Body positivity and gender transitioning
Windows of buildings not far from my home display signs proclaiming that those inside welcome teens, promote “body positivity” and “protect trans kids.”
The juxtaposed signs provoke considerable reflection. In some ways they clash. We are under strong social pressure, however, not to discuss that clash or, indeed, any downside to these slogans. After all, we wouldn’t want to be perceived as unkind.
We’d yell “Stop!”
But it is not kind to say nothing as kids pursue potentially harmful behavior, much less to encourage them down that path. We at least need to make sure they’re fully aware of possible risks.
If someone were unwittingly stepping in front of a speeding car, we’d yell “Stop!” While the dangers our kids face are more complex and less immediate, they are still urgent. No yelling is necessary, but calm, free discussion is.
From those teen-oriented signs — body positivity and transitioning kids — it is fair to ask whether body positivity is valued only until the issue turns to gender. At that point, is society supposed to agree with a teen’s rejection of his or her body and to encourage the desire for drugs and surgery to become the opposite sex — no matter what the still-emerging science says about the risks?
What diligent reporting has revealed is that there isn’t much “science” to support some faddish treatments for young bodies. With evidence of plenty of harmful medicine, we should be more cautious and thoughtful than we have been to date.
Consider “body positivity.” Self-acceptance can be elusive throughout life, but the teen years, for most of us, are especially fraught. Unease or even revulsion at our changing bodies, along with concerns about how others perceive us, can overwhelm a fragile and evolving sense of self.
Teaching teens, then, to practice self-acceptance and self-care is indeed a positive thing. But when the discussion turns to, say, one’s weight, it gets touchy. (This is true at every age. Oprah Winfrey has recently shared some piercing insights on this topic.)
According to the Centers for Disease Control, America has an obesity problem, even among the young. For those aged 2 to 19, the obesity rate is almost 20%, rising to 22.2% in the 12-to-19 group, and higher at every age for people of color and those from low-income families.
The reason it’s a matter for the CDC to address is because obesity increases the risk of many diseases. It is a serious health problem, but when comedians and trolls mock heavy celebrities, or school bullies hurl hurtful taunts, they are not concerned about their targets’ risk of heart disease.
Against trolls and bullies
Body positivity is a way of strengthening ourselves against the trolls and bullies. The challenge is learning to accept ourselves, at any age, while still seeking good health.
How different is the matter of gender dysphoria? Why can’t it be approached with a similar appreciation of human complexity and of well-established medicine?
Since gender transitioning requires taking strong drugs that reverse natural, healthy physical changes and having surgeries that forever alter the body — with both interventions causing a wide range of serious side effects — why would we not encourage children to love their bodies first and to slowly discern a healthy path forward?
What exactly a “healthy” path may be is a matter of growing dispute, as courageous reporting reveals how sparse the science on transitioning is.
Author and journalist Michael Shellenberger recently obtained and published files (both written and audio) in which members of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health discuss shocking cases and reveal regular lapses of medical ethics.
These cases involve kids as young as 10 and injuries that range from sterilization, to liver tumors, to death. (Another common side-effect of transitioning is the inability to experience orgasm.)
These WPATH doctors, surgeons and staffers repeatedly admit to one another that their young patients very often fail to comprehend the full impact of the treatments they’re seeking — likewise for their parents — thus undermining the validity of “informed consent.”
Anyone interested in this topic should read and listen to the files, available online, while remembering that WPATH sets standards for gender-medicine practice. It’s clearly an unregulated medical frontier, with Americans forging ahead even as other Western nations have forcefully applied the brakes.
Wildly inconsistent
The sudden, widespread promotion of such a radical approach to the human body is mind-boggling — and it’s wildly inconsistent with the contemporaneous push for “body positivity.” The only thing gender-transitioning and body positivity have in common, and only occasionally, is a spirit of defiant individualism. Standing up to bullies is always good, no matter what they’re mocking.
But when pushing back includes any form of self-harm, does that really strike a blow for individuality? Is that really freedom?