Forgive me in advance for being blunt, this whole article will be blunt. I really do feel bad for all those teenagers who are now confused about their gender, however many there are. This is probably a widespread epidemic that touches the lives of countless youths, and I’m just too insensitive and cold to realize it. To all those frustrated teenagers, I’m sorry. Your parents didn’t know what they were doing.
I’m not that old, so I’m not allowed to talk about the good old days. So I’ll say this: twenty years ago, teenage girls got depressed because the popular girl said they were fat, and teenage boys got depressed because they were bullied. The depression seldom led to suicide, it gave new meaning to the term Goth, it sometimes got kids hooked on drugs, but most of the time depression passed. Lately, a new solution has been offered to the existentially
frustrated, hormone-crazy teens of today: Gender Swap!
How come I never thought of that when I was a teenager? Well, I guess I had to “use the facilities” on occasion. Without fail these trips to the bathroom positively reaffirmed my gender. It used to be that simple. Life was good! But apparently the human race has survived thousands of years on a false assumption. Gender isn’t determined by the gifts your mamma gave you, its determined by an emotional choice which everyone in the world should validate because it’s the right thing to do.
Seriously, you could be dating her…and then find out she’s a dude
If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m being sarcastic. I’d like to make that clear. I’d also like to make it clear that I disagree wholeheartedly with the notion that sexual identity is all in the mind. If gender is something determined by gut instinct, l want out! One day I’ll write a dystopian fantasy to illustrate the terrible consequences of such an awful idea, but not in this day and age. The book would never get published. Could you imagine such a world? Try it. Imagine yourself walking down the street and you see a pretty woman. You stop to ask her out on a date…well, minutes into the conversation you find out that she’s really a he with long hair and abnormally large pectoral muscles. You wade deeper into the conversation and you uncover that, even though she’s a man, she recently decided that she was a gay man and would like to exchange phone numbers. Wisely you would withhold your information and forget the experience ever happened. You see, following Kant’s principle of universal law, if everyone chose their gender by their gut instinct we’d have people who weren’t just bisexual, but dual-gender bisexual. It’s ridiculous. So why does even happen at all?
I recently read an article (Transgender teen told she can’t come to school as girl)about a poor transgender girl named Rachel and a straight boy named Brian. Last year Brian attended Thorne Middle School, was bullied and consequently depressed. He cried a lot, had fits of panic. This year Brian chose not to attend school, but Rachel did. And when Rachel showed up people freaked out! If Rachel was biologically female, she would probably have just taken a seat in the back of the classroom and been ignored. But Rachel wasn’t biologically female. Rachel was Brian’s alter-ego. After school, when Brian came home depressed, crying and emotional, he became Rachel. And Brian’s mom supported his decision.
This is what kids are getting!
It may surprise you that many people would call this proper parenting. There’s even a website that teaches parents how to properly raise a transgender child (Transparenthood). Months back I read an article written by a single mother who made sure her child was exposed to both masculine and feminine activities. This mother wanted her child (she even refused to label her child “son” or “daughter”) to freely explore her gender identity uninhibited by social, cultural, or even linguistic pressures. Pronouns were changed like diapers. Some days the child was “him”, other days the child was “her”. I wasn’t surprised, this is a crazy world full of crazy people with crazy ideas. Then I read the comments: endless praise of this mother’s wisdom, her keen insight and understanding. I couldn’t believe the fawning audience this article had.
And it happens quite frequently
So how did Brian become Rachel? I suspect it wasn’t all Brian’s doing. I feel sorry for Brian. I also feel sorry for Rachel. Brian had a shot at being happy, but Rachel has made it clear that Brian is gone. Now there is only Rachel, a girl in a growing man’s body. She’ll experience all the normal hormones of a teenage boy. She’ll be different from other girls, and she’s excluded herself from other boys. Not that long ago, this would have been called a psychological illness. In fact, during the Vietnam War several drafted celebrities had doctors render them unfit for action by declaring in a note that active duty would trigger their patients’ homosexual tendencies. Rachel may feel more at ease with her emotions today, and maybe tomorrow. But there will be days when she hears Brian calling out to her, begging for her to remove the mask and accept her true nature.
Trebor Fairwell 