Re:Why the surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls?
by lightbyte on Thursday November 29, 2018 @09:10AM
(#18560222)
I agree that it sounds uncomfortable for a child to make just a permanent life-changing decision like that, but the counter point is that transitioning is significantly easier on the body and mind before puberty happens.
Re:Why the surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls?
by eximius on Thursday November 29, 2018 @09:52AM
(#18560543)
It's definitely a catch-22.
In the vein of 'do no harm', I'd tend towards delaying it, even though it might be harder later, rather than proactively pushing a treatment that will later be revealed to be a mistake. It's too hard to present the options to a child without putting bias and pressure on them.
Re:Why the surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls?
by falcolas on Thursday November 29, 2018 @10:09AM
(#18560696)
I agree on the value of delay. During childhood, we all wanted to be firefighters, police, the president, and astronauts. We don't start those children down a permanent path based on those choices, we (mostly) let them become adults before locking down career paths.
There are some exceptions to these rules, of course. One in particular is athletes. Society happily will fundamentally alter a child's or adolescent's body in pursuit of athletics.
Re:Why the surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls?
by helen___keller on Thursday November 29, 2018 @11:00AM
(#18561129)
There’s a such thing as a tomboy, but a person who identifies with ONLY male attributes is, by definition, male. If a girl seems to display only male attributes when given the choice/ability, it’s possible she may identify with only male attributes, in which case she is actually male.
If someone is a full grown adult and fully understands the consequences, they should be able to do what they like, but for children I don’t think adults should be pushing permanent life-changing medical treatments on them.
Edit: I'm just going to add another thing. As someone who thinks traditional gender roles are largely bullshit, I think it's unfortunate that kids who may prefer clothes or activities traditionally associated with the opposite gender are being pushed to believe that they actually are that gender. Why can't boys like to wear "girly" clothes and play with dolls without being told they're actually a girl inside? Why can't girls cut their hair short and play sports without being told they must really somehow literally be a boy?