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I always assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that the majority of transgender folk were MTF and that there were very few FTM.
This article says.
NHS England, 10 years ago there were just under 250 referrals, most of them boys, to the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids), run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London.
Last year, there were more than 5,000, which was twice the number in the previous year. And the largest group, about two-thirds, now consisted of “birth-registered females first presenting in adolescence with gender-related distress”
It goes on to try to find the reasons. Perhaps it is increasing awareness with trans men like Chella Man, Elliot Page, and Gottmik.
I wonder if this will continue.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/24/an-explosion...
Comments
the real ratio is probably
the real ratio is probably closer to 50/50 though societal norms have probably skewed it one way and greater awareness is now causing an apparent rebound.
They want Male power.
They look and see how males have all the privilege. Myself I got worn out from the responsibility.
I'd have to ask them why they're doing it
Since it seems to me that 3rd parties making assumptions about why someone wants to transition usually get it wrong. Like TERFs who see MtF transitioning as trying to take something away from cis women, or my sister who thinks that I think that women have it easier in life, like I'm some knucklehead misogynist who hasn't observed anything about men + women + society and wasn't a feminist from like age 14, almost before I realized I was a girl + wasn't a feminist as some patronizing male "fellow traveler" but was in it for my own sake. Because my Sis (who assumes she knows more about everyone else than they do, via some magical omniscience she has; and is wrong so often it's laughable, and it's sometimes scary- like thinking life threatening allergies are in people's heads because she doesn't have those allergies, so "Oh c'mon get over it n' have a peanut butter sammich!") can't imagine anyone having any other reason.
Maybe some FtM guys just want male power but gender identity more often isn't simply about whatever imagined perks + goodies someone thinks the other sex has. I dunno, I could be wrong...
~hugs, Veronica
And remember...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifLqzLEB3E0
"my Sis (who assumes she
"my Sis (who assumes she knows more about everyone else than they do" I have noticed that from both sexes,,but more often from women. Men tend to stay away from emotional issues.
I have also noticed that men want to fix objects, women want to fix people.
Leeanna
Agreed
You HAVE to ask them.
Speaking from an M->F POV, I had male privilege and power. In an Asian society it is even a greater loss of privilege imho than even a western one, yet I had forgone it.
I have transitioned well enough, the criteria of which is merely that I have a decent job and am not in the poor house and for the most part live life pretty much invisibly as I pass extremely well.
So have I stolen something from my cisgendered sisters? Have I stolen some of their men or women? Frankly to say that implies that I have no right to exist as who I am so I might as well have killed myself.
I will not let another's insecurities as well as any baby boomer biases and confusion dictate who I am and what rights I think I should have especially when they are dead wrong. Especially from critics who considers themselves intersex and not trans at all to make themselves feel better. I mean if that is what is needed to feel better about themselves, fine, but they should not tear down other peoples needs and motivations in that quest.
Safety
Up to and including a brief time after Obama left office, there was an increase in MtF and FtM persons, seeking medical intervention. including parents seeking help for their children. That increase has been directly attributed to the safety the government had fostered. That sense of safety is all going away as hundred of anti-trans Bills are being introduced or have already passed. One state is attempting to prohibit any trans-affirming care if an ADULT has a history of depression. https://www.businessinsider.com/missouri-attorney-general-re...
There is no such thing as rapid-onset dysphoria; despite the anti-tans rhetoric. WE'VE known all along! My late wife struggled with my gender issues when we first began discussing the subject. She was a very clinically-oriented person with a real need to know WHY I was trans. We did talk about contributing factors such as prenatal exposure to DES. And that much of my own inability to accept my identity came from how I was hurt when I was discovered by my father.
But the more we talked the more her viewpoint changed. She began to see past the labels to recall all the things she had seen in me before the 'revelation. Looking back at things she had wondered about me and saying, "Oh, that explains it." until she just came out and said, "You're transgender."
Love, Andrea Lena
" real need to know WHY I was
" real need to know WHY I was trans." My wife is the same. She just wanted assurance that she had not caused it. She thought that she was not feminine enough etc. She is a person that always says "It wasn't my fault" about almost anything. Often she won't make decisions due to it.
Nowadays she just refuses to talk about it. I keep that side of my life totally hidden from her now.
She may know, I don't know. She never complains when I go away on my own to go "fishing". I do this at least 8 times a year. Well, I do a little fishing, but it is not very practical in a dress. As much as I would love to go full time. I won't while I am married and paying a mortgage. Perhaps later if I live that long. From what I read on here it is no easy ride.
Leeanna
It Ain't Easy, Babe
Parenting is not an easy ride.
A lot of this article, which overall is quite good journalism, is devoted to the quandary faced by parents.
Here's the deal. Parents are always faced by a quandary.
I have four kids. My oldest "kid" is now 49. They each put me through a ringer in their own way.
The oldest is ADHD. He would kick a soccer ball against the house in anger until he broke a window. When asked why -- he had no explanation. He was just so "determined" when he kicked that ball. In college, where he played American football, something changed him. When he graduated he was able to channel his determination. He has had several highly successful careers first winning a Cleo as a film producer and then two other careers in sales. He makes several multiples of what I ever did and has a wonderful marriage.
I think he was struggling while his brain reached full development.
The second oldest was tentative about EVERYTHING. He still is. He's as gentle a soul as imaginable. It took him a couple of failures to finally have a career in computers, which he's done for the last fifteen years. His inability to make a decision doesn't translate to solving computer issues. However, his first career as an educator was a disaster as was the five years he tried to be an artist. He's a wonderful father and husband.
Some would say my third child lives the life we all wish we could. He travels the world and works only when he absolutely has to. He lived out of a van for ten years. When he does work, he restores older homes and makes them beautiful and functional.
The fourth child has struggled with crippling anxiety. She is a math teacher. She graduated Cum Laude from college. She teaches calculus to ninth-grade students. Her anxiety has been medicated for two decades. She just gave birth to her second child and seems happy.
All graduated from college in four years. Two went on to get their MA. Each one of them was known as a very nice person in high school.
At times, each of them has had a personal crisis or two. I expect that they will continue to have, and overcome, problems.
My parenting philosophy was that you can't love them too much. I supported their decisions as best as I could. Discipline was non-physical.
If you read the article and substitute Attention Deficit Disorder for Gender Dysphoria many of the same arguments and questions would apply. The same could be said for anxiety attacks, inability to make decisions and living life like a rolling stone.
In fact, there still is a raging debate over whether ADHD is overdiagnosed.
I loved the observation about left-handedness increasing when people stopped trying to change lefties to righties.
Raising children is like pushing around mercury and is probably as dangerous to your health.
I do know this much. The transgender issue will not be made better by legislating it back into a closet.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
ADHD was just being naughty
ADHD was just being naughty when I was young. They tried to "beat it out of them" I can understand why it is overdiagnosed.
These are the symptoms in adults. The ones for children are twice as along
Some specialists have suggested the following as a list of symptoms associated with ADHD in adults:
carelessness and lack of attention to detail
continually starting new tasks before finishing old ones
poor organisational skills
inability to focus or prioritise
continually losing or misplacing things
forgetfulness
restlessness and edginess
difficulty keeping quiet, and speaking out of turn
blurting out responses and often interrupting others
mood swings, irritability and a quick temper
inability to deal with stress
extreme impatience
taking risks in activities, often with little or no regard for personal safety or the safety of others – for example, driving dangerously
I display a few of those symptoms. I should think most of us do.
Leeanna
Tomboy vs Janegirl
I think the reason we have always felt that there was a majority of MtF trans folk is that, at least starting in the early 20th century, tomboys have always been accepted as normal behavior for some girls, while there wasn't even a concept of Janegirl. (Made up non-pejorative word for a feminine male child.) Feminine male children were and some still are, heavily pressured to "man up" and become the masculine, stoic image that society has of men while tomboys were seen as cute and often taken under the wing of their fathers and encouraged to aspire to be man like.
Given that attitude by society, FtM trans folk have been given the outlet for their dysphoria, wearing boy's/men's clothes and acting in very non-feminine ways. Only in adulthood are they at all set singled out and sometimes call butch lesbians, but even then, they are grudgingly accepted. Where as MtF trans have been shunned or worse both as children and as adults.
So as other have noted, when society becomes more accepting of trans, they, the FtM group, start seeking legal and social acceptance that such clinics provide.
In our fiction, it is a common theme for mother to take a similar role with the trans MtF children as RL fathers do with their tomboy daughters. I think that showcases the disparity of the gender divide.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Yes in a still mostly male
Yes in a still mostly male-controlled world, male qualities are seen as more desirable than female. Feminizing oneself is seen as a "downgrade". The more radical feminist say that all trans men are just lesbians trying to fit in. They are forced into doing this by the " Patriarchy ". If you believe that logic you could also think that trans women are all gay men. Nonsense.
Leeanna
you could also think that trans women are all gay men
Except for the transwomen whose sexual preference didn't change after surgery. That is they still prefer women. I know two. Well, one online and I know the wife of another in RL.
How then do they classify these people? I'm sure the feminists would balk at the idea that a transwoman could be lesbian.
It's far too complicated to write off in simple if this then that logic.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Hopefully
Let's pray that the number of trans suicides goes down as the number of trans girls and boys seeking help goes up. :DD
DeeDee