That a right may be circumscribed does not mean it’s not a fundamental human right. You have the right to defecate because it’s part of the human condition. You do not have the right to do it on my couch. This in no way makes defecation something you do not have a right to do.
This is why civilized people don’t take away your freedom for commiting a crime of prohibition or mala prohibita but do jail you for mala in se. However, here in the U.S. we decided to lock up people who break prohibitions on activities that are not evil in and of themselves. This is a fundamental problem for us but not for the idea of pursuing happiness in general. Further, just as with speech, it is a well understood concept that your freedom to pursue your happiness is limited in that you may not bring harm to others in that pursuit.
yes, parents can intervene in the development of their child to a great extent. However, the courts have ruled time and again that this intervention cannot be harmful to the child. Defining harm is the crux of the matter here and not the right to pursue your happiness.
At the time I posted it was two out of a lot less posts and I will take the credit for it being no more than that. Perhaps I am old-fashioned but I believe it is generally best to go to the original sources before commenting. And your statement about the person being concerned with the 47 ad trackers is a bit disingenuous as thon also said, “I didn’t click on the garbage Singal story, don’t worry”. Moreover Ghostery reports significantly less than 47 trackers, although I guess that can be chalked up to hyperbole.
Thanks for the link to your more journalistic article from a few years ago. I absolutely agree with many of the premises there and have significant issues with both Bailey and Green (I have to admit that I am not too familiar with Dreger); however, I fail to see the connection to the current Atlantic article. To quote your own words back to you, “I’m issuing a clarion call for evidence-based activism”. There are legitimate concerns to be made about sample bias for example but instead of discussing those flaws you chose to attack the messenger not the message. I don’t agree with some of Singal’s previous writings but that doesn’t mean that its OK to lump those into a discussion of the current piece unless your goal is to preach to the choir and not to educate your diverse readership.
I don’t think the OP pretends to be anything but one person’s opinion on Singal’s article. On the other hand, it is the opinion of someone with – and I’m guessing a little bit here – a lot more “skin in the game” when it comes to the article than either you or I have. It’s also the opinion of someone who’s apparently familiar with Singal’s previous writings on the subject. As such, I think you’re dismissing @AndreaJames’s opinion on this much too breezily. Can you at least address the fact that @AndreaJames might have a little more first-hand knowledge and experience regarding trans issues and transitioning than you – or, for that matter, Singal – before dismissing what she has to say out of hand?
I disagree wholeheartedly! This article absolutely needs to be put in the context of Singal’s previous writings on the subject to be understood completely. How has removing that sort of context ever helped to “educate” anyone?
I have some direct questions for you as well:
What would you say is the thesis of the Singal article?
What did you think about this thesis prior to reading it?
How, if at all, has your opinion on the thesis changed as a result of reading the article?
Oh darn, I’m disappointing you? I’m so sorry for not reading every piece of garbage on the internet before forming my opinions.
Neutrality in journalism is an important issue, but currently the epicentre of politicized news is the massive media conglomerates. Right now I’m happy that boing boing is assisting me to maintain my media immune system.
Jesse Sinclair is an agent bro-vacauter; his bread and butter have always been deliberately misrepresenting and misunderstanding progressives, and lately, his salary comes from his columns attacking trans folk and allies.
Julia Serrano has a response to Singal’s earlier pieces. Long story short, Singal smeared Julia in two of his columns (including the one where he infamously interviewed only cis people for his column bashing trans folk).
Singal has a habit of siccing GamerGate denizens on trans academics. Don’t think for a moment that his actions are accidental. They’re not. They’re deliberate. His pattern and history of attacking women in his columns is as long as his CV.
I wish I could have known when I was younger, but not being exposed to anything queer as a kid along with later the stereotypes perpetuated by cishet society (namely the “I’ve always known I’m a girl since I was really little” and the “woman trapped in a man’s body” narratives being portrayed as the only way to be trans) kept me from ever knowing. Now transitioning at 38 I have a lot of stuff to work against, and somethings like my shoulders can never be fixed.
I saw that and my head exploded. Like… you’re still going to look like you in transitioning and not only that… it takes YEARS to transition. No criminal is going to be “oh, I’ll gradually change my body over the next 2-3 years with hormones, then maybe, if I opt for surgery, spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to alter my appearance. THAT WILL SHOW THOSE COPPERS!”
Thats unnecessarily mean…
And I know someone like that. One my BFFs in fact is a butch lesbian who went by Kevin for two years before ultimately deciding that was not who she was.
I havent read the article, but people like my friend do exist.
My friend said she felt enormous pressure to transition. She was misgendered all the time, and being butch just made it worse and she started to doubt herself. I think we should have room to talk about the feelings of all people and all their experiences without invalidating them no?
This is why it’s imperative that we protect our GSAs and smash gender norms.
Status Quo Worriers - the traditionalist sort you find in most of Alberta and rural Ontario - want a dichotomy of strict male/female archetypes. We gotta stick together and not fall into the trap of thinking in rigid terms.
Thankfully the medical establishment seems to have gotten the memo.
The less societal pressure to conform to a strict binary, the happier we’ll be.
Your teen butch lesbian friend was pressured to have a sex change as a minor? I am dismayed to learn of this.
That said, concern trolling about young trans folks who are pressured to have sex changes as minors ignores the prevalent and constant messages that transgender folks and particularly transsexuals—especially trans children—get to not exist, to de-transition, to be erased.
The “won’t someone think of the minors being pressured to have sex changes” feels like an erasing tactic. I am sorry if that sounds mean.
PS Butch lesbian friends in my personal world have relayed to me experience of pressures to ID as transgender, as trans men. I genuinely get the shittiness of that. That’s different issue than being pressured to specifically have genital reassignment surgery as a minor.
Andrea, i dont want to read that asshat’s article, could you explain? Social contagion? Wtf. Unless I have a really mistaken view of social contagion, that makes no sense to me. There aren’t many trans people and it is such a difficult thing to be. Transphobia, lack of acceptance, the uptick in risk of assault and sexual assault, social isolation. And that doesn’t even get into the emotional and mental pain dysphoria can cause. If there aren’t crowds/groups of trans folk to fall in with (and my understanding is a person must go out and find a group of trans people. There isn’t going to be some big group in middle school to be friends with) and being trans is often really difficult and dangerous in everyday life, why would social contagion influence a person to believe they are trans when they aren’t? This isn’t an everyone’s-doing-it, it’s-totally-cool, or obedience-to-authority thing. Nothing like any of the studies or theories of social contagion I’ve read about.
Also, totally off topic, but do you know of any resources or books about supporting and helping a trans person through transition? Or, and this will sound wierd, any Catholic focused books that are pro-trans and not anti-trans
These people believe that affirming stories of transgender youth will lead to copycat behavior by minors who will be harmed by emulating this behavior.
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is a great book. Catholic focused resources are hard to come by, as the Pope himself said gender theory is a global threat akin to nuclear war.
I’m not hopeful about the Catholic focused resources, but thought it worth asking. It would be so helpful to someone I know when she tells her Catholic mom.
