6 July 2017
I don’t make a great deal of the alleged “transgender anomaly” running through our bloodline (according to my son, who wonders about a possible genetic component.) When the fifteen year old grandniece declared that “last year” she had “definitely” been a lesbian, and now was “definitely a boy”. I concluded that she was definitely fifteen.
I was naturally relieved to learn of the fourteen year old grandniece’s safe return, and not terribly surprised to learn of her current re-identification. If she prefers “Ky” (or, original Greek spelling: “X”) to the perceived abomination that her parents tried tagging her with, well, I can certainly relate to that.
I was surprised when son informed me that sixteen year old grandniece had also hopped aboard the trendy new trans trolley. She had previously struck me as being rather affirmatively and comfortably feminine. But, it’s her call, I guess.
I reckon adolescents likely know themselves well enough to decide these things, but…
My own grandson, apparently now “identifies as female.” Sadly, this doesn’t surprise me all that much. Early reports had him a rambunctious force of nature, bounding through life with boyish vigor.
But boyish vigor is an unpopular commodity these days. We are living in a culture that celebrates and glorifies womanhood, exalts victimhood, and denigrates patriarchy, rape culture, and well, boyish vigor. Boyish energy is so unwelcome at the government schools that many offenders are tranked into ambulatory somnolence lest they offend the sacred order.
And of course, the lad has an assertive older sister. And parents who are deeply steeped in Leftie Culture. (Girls are cool! Girls are powerful! Toxic masculinity! Pay gap! Misogynist in the White House! Love Trumps Hate! Trans is trendy!) We are pack animals, after all, and popular opinion will usually win out, as most of us are eager to be one of the cool kids.
So, summing up: Instant granddaughter.
Or, not so fast. These issues will either be grown out of or grown into
I will ever endeavor to attend to the preferred proper nouns that people pick out for themselves, so long as they seem to be taking themselves seriously. But until jobs are secured, money is spent, and surgeries are performed, or other commensurate commitments are demonstrated, I’m going to stick with the pronouns that I’ve been using.
update 201119: this writer goes into greater detail on the boring technical details