{"id":1627,"date":"2024-03-01T00:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T00:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/?p=1627"},"modified":"2024-04-01T00:55:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T00:55:34","slug":"no-one-is-born-in-the-wrong-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/2024\/03\/01\/no-one-is-born-in-the-wrong-body\/","title":{"rendered":"No One Is Born in “The Wrong Body”"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Artigo original publicado no Le Figaro<\/span><\/h5>\n

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The fact is, no child is actually born in the wrong body.<\/h5>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The idea that all people have an innate \u201cgender identity\u201d recently has been\u00a0endorsed<\/a>\u00a0by many health-care professionals and mainstream medical organizations. This term commonly is defined to mean the \u201cinternal, deeply held<\/a>\u201d sense of whether one is a man or a woman (or, in the case of children, a boy or a girl), both, or neither. It also has become common to claim that this sense of identity may be reliably articulated by children as young as\u00a0three years old<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While these claims about gender identity did not attract systematic scrutiny at first, they now have become the subject of\u00a0criticism<\/a>\u00a0from a growing number of scientists,\u00a0philosophers<\/a>\u00a0and health workers. Developmental studies show that young children have only a superficial understanding of sex and gender (at best). For instance, up until age seven, many children often believe that if a boy puts on a dress, he\u00a0becomes<\/em><\/a>\u00a0a girl. This gives us reason to doubt whether a coherent concept of gender identity exists\u00a0at all<\/em>\u00a0in young children. To such extent as any such identity may exist, the concept relies on stereotypes that encourage the conflation of gender with sex.<\/p>\n

However, starting at a young age, children do tend to exhibit preferences and behaviors that we associate with\u00a0sex<\/em>\u00a0(as distinct from\u00a0gender<\/em>). For example, male children\u00a0display<\/a>\u00a0more aggressive behavior than female children. In addition, \u201ccross-sex\u201d behavior\u2014or, more accurately, cross-sex stereotypical behavior\u2014often is\u00a0predictive<\/a>\u00a0of later same-sex attraction.<\/p>\n

Can all of these findings be integrated? To start, just as sex influences the development of bodies, it also influences brains. There are in-utero\u00a0differences<\/a>\u00a0in hormone exposures (male testosterone surges at eight weeks gestation, for example), and distinct developmental pathways are triggered based on the XX (typically female) or XY (typically male) chromosomal make-up of neurons. The integration of these sex-related and other developmental processes with environmental pressures gives rise to an individual\u2019s unique personality and preferences.<\/p>\n

It comes as no surprise then that population-based studies have demonstrated sex-related differences in personality and preferences that are independent of social influences. When social influences are weakened (in more egalitarian societies such as the Nordic countries of Europe), the sex-related\u00a0differences<\/a>\u00a0in personality and preferences actually\u00a0increase<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(the opposite of what one would expect if men and women were wired in an identical fashion). This suggests that as environmental pressures become relaxed, innate sex-specific preferences surface.<\/p>\n

A closer look at personality traits shows that when data is analyzed in aggregate, there is a roughly 30%\u00a0overlap<\/a>\u00a0between sexes, as schematized in the accompanying figure. The consequence of this overlap is that adolescent males who fall on the left end of the male (blue \u201cmasculine\u201d) curve, and adolescent females who fall on the right end of the female (pink \u201cfeminine\u201d) curve, will exhibit personality traits that diverge from the majority of other members of their own sex. In fact, due to the overlap of personality traits between males and females,\u00a0the personality traits of some females will be more \u201cmale-like\u201d than those exhibited by some, or even most males\u2019 and vice versa.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the case of an adolescent female whose behavior, personality traits and preferences are more \u201cmasculine\u201d than most girls\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0most boys, she could be led to incorrectly conclude that she is really a male, born in the wrong body. That child\u2019s parents could become confused as well, noticing how \u201cdifferent\u201d their child\u2019s behavior is from their own, or from that of their peers. In reality, that child simply exists at the end of a behavioral spectrum, and \u201csex-atypical\u201d behavior is part of the natural variation exhibited both within and between the sexes.\u00a0Personality and behavior do not define one\u2019s sex.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are approximately 40-million children in the United States between the ages of four and fourteen. The distribution curve above would suggest that roughly four-million of them have personality profiles that are \u201csex atypical,\u201d but which are still part of the natural distribution of personalities within each sex.<\/p>\n

The broad, but normal distribution of personality traits also explains studies showing a 28% concordance of transgender identity\u00a0in twins<\/a>. Twins have identical chromosomes, and so likely will have similar sex-related behaviors, as well as experience similar environmental influences in regard to those behaviors. Using twin adolescent males as an example: If their behaviors are at the \u201cfeminine\u201d end of the male-typical distribution, they could both become confused as to what their behaviors and preferences mean about their sex.<\/p>\n

In most cases, the thing that is now called \u201cgender identity\u201d likely is simply an individual\u2019s perception of how their own sex-related and environmentally influenced personality compares to same and opposite sexed people. Put another way, it\u2019s a self-assessment of one\u2019s stereotypical degree of \u201cmasculinity\u201d or \u201cfemininity,\u201d and it\u2019s wrongly being conflated with biological sex. This conflation stems from a cultural failure to understand the broad distribution of personalities and preferences\u00a0within<\/em>\u00a0sexes and the overlap\u00a0between<\/em>\u00a0sexes.<\/p>\n

When a girl reports that she \u201cfeels like a boy\u201d or \u201cis a boy,\u201d that sentiment may reflect her perception of how her personality and preferences compare to the rest of her peers. If the girl has an autism spectrum condition, she may even perceive \u201csex-atypical\u201d behavior that does not actually exist, and thereby falsely self-diagnose as male even without experiencing any actual male personality traits.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that these scenarios don\u2019t apply to all cases of gender dysphoria, as\u00a0many other triggers<\/a>\u00a0are described in the literature. But in most cases,\u00a0counseling<\/a>\u00a0can help gender dysphoric\u00a0adolescents<\/a>\u00a0resolve any trauma or\u00a0thought processes<\/a>\u00a0that have caused them to desire an opposite sexed body.<\/p>\n

Historical data suggests that about 0.5% of children develop gender dysphoria\u2014distress caused by a perceived incongruence between one\u2019s biological sex and gender presentation. Reinforcing studies in the medical literature show that, as children get older, childhood-onset gender dysphoria resolves (i.e. ends) in most cases. As two authors put it in a 2016\u00a0International Review of Psychiatry\u00a0<\/em>article<\/a>, \u201cthe conclusion from these studies is that childhood GD [gender dysphoria] is strongly associated with a lesbian, gay or bisexual outcome and that for the majority of the children (85.2%; 270 out of 317 [studied individuals]) the gender dysphoric feelings remitted around or after puberty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet instead of offering\u00a0counseling<\/a>, medical professionals now are commonly telling children that they may have been \u201cborn in the wrong body.\u201d This new approach, called \u201cgender affirmation,\u201d makes gender dysphoria less likely to resolve, pushing children down the path toward irreversible medical and surgical interventions. If aggressive transition options are pursued early in puberty, the combination of puberty-blocking drugs, followed by cross sex hormones, will result in permanent infertility.<\/p>\n

The growing population of transgender-identifying high school students now is estimated to comprise about 2% of all students\u2014a three-fold increase over the baseline 0.5% figure cited above. Many adolescents now are\u00a0presenting<\/a>\u00a0to gender clinics, with some clinics seeing a\u00a010-fold<\/a>\u00a0increase in new cases. Many of these adolescents have\u00a0no history<\/a>\u00a0of childhood gender dysphoria. Higher rates of autism-spectrum conditions have been\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0in many of these adolescents, and the controversial \u201caffirmation model\u201d is being applied to this unstudied cohort as well. Not surprisingly,\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0of transition regret, and de-transition, are growing in number.<\/p>\n

To summarize, a lack of understanding regarding the distribution of sex-related personality and behavioral differences has led to confusion that impacts children who fall at the extreme tail-ends of the distribution, and who would be statistically more likely to grow up to be gay, lesbian or bisexual adults if allowed to experience uninterrupted puberty. Additionally, telling a child that he or she was born in the wrong body pathologizes \u201cgender non-conforming\u201d behavior and makes gender dysphoria less likely to resolve.<\/p>\n

The fact is,\u00a0no child is actually born in the wrong body<\/em>. Adults should expand their understanding of what normal male and female behavior and preferences look like\u2014which would lead them to appreciate that being male or female comes with a wider range of personalities preferences, and possibilities than old stereotypes would have us believe.<\/p>\n

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IR PARA ARTIGO ORIGINAL<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artigo original publicado no Le Figaro Por William J. Malone, Colin M. Wright, and Julia D. Robertson The fact is, no child is actually born in the wrong body. The idea that all people have an innate \u201cgender identity\u201d recently has been\u00a0endorsed\u00a0by many health-care professionals and mainstream medical organizations. This term commonly is defined to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internacional"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1627"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1632,"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627\/revisions\/1632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juventudeemtransicao.pt\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}