No One Is Born in ‘The Wrong Body’
The idea that all people have an innate “gender identity” recently has been endorsed by many health-care professionals and mainstream medical organizations. This term commonly is defined to mean the “internal, deeply held” sense of whether one is a man or a woman (or, in the case of children, a boy or a girl), both, or neither.
It also has become common to claim that this sense of identity may be reliably articulated by children as young as three years old.
While these claims about gender identity did not attract systematic scrutiny at first, they now have become the subject of criticism from a growing number of scientists, philosophers and health workers. Developmental studies show that young children have only a superficial understanding of sex and gender (at best). For instance, up until age 7, many children often believe that if a boy puts on a dress, he becomes a girl. This gives us reason to doubt whether a coherent concept of gender identity exists at all in young children. To such extent as any such identity may exist, the concept relies on stereotypes that encourage the conflation of gender with sex.
However, starting at a young age, children do tend to exhibit preferences and behaviors that we associate with sex (as distinct from gender). For example, male children display more aggressive behavior than female children. In addition, “cross-sex” behavior—or, more accurately, cross-sex stereotypical behavior—often is predictive of later same-sex attraction.
Can all of these findings be integrated? To start, just as sex influences the development of bodies, it also influences brains. There are in-utero differences in hormone exposures (male testosterone surges at eight weeks gestation, for example), and distinct developmental pathways are triggered based on the XX (typically female) or XY (typically male) chromosomal make-up of neurons. The integration of these sex-related and other developmental processes with environmental pressures gives rise to an individual’s unique personality and preferences.
It comes as no surprise then that population-based studies have demonstrated sex-related differences in personality and preferences that are independent of social influences. When social influences are weakened (in more egalitarian societies such as the Nordic countries of Europe), the sex-related differences in personality and preferences actually increase (the opposite of what one would expect if men and women were wired in an identical fashion). This suggests that as environmental pressures become relaxed, innate sex-specific preferences surface.
A closer look at personality traits shows that when data is analyzed in aggregate, there is a roughly 30% overlap between sexes, as schematized in the accompanying figure. The consequence of this overlap is that adolescent males who fall on the left end of the male (blue “masculine”) curve, and adolescent females who fall on the right end of the female (pink “feminine”) curve, will exhibit personality traits that diverge from the majority of other members of their own sex. In fact, due to the overlap of personality traits between males and females, the personality traits of some females will be more “male-like” than those exhibited by some, or even most males’ and vice versa.
In the case of an adolescent female whose behavior, personality traits and preferences are more “masculine” than most girls and most boys, she could be led to incorrectly conclude that she is really a male, born in the wrong body. That child’s parents could become confused as well, noticing how “different” their child’s behavior is from their own, or from that of their peers. In reality, that child simply exists at the end of a behavioral spectrum, and “sex-atypical” behavior is part of the natural variation exhibited both within and between the sexes. Personality and behavior do not define one’s sex.
There are approximately 40-million children in the United States between the ages of four and fourteen. The distribution curve above would suggest that roughly four-million of them have personality profiles that are “sex atypical,” but which are still part of the natural distribution of personalities within each sex.
The broad, but normal distribution of personality traits also explains studies showing a 28% concordance of transgender identity in twins. Twins have identical chromosomes, and so likely will have similar sex-related behaviors, as well as experience similar environmental influences in regard to those behaviors. Using twin adolescent males as an example: If their behaviors are at the “feminine” end of the male-typical distribution, they could both become confused as to what their behaviors and preferences mean about their sex.
In most cases, the thing that is now called “gender identity” likely is simply an individual’s perception of how their own sex-related and environmentally influenced personality compares to same and opposite sexed people. Put another way, it’s a self-assessment of one’s stereotypical degree of “masculinity” or “femininity,” and it’s wrongly being conflated with biological sex. This conflation stems from a cultural failure to understand the broad distribution of personalities and preferences within sexes and the overlap between sexes.
When a girl reports that she “feels like a boy” or “is a boy,” that sentiment may reflect her perception of how her personality and preferences compare to the rest of her peers. If the girl has an autism spectrum condition, she may even perceive “sex-atypical” behavior that does not actually exist, and thereby falsely self-diagnose as male even without experiencing any actual male personality traits.
It should be noted that these scenarios don’t apply to all cases of gender dysphoria, as many other triggers are described in the literature. But in most cases, counseling can help gender dysphoric adolescents resolve any trauma or thought processes that have caused them to desire an opposite sexed body.
Historical data suggests that about 0.5% of children develop gender dysphoria—distress caused by a perceived incongruence between one’s biological sex and gender presentation. Reinforcing studies in the medical literature show that, as children get older, childhood-onset gender dysphoria resolves (i.e. ends) in most cases. As two authors put it in a 2016 International Review of Psychiatry article, “the conclusion from these studies is that childhood GD [gender dysphoria] is strongly associated with a lesbian, gay or bisexual outcome and that for the majority of the children (85.2%; 270 out of 317 [studied individuals]) the gender dysphoric feelings remitted around or after puberty.”
Yet instead of offering counseling, medical professionals now are commonly telling children that they may have been “born in the wrong body.” This new approach, called “gender affirmation,” makes gender dysphoria less likely to resolve, pushing children down the path toward irreversible medical and surgical interventions. If aggressive transition options are pursued early in puberty, the combination of puberty-blocking drugs, followed by cross sex hormones, will result in permanent infertility.
The growing population of transgender-identifying high school students now is estimated to comprise about 2% of all students—a three-fold increase over the baseline 0.5% figure cited above. Many adolescents now are presenting to gender clinics, with some clinics seeing a 10-fold increase in new cases. Many of these adolescents have no history of childhood gender dysphoria. Higher rates of autism-spectrum conditions have been described in many of these adolescents, and the controversial “affirmation model” is being applied to this unstudied cohort as well. Not surprisingly, reports of transition regret, and de-transition, are growing in number.
To summarize, a lack of understanding regarding the distribution of sex-related personality and behavioral differences has led to confusion that impacts children who fall at the extreme tail-ends of the distribution, and who would be statistically more likely to grow up to be gay, lesbian or bisexual adults if allowed to experience uninterrupted puberty. Additionally, telling a child that he or she was born in the wrong body pathologizes “gender non-conforming” behavior and makes gender dysphoria less likely to resolve.
The fact is, no child is actually born in the wrong body. Adults should expand their understanding of what normal male and female behavior and preferences look like—which would lead them to appreciate that being male or female comes with a wider range of personalities preferences, and possibilities than old stereotypes would have us believe.
William J. Malone is an endocrinologist. He earned his medical degree from NYU School of Medicine. You can follow him on Twitter at @will_malone. Colin M. Wright is an evolutionary biologist at Penn State. You can follow him on Twitter at @SwipeWright. Julia D. Robertson is a journalist, award-winning author and Senior Editor of The Velvet Chronicle. You can follow her on Twitter at @JuliaDRobertson.
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Dean Michael Jackson
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“Developmental studies show that young children have only a superficial understanding of sex and gender…”
Gender is a synonym for sex, nothing more…
“The “male-or-female sex” sense is attested in English from early 15c. As sex (n.) took on erotic qualities in 20c., gender came to be the usual English word for “sex of a human being,” in which use it was at first regarded as colloquial or humorous. Later often in feminist writing with reference to social attributes as much as biological qualities; this sense first attested 1963. Gender-bender is from 1977, popularized from 1980, with reference to pop star David Bowie.”
https://www.etymonline.com/word/gender
It wasn’t until recent times that the Marxist establishment altered the meaning of ‘gender’ from ‘sex’ to that of persons exhibiting psychotic sex-specific personality disorders, that is individuals who believe they were born in the wrong sex.
What further evidence does one need to know that the West’s institutions were long ago co-opted by Satanists, who use deluded Marxists as their foot soldiers. Satanists’ prime directive is to upset the procreation of the species, thereby negating God’s prime directive to be fruitful and multiply.
A child who thinks he/she is the opposite sex is psychotic, in need of critical psychotherapy to determine the precise reason why the psychosis exists. Some affected children think they look ugly in their gender, preferring their appearance when they imitate the opposite sex. Most, however, suffer from sexual molestation and reason if they take on the appearance of the opposite sex the sexual offender will cease his/her molestation of the child. Others are attracted to their sex (due to sexual molestation*) reason they must be the opposite sex because they find their sex attractive. Reasons for the psychosis are myriad, though sexual molestation is the overriding dominant reason:
“Billy is not the first who turned to a transgender identity to escape pain and trauma. In fact, Billy’s story is not all that different than my own. And in the stories I receive from other regretful people who attempted transition, childhood sexual abuse abounds.
The shame and pain of being used by a sexual predator is beyond the imagination. Most abused kids push the feelings deep inside and shut out the memories. The pain, shame, guilt, and fear often keep them from telling anyone about the abuse until much later in life, if they ever do. Many sexual abuse victims—like Billy, me, and others who write to me—get swept up by LGBT therapists who suggest that the proper treatment is to start on powerful sex hormones followed by gender “affirming” surgery.”
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/03/21178/
In Sweden, the suicide rate for those who have underwent Sex Reassignment Surgery [sic] is a shocking 27x higher “compared to a healthy control population”…
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885
In permissive Sweden, where anything Satanic is viewed as good, suicide rates for SRS recipients would be lower, not higher, than the control population, since SRS recipients are now jubilant they’re living in their right sex.
At my blog, bead the articles…
‘House of Cards: The Collapse of the ‘Collapse’ of the USSR’
‘Playing Hide And Seek In Yugoslavia’
Then read the article, ‘The Marxist Co-Option Of History And The Use Of The Scissors Strategy To Manipulate History Towards The Goal Of Marxist Liberation’
Solution
The West will form new political parties where candidates are vetted for Marxist ideology/blackmail, the use of the polygraph to be an important tool for such vetting. Then the West can finally liberate the globe of vanguard Communism.
My blog’s link is located at my Disqus home page.
[1] “What do Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, George Takei and Milo Yiannopoulos have in common? They are all out and proud gay men, and they were all sexually abused as underage minors. Sadly, this is an extremely common occurrence, as there is frequently a connection between childhood sexual abuse and adult homosexuality.
…
In keeping with this, all the professional counselors I have spoken with (including trained pastors and psychologists or psychiatrists) have told me that the vast number of gays they have counseled were sexually abused as minors (some told me this was the case in every instance they encountered).”
https://stream.org/yes-childhood-sexual-abuse-often-contribute-homosexuality/
[2] Even more telling is neutral Denmark’s laying mines off its coastal waters in international waterways in August, 1914 [thereby violating the 1857 treaty opening the Danish Straits to all shipping, where, “No ship of any kind may, under any pretext whatsoever, be subjected to detention or obstruction at the passage of the Sound or the Belts”] at the prompting of Germany (Germany too lays mines in the Danish Straits) and Great Britain does nothing! Not a word from the Allies (and the usual deafening silence from the Marxist co-opted press), in fact, even though access to the Baltic Sea is critical for the Allies to roll up Germany quickly by (a) closing the Baltic Sea to all German surface/subsurface vessels; (b) denying German access to trade with Sweden; (c) bringing the Royal Navy and the Imperial Russian Navy together; (d) forcing Germany to relocate critically needed infantry divisions and heavy armaments away from the Western Front for the new Baltic Front; (e) allowing British and Russian troop landings across the Baltic coasts, preventing German forces from moving eastwards towards Russia; thereby (f) knocking Germany out of the war before one shot is fired.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/gender
Reply
Dean Michael Jackson
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“Developmental studies show that young children have only a superficial understanding of sex and gender…”
Gender is a synonym for sex, nothing more…
“The “male-or-female sex” sense is attested in English from early 15c. As sex (n.) took on erotic qualities in 20c., gender came to be the usual English word for “sex of a human being,” in which use it was at first regarded as colloquial or humorous. Later often in feminist writing with reference to social attributes as much as biological qualities; this sense first attested 1963. Gender-bender is from 1977, popularized from 1980, with reference to pop star David Bowie.”
https://www.etymonline.com/word/gender
It wasn’t until recent times that the Marxist establishment altered the meaning of ‘gender’ from ‘sex’ to that of persons exhibiting psychotic sex-specific personality disorders, that is individuals who believe they were born in the wrong sex.
A child who thinks he/she is the opposite sex is psychotic, in need of critical psychotherapy to determine the precise reason why the psychosis exists. Some affected children think they look ugly in their gender, preferring their appearance when they imitate the opposite sex. Most, however, suffer from sexual molestation and reason if they take on the appearance of the opposite sex the sexual offender will cease his/her molestation of the child. Others are attracted to their sex (due to sexual molestation) reason they must be the opposite sex because they find their sex attractive.[1] Reasons for the psychosis are myriad, though sexual molestation is the overriding dominant reason:
“Billy is not the first who turned to a transgender identity to escape pain and trauma. In fact, Billy’s story is not all that different than my own. And in the stories I receive from other regretful people who attempted transition, childhood sexual abuse abounds.
The shame and pain of being used by a sexual predator is beyond the imagination. Most abused kids push the feelings deep inside and shut out the memories. The pain, shame, guilt, and fear often keep them from telling anyone about the abuse until much later in life, if they ever do. Many sexual abuse victims—like Billy, me, and others who write to me—get swept up by LGBT therapists who suggest that the proper treatment is to start on powerful sex hormones followed by gender “affirming” surgery.”
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/03/21178/
In Sweden, the suicide rate for those who have underwent Sex Reassignment Surgery [sic] is a shocking 27x higher “compared to a healthy control population”…
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885
In permissive Sweden, where anything Satanic is viewed as good, suicide rates for SRS recipients would be lower, not higher, than the control population, since SRS recipients are now jubilant they’re living in their right sex.
My blog…
https://djdnotice.blogspot.com/2018/09/d-notice-articles-article-55-7418.html
[1] “What do Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, George Takei and Milo Yiannopoulos have in common? They are all out and proud gay men, and they were all sexually abused as underage minors. Sadly, this is an extremely common occurrence, as there is frequently a connection between childhood sexual abuse and adult homosexuality.
…
In keeping with this, all the professional counselors I have spoken with (including trained pastors and psychologists or psychiatrists) have told me that the vast number of gays they have counseled were sexually abused as minors (some told me this was the case in every instance they encountered).”
https://stream.org/yes-childhood-sexual-abuse-often-contribute-homosexuality/
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Errol Flynn
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At the beginning of 2019, when asked what he’d learnt at his first day at a woke preschool here in a trendy inner city suburb of Brisbane, Australia, a friend’s 5-year-old son said that they had been told about gender diversity by the teacher. Apparently, he had adamantly told the teacher: “I’m not gender diverse, I’m a boy” and, to the delight of his class mates, promptly pulled down his pants to prove his point. Well done!, young man. Serves the teacher right. She shouldn’t be discussing gender diversity with 5-year-olds.
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Einstein
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Hahahaha! Brilliant!
Thank you for that one Errol, you just made my day!
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Lloyd
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There IS a form of Dysphoria, EXTREMELY rare, which can be shown by mapping the brain’s activity with MRIs etc. It mostly appears in those unfortunate who where born with undeveloped versions of both genitalia and the Doctor ‘assigns’ a gender by removing one ‘set’. However, when hormones begin raging in the Teen Years, you can begin to see who is attracted to who sexually/mate wise. Trying to let a five year old decide that, and demand a sex change is ridiculous . Plus, knowing some Lesbians, being attracted to the same gender DOES NOT MEAN you want to switch your genitalia. This whole thing has been politicized.
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Dean Michael Jackson
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“There IS a form of Dysphoria, EXTREMELY rare, which can be shown by mapping the brain’s activity with MRIs etc. It mostly appears in those unfortunate who where born with undeveloped versions of both genitalia and the Doctor ‘assigns’ a gender by removing one ‘set’. ”
What in God’s name are you talking about! Firstly, there is no difference between a male’s and female’s brain…they’re human brains with the exact same tissue, where nondimorphic sex differences overlap. [1] Secondly, hermaphrodites have nothing to do with individuals who were sexually molested and therefore think they are the opposite sex (psychotic reasoning requiring therapy)…
“Billy is not the first who turned to a transgender identity to escape pain and trauma. In fact, Billy’s story is not all that different than my own. And in the stories I receive from other regretful people who attempted transition, childhood sexual abuse abounds.
The shame and pain of being used by a sexual predator is beyond the imagination. Most abused kids push the feelings deep inside and shut out the memories. The pain, shame, guilt, and fear often keep them from telling anyone about the abuse until much later in life, if they ever do. Many sexual abuse victims—like Billy, me, and others who write to me—get swept up by LGBT therapists who suggest that the proper treatment is to start on powerful sex hormones followed by gender “affirming” surgery.”
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/03/21178/
[1] “Discussion
Consistent with previous findings (14, 15), our analysis of the structure of the human brain, which included most regions of gray and white matter, as well as measures of connectivity, revealed many nondimorphic group-level sex/gender differences in brain structure. There was extensive overlap of the distributions of females and males for all brain regions and connections assessed, irrespective of the type of sample, measure, or analysis (including analysis of absolute brain volumes). This extensive overlap undermines any attempt to distinguish between a “male” and a “female” form for specific brain features. Rather, the forms that are evident in most females are also the ones evident in most males (Fig. 1D). It is therefore more appropriate and informative to refer to measures of the brain in quantitative ways (Fig. 3) rather than in qualitative ways (e.g., “male”, “female” form). Another noteworthy observation is that the size of the sex/gender difference in some regions varied considerably between different datasets (Table S1). This finding is in line with previous reports that the existence and direction of sex/gender differences may depend on environmental events and developmental stage (4, 5).”
https://www.pnas.org/content/112/50/15468
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Squidly
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You’re a freaking idiot! .. there absolutely are differences, both in average size and composition. Holy crap .. did you really just say that? .. what a dumbass..
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Ed D.
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Gender is a grammatical term. In English there are 3 genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Sex is a biological term. There are two sexes: male and female.
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