Social Contagion? Try "Institutional Enforcement"
On the plummet in trans identity
In the past week, two separate professors have collected data that suggest a plunge in trans identity.
For Unherd, I wrote about what I think this means:
What should we make of these sharp spikes and declines? They support the idea of a “social contagion”, first proposed in 2017 — the idea that trans identification was spreading through the culture, not occurring naturally. But those young people were not only reared in a culture that acknowledged trans identity; they were raised in a culture that both celebrated and institutionalised it.
They were taught in schools that embodying stereotypes associated with a girl made you a girl, even if you had the body of a boy. They were taught that to be masculine was to be a boy, and that something was wrong with your body if it didn’t align. These beliefs were cemented in the guidelines and policies of major medical associations, and framed as the only acceptable approach; anything else was deemed not only hateful, but dangerous to a child’s survival. To be a liberal or Democrat — which was code for “good person” — was to affirm these beliefs. No wonder so many people opted in. “Social contagion” is no longer a strong enough term. This was institutional enforcement.
We can understand the decline, as institutions begin the long march back from the far left. But I really want to think about the people represented by the spikes in these graphs. They have never known a world without these ideas. Some of them might not have realized yet that they’ve been taught as facts what are actually very odd beliefs. They might only realize later that they’ve been harmed. How are we going to help them?
I worry about all those people represented by the peak in the graph, those born in the 2000s who were steeped in these institutionalised ideas. What is the path forward for them? There is very little support for detransitioners out there, or for those harmed by these interventions but unable to detransition because they can no longer pass as their actual sex. How will we help them when they figure out that what they were taught as facts — that sex is a spectrum, that they can and should change their sex, that everyone must affirm their subjective sense of sex — are actually just beliefs?
I was heartened recently to encounter a plastic surgeon willing and able to work with this population. I hope more do. I hope that the decline presents an opportunity to start reckoning with what has happened to the young people represented by the spike, and to strip away the politics so we can figure out how best to help them.
I agree wholeheartedly about these very odd beliefs, but I wonder why this is in written the past tense. My daughter still thinks these things (sex is a spectrum and some people are in bodies that don’t reflect their true selves, etc.) because this is still the prevailing view in our “liberal”!(complete misnomer) society.
The lies that have pushed vulnerable youth to make rash, irresponsible, self-destructive decisions are still out there. We desperately need to set the record straight.
Not one of these young people could possibly have provided informed consent for the medical interventions they have embarked on with reckless abandon because they have, in fact, been quite misinformed.
As one small example, Mamdami is in the lead for mayor of NYC and he wants to put $65 million dollars aside to poison and cut up youth who are uncomfortable in their healthy bodies - sorry to be so dramatic, but that is how I see his platform.
I can’t wait until this is truly in the past tense, but that time has not yet come.
Any dips in trans identity are probably because it’s less cool, not because the messages (the lies) have stopped being told. Institutional enforcement is a very current problem.
"Institutional enforcement" is an excellent characterization. I'll start using it and crediting you.