Monday, May 16, 2016

On Sheilas and Bruces

Fran Lebowitz on Bruce Jenner

Bruce "Call Me Caitlyn" Jenner is the sextagenerian poster "child" for gender dysphoria. Jenner managed to have a reality show revolve around the "transition", prominently appeared on awards shows and even managed a slot an upcoming Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

But reports are that now 66 year old Jenner is very unhappy about the challenges of transitioning from male to female and is miserable.  Jenner remains attracted to women but is said to be tormented as his Christian faith holds that same sex relationships are sinful.  


Some insiders allege that they would not be surprised if Jenner does detransition in the next couple of years, which would be facilitated as Jenner has not undergone the genital surgery yet.

As Denmark has become the first nation where gender dysphoria is no longer classified as a mental disorder, there is vexing at the cultural vellity of gender fluidity from a scientific perspective.

Dr. Paul McHugh, the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, has reasserted that "transgenderism" is a mental disorder and that sex change is biologically impossible. Johns Hopkins stopped doing gender reassignment surgery under his tenure in part because suicide rates among transgendered patients is 20 times higher than the general populace. The push to accommodate children who express feelings of gender dysphoria does not recognize that 70-80% of the kids "spontaneously lose those feelings over time".

President Barack Obama has made accommodating transgenders to use whichever bathroom they would like at a given time as a top priority in the last year of his Administration.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch is suing North Carolina for their bathroom bill to protect the traditional use of public rest rooms.  Lynch equates accommodating 0.3% of the population's "right" to use an opposite sex bathroom as the equivalent of 1960s civil rights protests.  Moreover, the Department of Education is enforcing an understanding of Title IX to force all schools to allow gender fluid individuals to use any bathroom or lose federal funding. The problem most likely is not with those afflicted with gender dysphoria but the open invitation to any male to share in the other half's locker room .

Pope Francis has lost some luster among liberal seculars as he expressed skepticism about gender theory. Imagine a Pope defending Catholicism noting that we are created in God's image, male and female and the our Creator does not make mistakes. 

May Jenner find personal solace but his case illustrates the perils of too eagerly embracing an esoteric, non-scientific enthusiasm such as gender fluidity, gender dysphoria and transgenderism. The broader question is:What is the real animus for the cultural shift? A dadaistic repudiation of cultural norms? A nihilistic approach to standards?  Or to be generous, strive to accommodate a niche minority by challenging the welfare of the majority?

No comments:

Post a Comment