Comment on Barbie and the conservative outrage machine

• Whirlybird@aussie.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Jesus what a stupid take, to actually believe that liberals are “experimenting on children”.

  What would you call it? It’s using drugs for reasons they’re not approved for, to do surgeries that have massive lists of complications and even without complications will require literal daily care for the rest of their life. The long term effects of “puberty blockers” are unknown. It’s literal experimentation at this stage because there have been no long term studies. How is it not experimenting?

  Surgeries, gender altering surgeries, are usually held off until 18, and if they’re not I really don’t understand why the government needs to have a say in something that a parent and child decide on.

  “Usually” doesn’t cut it. You don’t understand why life altering elective surgeries shouldn’t be government regulated? A child cannot consent to these surgeries or treatments. They do not have the mental capacity to do so. Let me ask you this - would you let a 10 year old get a tattoo? What if they really want it, and their parents are ok with it? You think they should be able to go and get a nice big dragon tattoo on the side of their head?

  puberty blockers have no long term effects

  This has been disproven time and time again. You can’t just “pause” puberty and then have it pick up right where it left off, it doesn’t work that way, physically or mentally. The NHS changed their literature from “The effects of treatment with GnRH analogues are considered to be fully reversible” to “Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria.

  Although the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) advises this is a physically reversible treatment if stopped, it is not known what the psychological effects may be.

  It’s also not known whether hormone blockers affect the development of the teenage brain or children’s bones. Side effects may also include hot flushes, fatigue and mood alterations.”. Other countries have now started doing the same.

  To not have big government tell them that if they feel more comfortable wearing jeans and a tshirt over a dress that they should be allowed to. That if a child says “I don’t like playing with monster trucks, can I play with a doll instead?” that we can say yes, absolutely you can.

  The problem is that no one is telling kids that if they’re a boy they have to play with a monster truck, but one side are saying “if you play with a monster truck you must be a boy, so if you’re a girl we should start you on puberty blockers right away!”. The “liberals” are the ones using stereotypes of “if you are comfortable wearing jeans and a tshirt over a dress you must be a boy”, not the other way around.

  I really don’t understand why people think they need to have a say in how other people raise children.

  Really? So you would be ok with parents teaching their kids that black people should be slaves, that it’s ok for adults to have sex with them, and that they can go and murder the next door neighbours cat if they want to?

  Please, tell me how you want big federal government to tell us what to do.

  So you’re just anti-government? Do you object to murder being illegal? That’s letting the “big federal government to tell us what to do” isn’t it?

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  • scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Okay most of these are in fact just conservative talking points. A couple hypotheticals for you then.

    A 16 year old male has felt like a female since they were 8. They have worn dresses, they went by another name, they do not want to be male. They have asked their parents for oh, 4 years to be put on blockers to help them lower their voice and cut down on facial hair, they legitimately want this. Let’s just assume the drugs are 100% safe, as safe as drugs ever can be. Would you be okay with this?

    Follow up then, who decides when the drugs are safe? Is it when your family doctor says they are? When the FDA says they are (or whoever your equivalent is)?

    Reason I switch this to hypotheticals is because the argument isn’t about if they are safe or not, it’s about consent. If drugs/procedures are safe is already well defined in all of our governments. You’re right, a 10 year old can’t get a tattoo because there is no need for a 10 year old to get a tattoo. But should it be allowed for a 17 year old who has fully swapped to female after 9 years of acting as one? I’m legit asking you if they should. and if you’re answer is no, why is it no, truly?

    I’m asking this way because really I’m trying to get you to see our side, that it’s not as “crazy” as conservative media is making it out to be. You actually already agree with us for the most part, that people should be allowed to dress and act the way they want, and honestly that’s 90% of what they’re fighting for, literally just to exist, to not be demonized. This one bit here is honestly just a small concern to most liberals, but it’s been blown waaaaay out of proportion by the media. To me it’s a detail, a footnote in the argument on the trans rights movement.

    I actually think you and I are closer on this than the news articles would have us believe. My personal belief is that if the drugs are safe and approved by doctors, and they are reversible, I would let my kids go on them. I, as a parent, would not let them have anything irreversible done until they were 18. Personally I would sit them down and say something like “I completely understand, and I understand that you are in high school and feel like this is forever, but I want you to go into this with a full clear head knowing you made the right decision, not because of what factors in school make you want, but because you yourself want it”, and personally would have them hold off until 18. Anything reversible is fine, but again I think we agree, kids are fickle, I know I was, I thought long greasy hair was totally in. It was not.

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