"An idea is something you have - an ideology is something that has you." - Morris Berman
Clearly many completely irrational "ideas" have now coalesced into a completely irrational "ideology" in the form of this new "gender" movement.
The author's example comparing gender ideology to religious ideology is spot on. Gender ideology is not about "reason," or "evidence" and certainly not about "science," but rather first and foremost about - "faith." "Faith" as we know "defies reason." As with any completely irrational ideological structure - those of us who do not "share the faith" are simply dismissed as "heretics" worthy not of "debate" but only of "the stake."
Ehrensaft is batshit crazy and it is terrifying that yet again she and her ilk are mesmerising yet another generation into believing their dangerous, arrant nonsense.
This is an excellent video series by Clive Simpson on Diane Ehrensaft, who was a key player in the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980's - 90s and who still stands by her involvement in that horrendous debacle.
Diane Ehrensaft - from satanic panic to gender ideology.
(Ehrensaft recommends "affirming" children who report satanic ritual abuse, rather than seeking objective evidence.)
Finally, this 2010 lecture by Paul McHugh (who closed the transsexual clinic at John Hopkins) ends his timeline with the fad for "Multiple Personality Disorders" (Dissociative Identity Syndrome). Now we know what came next:
"Abuses of the Public by Psychiatry"
(starts where McHugh begins his presentation, omitting lengthy introduction)
satanism is 95% reflexivity and 5% pretending ít's not [beware the most 'elaborative' labbore forces]
newsvandal.com: The Satanic Panic Gets A Reboot --15/9 3 more [less filled out] categories there that day: 'politics and fleas' .. 'pandora's boxcutter' [on climate] and media scrum [heavy metal music this time] ......
another, more important ponder n thinklink is that, despite efforts to be minute, meticulous and comprehensive, THE most blatant cause of the MixerUpper 'inescapables' [easy and easier to pick out/apart as you go along ... known to always have sharpened knives/memes at the ready to excise a little repair or prepare tribute from you, all the same to them] is this [which remains underexposed]: chemicals / pollutants fuck all hormonal, microbial and what biome epitaphable else you have, rite into hell with them. Zach Bushes instead of duh Faucis would be a late but good start ...
The "Satanic Panic" involved allegations made by CHILDREN and it was unsubstantiated because there was no evidence.
"False Memory Syndrome" involved allegations made by ADULTS about childhood events that they "recalled" using discredited techniques based on the theory of "Recovered Memory Syndrome".
Here is a court case from 2015 that is instructive:
England and Wales Family Court Decisions (High Court Judges)
Neutral Citation Number: [2015] EWFC 26
Case No: ZC14C00315
B e f o r e :
MRS JUSTICE PAUFFLEY
____________________
Re P and Q (Children: Care Proceedings: Fact Finding)
____________________
Hannah Markham for the London Borough of Barnet
Ella Draper, the mother, did not appear and was not represented
June Venters QC for the father, Ricky Dearman
Justin Ageros for the children by their guardian
Hearing dates: 17 – 20 February, 3 – 6 and 10 – 12 March 2015
Thank you for your thoughtful replies. I do believe that a smattering of truth is hidden in an avalanche of lies and delusion and would not deny that these things never happen.
So, this is the raison d'etre for a onesie--it helps keep the diaper on. It stays tucked in. In this crazed mindset, what do they do about the onesie that won't stay closed, because the snaps are faulty? I had to buy those cheap ones, because, unbeknownst to me during my sons' babyhoods, their father was secretly out cross-dressing, spending the clothing budget on his second "female" wardrobe.
I've posted link, abstract and comments on the Rynkiewicz, et al, 2019 study of girls with autism spectrum diagnosis. There is no measure to differentiate between the rigid mindset typical of ASD thinking/speech and that the language of "gender dysphoria."
Further, why is it always Mattel's Barbie "material girls" dolls that give parents the idea a boy wants to be female? This overly sexualized item, designed by a real oddball, is the source of so much bad parenting in American society.
Does that lady, Ehrensaft know that boys were in "dresses" until they were toilet trained in middle class American households a hundred or so years ago? It was the practicality of reducing the diaper laundry loads. Sheesh is right, Colin!
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
Thank you. I tried to do what I do in life, watch the changing seasons through the light, catch it in photographs, and teach myself the mantras of the woodland floor, as I reclaim it for native wildflowers. Know that I am well, I love humanity every day. Ute
'she' was a man too long for that ... my introduction to crossdressers came from occasional [90s] peeks in at the amsterdam cafe collecting them in various combos ... never felt like goin in .. even tho i'd fit in easily enuff .... hair short now after chemo, first time in decades. Neither did i volunteer to dress a cross like jesus 'did' .. but i did provoke local witches a tad and a socratic act is easily opted for when feelin truely undefended.
Then again, guys like Ralph Ellis might have point if he claimed, which he doesn't explicitily, jesus didun do nuthin but associate with the self castratin galatians, like with whores, .. but a prominent and revo leader ... pedigrees may stretch rite thru the templars and pedos to the likes of that certainly satanistically named creature. Calling 'that' a lady is a mighty stretch Ute
I’m grateful for this article. About a year ago I wrote a comparison between the search for the Dali Lama & gender ideology but this was much better. I really connected with the comparison and I hope many more do too. Excellent writing. Only 4 words I had to look up :P
The evidence is overwhelmingly clear that the vast majority of children will change their minds about what they like and who they are multiple times before reaching adulthood.
Just ask any frustrated parent about it. Oh my child loves soccer - bought them hundreds of dollars of clothes and equipment and they are loving playing. A year later - No my child tells me they don't care about soccer anymore. Now they want to be a martial artist. Oops next year they want to be a dancer.
And on and on. This is completely normal as the child is enjoying discovering new things - it is what learning is all about. So this gender idiocy is akin to forcing the child to play soccer for the rest of his/her childhood because he/she once showed an interest in it. Should be good for the childs mental health to force them to do something they now despise and prevent them learning and experiencing new things right?
Barbara, I generally agree with you but was stunned to see that, in reference to the male child who supposedly knows himself to be female, you write, "Innately, we are to believe, the child realizes he should not have this funny little protuberance, but rather he should have nothing there." Nothing? Whoops! Girls do not have "nothing there." Since you're speaking of tactile awareness at that age, the appropriate word would be vulva. Females and males do not have anatomy that is directly analogous, so when comparing to a penis, one has a variety of options, including clitoris and vagina, depending on context. Any of those, or a combination ("vulva and vagina") would make your point. But please, not "nothing."
Remember "Indigo Children"? They were a thing that happened, too. The esoteric child is ancient. Not "the right side of history" at all; it *is* history.
Woo. I guess my nephew, who hated his penis when he was young (because it had a mind of its own), is lucky he wasn't born in this timeline or he would be coerced to become a female and wouldn't have the daughter he dotes on now.
This isn't a valid comparison. You don't understand how the Dalai Lama, or any other Lama is found. You shouldn't write about things you know nothing about. And then to compare these delusional people to a 2500 year old religious tradition. How long did it take you to come up with this? Did you have a eureka moment? Think again. It falls flat. Even a cursory analysis reveals that there is no relation between egocentric, narcissistic individuals abusing their son, and a religious tradition with a long and rich history. You really don't know what you're talking about.
Didn't much like the comparison to the Dalai Lama, but I get the point. The fact that certain children do in fact choose the belongings of the previous DL makes this analogy a weak one, though you could say that because some kids are actually dysphoric and in need of treatment and support, there is some selection going on in both, selection that can be seen as meaningful. But of course, as Kay says, the situation now has become ridiculous, as if thousands of Dalai Lamas were being identified every year, making the whole concept open to multiple delusional identifications.
My understanding is that some people have always been dysphoric. The psychiatric community recognized this long before the current hysteria. I don't mean to say they're trans in the current use of the word but that there is some yet to be proven organic cause for feeling you're in the wrong body. I suppose what you say about abuse may be correct, and some cases have been connected to this, or to psychological manipulation, but I've seen no evidence that they all are.
I think anorexia and gender dysphoria are two different conditions. Anorexia is more clearly connected to social influences. I don't think either is curable. Those afflicted learn to live with these conditions, usually with talk therapy, and therefore don't need medical intervention. I don't see any reason to doubt people who say they felt uncomfortable in their bodies at a very young age. The large majority of kids who identify as trans today, starting just before or at puberty, are, like anorexics, the product of malignant social influences. These kids are like anorexics or cutters.
One issue that is controversial in all of this is that some believe men and women are blank slates at birth when it comes to gender, and others, Deborah Soh, for example, that men and women have different innate qualities. If you believe the former, then your view makes more sense, but if the latter, then it's not hard to conceive of a biological screwup in the innate qualities that make one a male or female. I think there are different innate qualities to men and women.
"One issue that is controversial in all of this is that some believe men and women are blank slates at birth when it comes to gender, and others, Deborah Soh, for example, that men and women have different innate qualities. If you believe the former, then your view makes more sense,"
I do not understand how you reach that conclusion.
I may have misread your comment. My point is that for those who don't think dysphoria is a medical/psychiatric condition, then dysphoria is the result of social influences. If it isn't the result of social influence, but the result of some kind of biological anomaly affecting how men and women normally develop, distinct from each other in some ways not apparent in physiology, then this anomaly could explain why some very young children are dysphoric. This combined at a later age with social pressure may trigger a strong need to express this disorder as something normal, especially when discouraged.
I know that I am talking about body dysmorphic disorder :-)
It appears to be listed as a "symptom" of "gender dysphoria", ie. distress with the sexed aspects of ones body.
I do not believe that "gender dysphoria" is anything more than a label of convenience that covers a multitude of sins.
The observation that the brain "lights up" in the same way for anorexics and those labelled gender dysphoric (which ones, though?) suggests that at least some people diagnosed as gender dysphoric are suffering from body dysmorphia.
"mere coincidence" .. ?? i think not ... there's at least enough double checking goin on to allow for instructions to diverge from routine and/or formallist outcomes ... and certainly enuff space between sessions to establish plausibility on both sides; the institutionalists vs those who'd rather fuck with the program, see them gone or wanna be left alone [which really means something in tibetan remoteness, generalized by life itself, Life OurSelf.
"An idea is something you have - an ideology is something that has you." - Morris Berman
Clearly many completely irrational "ideas" have now coalesced into a completely irrational "ideology" in the form of this new "gender" movement.
The author's example comparing gender ideology to religious ideology is spot on. Gender ideology is not about "reason," or "evidence" and certainly not about "science," but rather first and foremost about - "faith." "Faith" as we know "defies reason." As with any completely irrational ideological structure - those of us who do not "share the faith" are simply dismissed as "heretics" worthy not of "debate" but only of "the stake."
An excellent post - thank you.
How about not needing to believe anything? Where belief is fact where the evidence is faith.
We're going to have to disagree.
The word belief is quite loaded as is the word truth. Easy enough going through life without using them.
Words are not sacred. They just describe observable fact. Where they dont, we are in the metaphysical realm where facts dont matter but belief does.
In that respect and like biblical religion, gender identity theory needs its believers to perpetrate its myths.
Ehrensaft is batshit crazy and it is terrifying that yet again she and her ilk are mesmerising yet another generation into believing their dangerous, arrant nonsense.
This is an excellent video series by Clive Simpson on Diane Ehrensaft, who was a key player in the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980's - 90s and who still stands by her involvement in that horrendous debacle.
Diane Ehrensaft - from satanic panic to gender ideology.
Episode 1
https://youtu.be/8CpvzUwE7mc
Diane Ehrensaft episode 2
https://youtu.be/4-VYi03gUFQ
Diane Ehrensaft - PART 3!
https://youtu.be/iAIv0roqH04
"Diane Ehrensaft, 'Satanic Panic' Woo Peddler, Now Champions the 'Gender Angels' Among Us"
The dangerously consequential career of a quack
(Interesting also for mention of the concocted phenomena of "Indigo Children" and "Crystal Children")
https://thedistance.substack.com/p/diane-ehrensaft-satanic-panic-woo
"Parallels Between What We're Seeing Now and the Satanic Ritual Abuse Hysteria of the 1980s?"
(The "what we are seeing now" referred to is Critical Social Justice rather than "gender woo")
https://www.reddit.com/r/BlockedAndReported/comments/i64g1e/parallels_between_what_were_seeing_now_and_the/
That short post links to this podcast:
"Introducing Conviction: American Panic"
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/conviction/8whozxk/introducing-conviction-american-panic
Diane Ehrensaft's notorious report:
"Preschool Child Sex Abuse: The aftermath of the Presidio Case"
https://ia903409.us.archive.org/17/items/ehrensaft-1992/Ehrensaft-1992.pdf
(Ehrensaft recommends "affirming" children who report satanic ritual abuse, rather than seeking objective evidence.)
Finally, this 2010 lecture by Paul McHugh (who closed the transsexual clinic at John Hopkins) ends his timeline with the fad for "Multiple Personality Disorders" (Dissociative Identity Syndrome). Now we know what came next:
"Abuses of the Public by Psychiatry"
(starts where McHugh begins his presentation, omitting lengthy introduction)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30rEjumFaDY&t=7568s
Came here to post a similar comment, but wow, you have all the receipts.
I have zero idea why anyone is taking this kook seriously, 40 years of credulity and self promotion and shattered lives in her wake
thanks, this is one m/kissing link to the probs that prompted this yesterday:
https://indexterity.blogspot.com/2022/09/imo-satanism-is-95-percent-reflexivity.html
satanism is 95% reflexivity and 5% pretending ít's not [beware the most 'elaborative' labbore forces]
newsvandal.com: The Satanic Panic Gets A Reboot --15/9 3 more [less filled out] categories there that day: 'politics and fleas' .. 'pandora's boxcutter' [on climate] and media scrum [heavy metal music this time] ......
another, more important ponder n thinklink is that, despite efforts to be minute, meticulous and comprehensive, THE most blatant cause of the MixerUpper 'inescapables' [easy and easier to pick out/apart as you go along ... known to always have sharpened knives/memes at the ready to excise a little repair or prepare tribute from you, all the same to them] is this [which remains underexposed]: chemicals / pollutants fuck all hormonal, microbial and what biome epitaphable else you have, rite into hell with them. Zach Bushes instead of duh Faucis would be a late but good start ...
The "Satanic Panic" involved allegations made by CHILDREN and it was unsubstantiated because there was no evidence.
"False Memory Syndrome" involved allegations made by ADULTS about childhood events that they "recalled" using discredited techniques based on the theory of "Recovered Memory Syndrome".
Here is a court case from 2015 that is instructive:
England and Wales Family Court Decisions (High Court Judges)
Neutral Citation Number: [2015] EWFC 26
Case No: ZC14C00315
B e f o r e :
MRS JUSTICE PAUFFLEY
____________________
Re P and Q (Children: Care Proceedings: Fact Finding)
____________________
Hannah Markham for the London Borough of Barnet
Ella Draper, the mother, did not appear and was not represented
June Venters QC for the father, Ricky Dearman
Justin Ageros for the children by their guardian
Hearing dates: 17 – 20 February, 3 – 6 and 10 – 12 March 2015
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2015/26.html
Thank you for your thoughtful replies. I do believe that a smattering of truth is hidden in an avalanche of lies and delusion and would not deny that these things never happen.
Thank you for a clear-eyed article.
So, this is the raison d'etre for a onesie--it helps keep the diaper on. It stays tucked in. In this crazed mindset, what do they do about the onesie that won't stay closed, because the snaps are faulty? I had to buy those cheap ones, because, unbeknownst to me during my sons' babyhoods, their father was secretly out cross-dressing, spending the clothing budget on his second "female" wardrobe.
I've posted link, abstract and comments on the Rynkiewicz, et al, 2019 study of girls with autism spectrum diagnosis. There is no measure to differentiate between the rigid mindset typical of ASD thinking/speech and that the language of "gender dysphoria."
Further, why is it always Mattel's Barbie "material girls" dolls that give parents the idea a boy wants to be female? This overly sexualized item, designed by a real oddball, is the source of so much bad parenting in American society.
Does that lady, Ehrensaft know that boys were in "dresses" until they were toilet trained in middle class American households a hundred or so years ago? It was the practicality of reducing the diaper laundry loads. Sheesh is right, Colin!
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com
Very much enjoying your book, Ute, although it is painful reading.
Thank you. I tried to do what I do in life, watch the changing seasons through the light, catch it in photographs, and teach myself the mantras of the woodland floor, as I reclaim it for native wildflowers. Know that I am well, I love humanity every day. Ute
'she' was a man too long for that ... my introduction to crossdressers came from occasional [90s] peeks in at the amsterdam cafe collecting them in various combos ... never felt like goin in .. even tho i'd fit in easily enuff .... hair short now after chemo, first time in decades. Neither did i volunteer to dress a cross like jesus 'did' .. but i did provoke local witches a tad and a socratic act is easily opted for when feelin truely undefended.
Then again, guys like Ralph Ellis might have point if he claimed, which he doesn't explicitily, jesus didun do nuthin but associate with the self castratin galatians, like with whores, .. but a prominent and revo leader ... pedigrees may stretch rite thru the templars and pedos to the likes of that certainly satanistically named creature. Calling 'that' a lady is a mighty stretch Ute
I’m grateful for this article. About a year ago I wrote a comparison between the search for the Dali Lama & gender ideology but this was much better. I really connected with the comparison and I hope many more do too. Excellent writing. Only 4 words I had to look up :P
The evidence is overwhelmingly clear that the vast majority of children will change their minds about what they like and who they are multiple times before reaching adulthood.
Just ask any frustrated parent about it. Oh my child loves soccer - bought them hundreds of dollars of clothes and equipment and they are loving playing. A year later - No my child tells me they don't care about soccer anymore. Now they want to be a martial artist. Oops next year they want to be a dancer.
And on and on. This is completely normal as the child is enjoying discovering new things - it is what learning is all about. So this gender idiocy is akin to forcing the child to play soccer for the rest of his/her childhood because he/she once showed an interest in it. Should be good for the childs mental health to force them to do something they now despise and prevent them learning and experiencing new things right?
Barbara, I generally agree with you but was stunned to see that, in reference to the male child who supposedly knows himself to be female, you write, "Innately, we are to believe, the child realizes he should not have this funny little protuberance, but rather he should have nothing there." Nothing? Whoops! Girls do not have "nothing there." Since you're speaking of tactile awareness at that age, the appropriate word would be vulva. Females and males do not have anatomy that is directly analogous, so when comparing to a penis, one has a variety of options, including clitoris and vagina, depending on context. Any of those, or a combination ("vulva and vagina") would make your point. But please, not "nothing."
Too bad she writes for the NP & epoch times
She's rights about the nut jobs from a subset of the left,however
I will read ANYTHING by Barbara Kay. 🇨🇦👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 National treasure. As always, an essay worth printing.
Remember "Indigo Children"? They were a thing that happened, too. The esoteric child is ancient. Not "the right side of history" at all; it *is* history.
Woo. I guess my nephew, who hated his penis when he was young (because it had a mind of its own), is lucky he wasn't born in this timeline or he would be coerced to become a female and wouldn't have the daughter he dotes on now.
Great article, bookmarked.
This isn't a valid comparison. You don't understand how the Dalai Lama, or any other Lama is found. You shouldn't write about things you know nothing about. And then to compare these delusional people to a 2500 year old religious tradition. How long did it take you to come up with this? Did you have a eureka moment? Think again. It falls flat. Even a cursory analysis reveals that there is no relation between egocentric, narcissistic individuals abusing their son, and a religious tradition with a long and rich history. You really don't know what you're talking about.
Excellent article. Yes, it is a religion, with tentacles pervading all institutions in society, all done by stealth.
Didn't much like the comparison to the Dalai Lama, but I get the point. The fact that certain children do in fact choose the belongings of the previous DL makes this analogy a weak one, though you could say that because some kids are actually dysphoric and in need of treatment and support, there is some selection going on in both, selection that can be seen as meaningful. But of course, as Kay says, the situation now has become ridiculous, as if thousands of Dalai Lamas were being identified every year, making the whole concept open to multiple delusional identifications.
My understanding is that some people have always been dysphoric. The psychiatric community recognized this long before the current hysteria. I don't mean to say they're trans in the current use of the word but that there is some yet to be proven organic cause for feeling you're in the wrong body. I suppose what you say about abuse may be correct, and some cases have been connected to this, or to psychological manipulation, but I've seen no evidence that they all are.
"some people have always been dysphoric"
No more than "some people have always been anorexic".
Anorexia is a disturbance of bodily self-perception that is curable, as is "dysphoria".
Colin Wright has noted that when anorexics and "gender dysphorics" look in the mirror, the same area of the brain "lights up".
I heard him say this on Triggernometry so it is probably mentioned somewhere in this Substack too.
"PayPal Banned Me for Stating Basic Biology" - Colin Wright
https://youtu.be/pepLGzBTb0w
I think anorexia and gender dysphoria are two different conditions. Anorexia is more clearly connected to social influences. I don't think either is curable. Those afflicted learn to live with these conditions, usually with talk therapy, and therefore don't need medical intervention. I don't see any reason to doubt people who say they felt uncomfortable in their bodies at a very young age. The large majority of kids who identify as trans today, starting just before or at puberty, are, like anorexics, the product of malignant social influences. These kids are like anorexics or cutters.
One issue that is controversial in all of this is that some believe men and women are blank slates at birth when it comes to gender, and others, Deborah Soh, for example, that men and women have different innate qualities. If you believe the former, then your view makes more sense, but if the latter, then it's not hard to conceive of a biological screwup in the innate qualities that make one a male or female. I think there are different innate qualities to men and women.
"One issue that is controversial in all of this is that some believe men and women are blank slates at birth when it comes to gender, and others, Deborah Soh, for example, that men and women have different innate qualities. If you believe the former, then your view makes more sense,"
I do not understand how you reach that conclusion.
I may have misread your comment. My point is that for those who don't think dysphoria is a medical/psychiatric condition, then dysphoria is the result of social influences. If it isn't the result of social influence, but the result of some kind of biological anomaly affecting how men and women normally develop, distinct from each other in some ways not apparent in physiology, then this anomaly could explain why some very young children are dysphoric. This combined at a later age with social pressure may trigger a strong need to express this disorder as something normal, especially when discouraged.
I know that I am talking about body dysmorphic disorder :-)
It appears to be listed as a "symptom" of "gender dysphoria", ie. distress with the sexed aspects of ones body.
I do not believe that "gender dysphoria" is anything more than a label of convenience that covers a multitude of sins.
The observation that the brain "lights up" in the same way for anorexics and those labelled gender dysphoric (which ones, though?) suggests that at least some people diagnosed as gender dysphoric are suffering from body dysmorphia.
"mere coincidence" .. ?? i think not ... there's at least enough double checking goin on to allow for instructions to diverge from routine and/or formallist outcomes ... and certainly enuff space between sessions to establish plausibility on both sides; the institutionalists vs those who'd rather fuck with the program, see them gone or wanna be left alone [which really means something in tibetan remoteness, generalized by life itself, Life OurSelf.