I’ve noticed that having a trans-kid is a thing in the West. Celebrities like Charlize Theron or Jamie Lee Curtis set and sell the trend while the masses are only too eager to follow it. They even outpace their role models rushing into hormone treatments and mutilating surgeries as early as allowed, while a celebrity or some socialite can never go beyond a coming out waiting for the next current thing to ride.
I also assume that autistic kids are increasingly trendy. In our country now every other parenting blog is about how “sun-kids” (Down’s syndrome), autistic kids and other kids with severe mental issues are special and alternatively gifted (just try this or that therapy, class, method, etc.).
I am not going to discuss ethics or disease typology, nor will I talk about those why try to get donations on a fake pretext. No. What I’m going to focus on is fashion and parent needs.
The majority of parents want special kids. Talented kids, child prodigies, kids that can be placed on top of a stool to tell a poem they themselves wrote 20 minutes ago. Of course those parents also want these kids to grow into regular people. An adult genius vainly seeking validation is way more of a freak than any autistic kid. But that’s another story. Not today.
Let’s get back to parents and their unhealthy ambitions. If a child prodigy doesn’t happen, a trans kid will fit the bill. Autistic kid is not that cool, but will do. A case of Down’s syndrome is quite bad, but can also yield likes, views and tons of approval from perfect strangers to parents if the case is not too severe and parental wallet is thick.
All that seems to indicate a scenario that is rare in present markets: a need detected and covered to a profit, not created from scratch. Parental craving to have a special child is detected, and more children are now defined as special with a lot of stuff sold for them: gender reassignment therapy, various trendy treatments promising miracles and costing fortunes, mentoring, tutoring, etc. (buzzwords keep emerging).
As far as trans kids are concerned, it seems to be outright criminal, as healthy kids may undergo irreversible procedures and be crippled for life, both physically and mentally. In other cases it may seem innocuous. Indeed, why would anyway criticize availability and promotion of treatments? But it is not that simple. Setup of a positive image of severe conditions, illusion that those are reversible, false promises, encouraging and inspiring videos from rich and famous make [future] parents less aware of the real picture, less cautious during prenatal exams, more prone to take the results of those exams lightly.
I know that I’m touching on a sore and complicated subject where there is a thin line between reason and outright nazism, racism and bigotry. But let’s look at it from a different angle: while people with heart conditions deserve all the possible care and protection, we do not celebrate heart conditions per se, we celebrate cancer survivors, not the disease itself, etc. We also pay a lot of attention to prevention. The same attitude seems to be reasonable when we speak about genetic conditions or, say, obesity. Providing help and preventing hate speech doesn’t mean normalizing a condition, seeing it as a blessing and spreading lies that it is actually harmless or even good to have. Fun fact, when I was drafting this, I first used AIDS and HIV as an example of something that needs research and treatment, but not celebration and acceptance. Ian informed me that AIDS IS actually celebrated. See what I mean?
Last but not least here. Some will say it is far-fetched, but, apart from the profit motive I’ve just covered, popularization, celebration, promotion and normalization of severe conditions that are in fact tragic and should not be used as material for freak shows stem from the same civilizational necrophilia that created sexy vampires, nice werewolves, freakish mutants with super-powers, charming cannibals and other Jokers or Darth Vaders luring teens to choose the dark side in computer games.
Unfortunately, some eventually choose the dark side in real life or try to be special while negating their true selves.
Maria, as father of a high-functioning Asperger kid, I can tell that it is not cool. At all. I do not know how these other parents do, but being constantly called out by others on the kid’s alleged “bad behaviour” (when it is just that his brain works differently) is really tiring. And it is tiring because Western society, on one hand, says that it is important to help this kind of people and at the same time, on the other hand, doesn’t understand them.
Well, and I’m also uncle to a niece who says that she is a boy. I hope that it just passes when she ages, because I cannot stomach the idea of her taking these hormones and undergoing “gender affirming” surgery.
The West is going downhill, really fast.
It’s important to help and to focus on helping, not on empty words and false promises. I know what it feels like to be a caretaker myself (mental case involved), and i would never describe this experience as positive, empowering or inspiring, or the condition in question “special”. Sad truths need be admitted to move forward and find real solutions.
Would I circumcise my son? No.
Would I offer my son in sacrifice under God’s command? No. (*)
Mammals protect their offspring. Independent of circumstances. And we die for them if need be.
(*) And yet I’m Christian. I find many things in the Old Testament very questionable; to the point that sometimes I feel that the coming of Jesus was as much to show us truths as to show us lies.
the woke “movement” in general is simply a bunch of boring, basic people trying to be “special snowflakes” and fighting for superiority in the guise of “equality”. it goes back to the saying that “all people are equal but some are more equal than others.” it’s an “identity” movement made up of drones with no actual identity; or, to quote a line from a comedy i saw recently, “you never had a personality – you just had some tv shows and movies you liked”.
as for “trans kids” i think the paraphrasing of (stopped clock) richard dawkins’ saying about children raised in religious households is apt: “there are no trans kids – there just parents who buy into trans ideology”. many parents try to live through their kids as a proxy for their failed lives (especially show biz kids, funny enough) and those same parents will try to be “special and unique” by having a “special and unique” kid who is “trans” because any boy who likes pink MUST be a girl and needs to block “her” puberty STAT. it’s like they’re playing with dolls that reflect social status.
i’d also point out that a venn diagram of kids who “identify” as trans and those who have autism will usually have massive overlap. most of the ones who don’t have that specific condition are simply gay and the trans thing is a new form of “conversion therapy” as supposedly “woke” parents will sometimes think “better a fake daughter than a real f_gg_t son”. (never mind the kids who have internalized homophobia…whole other can of worms.)
https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/largest-study-to-date-confirms-overlap-between-autism-and-gender-diversity/