#I grew up at my father side even if he's mostly absent but hoo boy- if soldiers can stay resilient in mind and body during war-

[sunlit-mess]

if it’s not too personal, why would you prefer staying with at your mother’s? Is it cause you get along well with your sisters?

[vuutarros]

Hoo boy

So, I just finished watching that BBC2 special, Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best. The one people have so upset about. Because I felt I needed to watch it first before condemning it. And really, there isn't a pit deep enough to bury it in. One reviewer called it the most even-handed approach they'd seen (from the Telegraph, but I'm on mobile). Admittedly, I haven't watched many documentaries on the subject. But I really don't think this was really even-handed. They REALLY came down on Dr Ken Zucker's side. I mean, they gave a good show of trying to accept the other sides to the argument, but they obviously agreed with Zucker. For one thing, they spent a lot of time talking to him, giving his theories and supporters voice time. They constantly referred to him as "one of the world's foremost experts on gender dysphoria", no one else really got that level of recognition. They kept going back to his firing, which occurred after a 6 month investigation into allegations of repairative therapy practices (which are illegal in Canada), he wasn't fired for his theories on the possible underlying causes of gender dysphoria in children, he was fired for his practice of conversion therapy. But they barely make reference to the reason. They do, however, spend a surprising amount focused on how, due to his firing, people in the academic community are afraid to side with him on his theories, and to argue against affirmation therapy. Because, obviously, that was really why he was fired, Big Trans didn't like his dissenting voice. Oh yeah, there's also lots of mention about how the people pushing for transgender rights and recognition are running the show. Really. They do talk about the "born in the wrong body" narrative, mostly as the "girl brain in a boy body" and vice versa, and then brought in an expert on neural architecture. She very much dislikes this theory (yay!) because brains show no physical differences between the sexes, and gender is something of a learned trait. Taught not by biology, but by society, and the transgender community's use of this narrative is far more damaging and just reinforces 1950s gender stereotypes (well, damn... 😧). Okay, Doc, I'll give that you know your way around a brain but there are a lot of reasons that trans people use this narrative, and it almost always has no basis in the trans person actually believing it (*stage whisper* hint: it's because of the medical community believing it). They talk to one young kid, I think she was 6 or 7; one teenager, she was on puberty inhibitors, and now on hormones for a couple years; a trans man doctor; another doctor who gets very little facetime; and a cishet Ontario MPP for the trans pro side. On Zucker's side, you have a retired colleague of his (this is the one who really focuses on how Zucker's firing has scared people quiet); another doctor from CAMH who was colleagues with both, but still works for CAMH; a mother whose "son" was a patient of Zucker; a single mother whose 3 (?)-year-old "son" was just confused because her very conservative parents were upset that she got pregnant out of wedlock and he's probably just gay; a father who fought with his daughter for 6 (6!) years until, at age 12, she stopped fighting and grew her hair back out and now she's in her late teens (I'd be interested to follow up with her in a few years, though); the girl herself; and a woman who had transitioned, been taking T, had top surgery and then realised the dysphoria had nothing to do with being trans after all and was know advocating against affirmation therapy. Not entirely sure if the neurologist goes with Zucker, but... *shrug* Notably absent (in my opinion at any rate) were any trans women. There were some interesting points brought up, particularly in regards to the number of children who experience gender dysphoria also being somewhere on the autism spectrum or having anxiety/obsessive disorders. Although, it's mentioned and then dropped. My favourite part though was when Zucker compared gender dysphoria to a kid saying they're actually a dog. So, if we were to follow what affirmation therapy advocates, we'd buy them dog food and so on. Because obviously the two are the same thing. Definitely the world's foremost expert on gender dysphoria. I think there was more, but people started talking to me and I lost my train of thought. If anyone else managed to stomach watching it, and has anything they want to add feel free.