The Tavistock, the NHS clinic that specialises in treating children ‘who experience difficulties in the development of their gender identity’, has just released its annual batch of statistics. The figures reveal that the children being referred to the clinic are younger than ever, and that far more girls than boys are seeking treatment.
As The Times reports, over half of all the children seen by the Tavistock are now under the age of 14. The number of 13-year-olds referred in the past year rose by 30 per cent to 331, while the number of 11-year-olds is up by 28 per cent. The youngest patients were just three years old.
Three quarters of children who want help to change their gender are now girls – the highest proportion ever recorded. We urgently need to ask why girls in particular are so unhappy with the prospect of growing up to be women that they would prefer to change gender altogether.
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The disparity between the proportion of boys and girls wanting to change gender exposes the myth put about by trans activists that we have an innate sense of gender identity in the brain. According to trans ideology, brains and bodies are aligned for most people – that is, their biological sex matches the gender identity in their brain – while trans individuals apparently experience a mismatch between the two. That means their bodies need to be changed and brought into line with their brains in order for their true gender to be realised. But if this really were the case, we would expect just as many males and females to experience this disjuncture between their brains and bodies. That so many more girls than boys are raising concerns about their gender identity suggests this is a social and cultural phenomenon, rather than a biological one.
The increasing number of girls looking to change gender also calls into question the view held by many radical feminists, that transgenderism is a form of ‘autogynephilia’. According to this theory, some men feel so sexually aroused by the thought of themselves as women that they transition in order to make this state permanent. This may well account for a small number of trans women who fetishise and ape stereotypical womanhood, complete with dresses, make-up and high-heeled shoes. In turn, some feminists accuse autogynephilic men of effectively grooming children on the internet to become trans. But even if these men are all-powerful and extremely persuasive, this clearly cannot account for such a sharp rise in teenage girls seeking gender reassignment.
