Mummy moment.

Working in a high school, I've noticed a lot of kids, girls especially, are also pushing back against the 'be kind' (usually while being a nasty piece of work yourself) thing. I heard one kid saying it should be changed to "just don't be an arsehole you judgement tosser" which I also rather like!

There is hope for the future

Fab to hear, Glen. Your DD sounds brilliant.

My son was filling in an online job application form and couldn't believe they asked his sexuality...etc. I suggested he fill in the rather not say box.
On one hand he thought it was intrusive and on a more selfish note he was slightly concerned that he will be put to the bottom of the pile for his lack of interesting identity.

I checked that she hadn't left anything blank by mistake and got an eye roll and got told she had filled in everything relevant.**

• *I love the power of a teenage eyeroll!

I have a Gen Alpha daughter who I am introducing classic movies and TV shows to. She laughs at all the 'problematic' jokes. She's also a fan of Ricky Gervais' stand up specials. Loves IT Crowd and Father Ted too. She doesn't give af. If she finds it funny..she be laughing.

DS is late teens and lives IT Crows and Father Ted. He is very much a ‘live and let live’ as long as you aren’t being a jerk, a bully, or trying to be where you have no right to be (girls dorms or loos).

He is very aware that as a male he has absolutely no right to speak on behalf of women nor are their rights his to debate/give away.

He says it was just an excuse to bully and harangue people.

links would be fab; frankly I feel quite alone in my GC views sometimes. Certainly wouldn't dream of airing them to people my own age (or admitting them at all really outside mumsnet , it's the only reason I joined!)

My male teen said 'i know it isn't fashionable but I'm a straight white male. Lots of people make up stuff so they can be special or oppressed.'

He's comfortable wearing nail polish, earrings or 'feminine' clothing and he and his girlfriend roll their eyes at anyone who tries to attach any kind of meaning - gender or sexuality - to those choices.

He has empathy for his friends that are trans but he views it as more of a mental health issue and he's respectful of their preferences when in their company.

He sounds wonderful.

My teen DS knew about the Bechdel Test by the age of 5. He had a trans-identified friend at school so was a little concerned by my radfem tendencies for a while (demonisation of evil Kareny terfs by his friends).

At my request he read JKR's essay and said she made compelling points. Entirely agrees that respect and consideration are important, but the truth is the truth.

Loves Ricky Gervais and thinks James Acaster is an unfunny knob.

I am vastly relieved.

Given where we were on the 70's with David Bowie and other creative dressers of both sexes I'm not sure how we've arrived at such regressive binary thinking. Would be great if the younger generation started pushing the balance in the other direction.

We watch old TOTP and ‘X at the BBC’ type shows. Sometimes we rib DS ‘ha your gens head would explode!’ and mostly he gets is. But then I always thought the lead singer in Rush was an unattractive woman for ages.