Recently the Stuff website interviewed an Auckland bloke discussing his homelessness and transsexuality. Despite looking and sounding male for the very good reason, despite growing his hair long, that he is a male, the Stuff site referred to him as “she”. This is absurd.
One can and indeed should feel sorry for such people whose problem is a mental, not physical one, and who sincerely believe they’ve been born in the wrong sex body, unaligned with their mental sense of themself. It’s a hell of a handicap. But to play along with their delusion, as in this case, by referring to this chap as she, is an abuse of language.
If someone concluded he’s not human but instead is a werewolf, this a psychiatric disorder known as lycanthropy, and let us say he runs for the mayoralty, would Stuff when discussing the candidates refer to Mr Smith, Mrs Smith and in his case Werewolf Smith, and if not, why not?
The answer of course is notwithstanding the candidate’s belief of his true identity, the undisputable evidence is he’s not a werewolf, thus he’d be described as “Mr”.
So why did Stuff make an exception to this modern phenomenon of individuals identifying with a sex they physically are not? Sympathy perhaps? No; I suspect a much more idiotic explanation, namely fashion. By definition fashion is fickle thus eventually becomes outmoded. The sooner it occurs with this folly, the better we’ll all be.
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PLAYING DRESS-UPS
Back before postmodernists began telling us “gender is a social construct” (meaning individuals were now free to “reconstruct” their gender according to personal preference) this was referred to as “Gender Identity Disorder” in the APA’s Diagnostics and Statistics Manual (the shrink profession’s “bible”) and regarded as a treatable form of mental illness.
Today, owing to pressure from the Lavender Lobby, the DSM holds that someone claiming to be trapped in the wrong body is no longer mentally ill unless they “feel anxious” about it, and the focus of therapy is helping them feel comfortable about what used to be seen as self-delusion.
The burden of change has thus been shifted from the mentally ill individual to an unjustly judgemental society. Since it’s now society’s fault that gender-pretenders feel anxious, the rest of us must pander to their delusions in the interests of “sensitivity” and not hurting delicate feelings.
If someone told us that “humanity is a social construct” and asserted they were a Martian because they felt like one, barring a few postmodernist idiots who’d agree with them, the general consensus would be they should be sent to a psychologist to help them come to terms with reality.
How is the equation any different when it comes to a gender-pretender?
A man who has his willy surgically removed no more becomes a woman by so doing than having it reattached to his forehead will make him an elephant.
Nor does a woman whose artificial penis inflates when she pushes on a reservoir of silicon embedded in her abdomen — so she can simulate penetrative intercourse with a woman — become a man by so doing.
Gendered reality is a stubborn and intractable matter.
Psychologically, gender-pretenders are self-centred, attention-seeking children playing make-believe. They will stay on ground zero as long as others are prepared to give them the attention they crave and go along with the charade.
These people need a shrink, not a surgeon.
Once we allow the mentally ill to redefine reality for the rest of us, the lunatics really HAVE taken over the asylum.
ENDS
The voice of reason. Going against a tide of stupidity just like that boy who declared the emperor was unclothed.
I can only imagine a similar embarrassed reaction when the populace realise it was just bullshit all along.
A recent example of how far this insanity has gone; mandatory trans gender training for kids hockey coaches. https://quillette.com/2020/01/22/faced-with-gender-propaganda-at-the-hockey-rink-one-coach-says-no/
I think there is a wide spectrum, from people who are clearly mentally ill and for whom dressing up as the opposite sex is a coping mechanism to people such as Catherine McGregor the Aussie author and cricket commentator who is highly intelligent and to whom I would refer to as “she” out of respect even though she is biologically male because I think it takes a lot of guts and determination to do something that she was clearly compelled to do and is presumably happier living her life as a woman.
If only you knew how deep the rabbit hole goes… The term that you are brushing up against as used online is ‘otherkin’, which I am tempted to dissuade anyone from searching, but do what you want.
Translender – 120kg on the outside but convinced I’m really 70kg.
Seriously though, are anorexics fat like they think they are? No. Do those in mental asylums who think they’re Jesus or Napoleon correct about their identitiy? No. Transgenders can believe anything they like, but I fail to see why the rest of us should be forced to share their insane delusions.
Motorcyclist identifies as bicyclist. Sets new cycling speed record.