{"id":1921,"date":"2015-05-11T18:38:59","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T00:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2015-05-12T07:01:51","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T13:01:51","slug":"more-gender-skepticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/05\/more-gender-skepticism.html","title":{"rendered":"More “gender” skepticism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Go read this article from the Washington Post, \u201cWhen no gender fits: A quest to be seen as just a person<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0This dates from September 2014, but appeared as a \u201crelated\u201d article to a more recent piece (on abortion, so not terribly related).<\/p>\n

The article profiles a young woman, heading off to college, who considers herself \u201cnon-binary, agender, and use[s] they\/them\/their pronouns.\u201d \u00a0She wants hormone treatment, not to develop a male physique, but because \u201cIn Kelsey\u2019s mind, the body that would feel right wasn\u2019t the body Kelsey had now. Kelsey wanted a redistribution of muscle, less on the hips and more in the upper body. A lower voice, though not too much \u2014 not to where it would sound like a man\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did she get to this point? \u00a0The article says,<\/p>\n

For Kelsey, identifying as agender wasn\u2019t an immediate realization but a gradual awakening, a recognition that what applied to other girls didn\u2019t seem to apply to Kelsey. People would say Kelsey was pretty, and it made Kelsey squirm \u2014 not because Kelsey felt unattractive but because other people\u2019s definitions of pretty, or handsome for that matter, didn\u2019t work. Dresses and makeup only made Kelsey feel uglier, but boy clothes weren\u2019t right either. It wasn\u2019t about being a tomboy. It wasn\u2019t a personality trait. It wasn\u2019t even about the clothes, although those were an immediate shorthand for Kelsey\u2019s discomfort. It was something different and deeper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Her mom, who struggles with the situation, lost her husband to cancer four years previously; is this related? \u00a0Is this typical adolescent turmoil that took a different direction because of the availability of all manner of ideas out on the internet? \u00a0The article certainly seems to indicate that a lot of what happened was a conviction that \u201cgirls like to be girly, I don\u2019t like to be girly, therefore, whatever it is that I am, it\u2019s not a girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I said that I was skeptical of the idea of transgenderism, a couple days ago<\/a>; this really kicks it up a notch. \u00a0I get that this girl doesn\u2019t feel like she fits in with the other girls in her school, hunting for the best prom dress, but: \u00a0why should it be necessary to take preferences for dress and appearance and make the leap to declaring that you need hormonal treatment and a new set of pronouns? \u00a0Why not just check the \u201csex: female\u201d box and go on with your day? \u00a0I just don\u2019t see any reason why a desire\u00a0for a nontraditionally-female appearance \u2014 clothes, hairstyle, etc. \u2014 necessarily means refusing to accept the \u201cfemale\u201d box.<\/p>\n

Helpful hint: \u00a0don\u2019t go searching the terms \u201cnon-binary\u201d or \u201cagender\u201d on the internet. \u00a0There\u2019s a lot out there that makes Kelsey\u2019s request for hormones seem mild, including people who pursue their \u201cagender\u201d identification to the point of surgery, and one link led to the suggestion that this is all bound up with transhumanism, as well, that is, not the pursuit of extra-long life spans, but the idea that we can remake our bodies however we choose.<\/p>\n

Quick update: \u00a0does Kelsey need therapy? \u00a0It was to a therapist that she was already seeing that she brought up the idea, having read about it online, both of being agender and taking hormones. \u00a0And apparently there are therapists and other medical professionals who are as willing to sign off on this as they are sexual reassignment surgery.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Go read this article from the Washington Post, \u201cWhen no gender fits: A quest to be seen as just a person.\u201d \u00a0This dates from September 2014, but appeared as a \u201crelated\u201d article to a more recent piece (on abortion, so not terribly related). The article profiles a young woman, heading off to college, who considers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMore "gender" skepticism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Go read this article from the Washington Post, "When no gender fits: A quest to be seen as just a person." \u00a0This dates from September 2014, but appeared\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/05\/more-gender-skepticism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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