“You ask: “Why do we chastise teenage girls when they cut themselves, but celebrate them when they find a doctor to do it for them? When a teenage girl cuts herself, or starves herself, we try to help the human being. Why are we now celebrating a symptom?” We might also ask: Why are we accommodating this distress rather than treating it?”
Best argument I have heard. This letter writing exchange was wonderful! Thank you for publishing it. The two of you are brilliant thinkers!
First, are there any teenagers who haven't, at least once, thought about suicide? So citing a "thought about suicide" statistic is going to be one of the statistics that Twain was referring to.
Facilitating the Transubstantiation of discomfort, real or imagined, into currency, social or actual, is a piece of the puzzle. Not much real good comes from advertisement of our weaknesses.
And your friend Sam aside, (or maybe not), being a man is tough. That a young girl thinks her life will be easier if she were a man is proof how juvenile they are. Just look at all the men who fail at being men. When you father a child, you raise that child, and try to do a better job than your dad did. When valor is needed to save someone you signed up to protect, the buck stops with you. When their life and your worth are on the line - do you have what it takes, or are you a Uvalde cop?
Jordan Peterson has it right. Pick up a heavy rock and carry it. If you are searching for a rock you prefer to carry (changing genders) you are missing the point.
There are many excellent points in both sets of letters but I'll focus on one.
When my children were younger and objecting to some family rules or my rules I would remind them that I am not their friend but their parent. They will have many friends but only two parents. I had a cork board where I tacked articles and cartoons to back up some of my points. I had an column by Irma Bombeck, published long ago, about this.
It's far too easy for teenage girls to become influenced by social pressures to the point of hysteria. It's a sad and tragic fact that these girls who are taking hormones and having surgeries are going to wake up in the 20's and 30's and look back with horror on what they were allowed to do to themselves.
Conservative parents are more likely to say "No." We used to hear fairly frequently back in the days of sense "If you friend tells you to jump off a bridge are you going to do it?"
Letting your child take hormones and/or go through surgery is child abuse.
If you have not read an article published today, June 15th, in “The Tablet” titled The Pritzker Family and Gender Ideology. Listening to your podcasts and reading your publications has moved the rock under which I have apparently been hiding. I so appreciate you and Dr. Bret. Please give an opinion on the article if you find time to find and read it. I am aghast. There must be something much deeper than social contagion happening to our culture and the world. I cannot even remotely understand.
Sorry, no sympathy here. As the father of a daughter and with many nieces, I can tell you they are fascinated by the gay, trans, queer ideology. They think it is "cute" and "with it." Let them suffer the consequences.
Allowing children to make tragic errors because society is misleading them is not good parenting. Good parents let children make mistakes, and take risks, and get hurt, in part so that those children will make fewer mistakes, and take smarter risks, and get less hurt, as adults; this does not include letting them irreparably harm themselves, however. Teenagers and young adults are feeling their oats, and it can sometimes be a pain to deal with them. They push back because they sure that they know everything, but they do not. They are young, and need guidance, and clarity, and a reality check. That's what parenthood is. Abdicating parental responsibility is cowardly.
I agree with you here, and I immediately think about the effects of extended childhood, also. Somehow these disorders blew up in proportion when the range of freedom to wonder (or basically self-schedule at least part of life prior to the age of 22+) during that extended childhood shrank. Throw in smart phones for reinforcing communities and that's a problem that explodes if not solved by the adults in the room.
Cowardice exists, and reasonable people can disagree about when it is in evidence. I don’t think that you are cowardly for disagreeing with me. I do think that it is cowardly for parents to let their children make tragic errors, which is what you seem to be saying that you are doing.
T, I am totally missing the reason for your huff. I hear Heather saying don't let doctors cut off your daughter's breasts. Are you really saying, "no, go for it"?
Tend to side with Heather what ever your political bent may be. Parents are ultimately responsible to keep their children safe from the malignant forces now permeating our society. We need more knowledgeable voices to explore the how to strategy for parents to navigate this new evolved capture & indoctrination of our children by all institutions. Heather, how did a minority become so powerful? Were we all asleep at the gait? We all need hope, remedies, solution. And our favorite evolutionary biologists perspectives. Thank you!
“You ask: “Why do we chastise teenage girls when they cut themselves, but celebrate them when they find a doctor to do it for them? When a teenage girl cuts herself, or starves herself, we try to help the human being. Why are we now celebrating a symptom?” We might also ask: Why are we accommodating this distress rather than treating it?”
Best argument I have heard. This letter writing exchange was wonderful! Thank you for publishing it. The two of you are brilliant thinkers!
First, are there any teenagers who haven't, at least once, thought about suicide? So citing a "thought about suicide" statistic is going to be one of the statistics that Twain was referring to.
Facilitating the Transubstantiation of discomfort, real or imagined, into currency, social or actual, is a piece of the puzzle. Not much real good comes from advertisement of our weaknesses.
And your friend Sam aside, (or maybe not), being a man is tough. That a young girl thinks her life will be easier if she were a man is proof how juvenile they are. Just look at all the men who fail at being men. When you father a child, you raise that child, and try to do a better job than your dad did. When valor is needed to save someone you signed up to protect, the buck stops with you. When their life and your worth are on the line - do you have what it takes, or are you a Uvalde cop?
Jordan Peterson has it right. Pick up a heavy rock and carry it. If you are searching for a rock you prefer to carry (changing genders) you are missing the point.
There are many excellent points in both sets of letters but I'll focus on one.
When my children were younger and objecting to some family rules or my rules I would remind them that I am not their friend but their parent. They will have many friends but only two parents. I had a cork board where I tacked articles and cartoons to back up some of my points. I had an column by Irma Bombeck, published long ago, about this.
It's far too easy for teenage girls to become influenced by social pressures to the point of hysteria. It's a sad and tragic fact that these girls who are taking hormones and having surgeries are going to wake up in the 20's and 30's and look back with horror on what they were allowed to do to themselves.
Conservative parents are more likely to say "No." We used to hear fairly frequently back in the days of sense "If you friend tells you to jump off a bridge are you going to do it?"
Letting your child take hormones and/or go through surgery is child abuse.
If you have not read an article published today, June 15th, in “The Tablet” titled The Pritzker Family and Gender Ideology. Listening to your podcasts and reading your publications has moved the rock under which I have apparently been hiding. I so appreciate you and Dr. Bret. Please give an opinion on the article if you find time to find and read it. I am aghast. There must be something much deeper than social contagion happening to our culture and the world. I cannot even remotely understand.
Need to edit first sentence, which is incomplete. I intended to say, PLEASE read I and give feedback. A subscription is not required.
Sorry, no sympathy here. As the father of a daughter and with many nieces, I can tell you they are fascinated by the gay, trans, queer ideology. They think it is "cute" and "with it." Let them suffer the consequences.
Allowing children to make tragic errors because society is misleading them is not good parenting. Good parents let children make mistakes, and take risks, and get hurt, in part so that those children will make fewer mistakes, and take smarter risks, and get less hurt, as adults; this does not include letting them irreparably harm themselves, however. Teenagers and young adults are feeling their oats, and it can sometimes be a pain to deal with them. They push back because they sure that they know everything, but they do not. They are young, and need guidance, and clarity, and a reality check. That's what parenthood is. Abdicating parental responsibility is cowardly.
I agree with you here, and I immediately think about the effects of extended childhood, also. Somehow these disorders blew up in proportion when the range of freedom to wonder (or basically self-schedule at least part of life prior to the age of 22+) during that extended childhood shrank. Throw in smart phones for reinforcing communities and that's a problem that explodes if not solved by the adults in the room.
I disagree with you so I am cowardly? Thanks for showing your true colors. I'll unsubscribe.
Cowardice exists, and reasonable people can disagree about when it is in evidence. I don’t think that you are cowardly for disagreeing with me. I do think that it is cowardly for parents to let their children make tragic errors, which is what you seem to be saying that you are doing.
T, I am totally missing the reason for your huff. I hear Heather saying don't let doctors cut off your daughter's breasts. Are you really saying, "no, go for it"?
Tend to side with Heather what ever your political bent may be. Parents are ultimately responsible to keep their children safe from the malignant forces now permeating our society. We need more knowledgeable voices to explore the how to strategy for parents to navigate this new evolved capture & indoctrination of our children by all institutions. Heather, how did a minority become so powerful? Were we all asleep at the gait? We all need hope, remedies, solution. And our favorite evolutionary biologists perspectives. Thank you!