A Psychology Professor Believes Children Are Susceptible To Being Influenced by Gender Ideology
NEWS COMMENTARY
A recent College Fix article discusses the issue of nature versus nurture in gender identity and children.
In a recent talk and subsequent Internet post, a professor of psychology disputed the idea that children can honestly determine their “gender identity”—whether or not they are a boy or a girl—at their earliest ages.
Professor Katie Alcock’s original post on Medium is called “Young children, reality, sex and gender.”
The current popular narrative about childhood and teen gender identity is that dysphoric children are “trapped in the wrong body.” Gender dysphoria is due to a body defect, not a mental health issue. This is the viewpoint behind the recent move to add the term “gender incongruence” to the forthcoming edition of ICD (ICD-11) into a new chapter termed “Conditions Related to Sexual Health.” In this way, a trans child (and adult) will be viewed as simply having a physical birth defect that needs medical correction.
But there is evidence of environment influences on how children see other’s gender and their own gender beyond the “pink brain/blue brain” narrative. Topic 10 reviews “nature versus nurture” research on gender dysphoria and homosexuality. Factors such as family situation, homophobia, and mental health issues influence gender dysphoria. And Dr. Alcock believes that children’s perceptions of their own gender may be influenced by the gender expectations around them:
So researchers are clear that we are talking about children’s knowledge of sex, and that this can’t change. A nice quote from a 2003 paper:
“Categorical sex is an essential, immutable attribute of people that is maintained (by self and others) independent of changes in physical appearance (e.g., in hairstyle, clothes, or make-up) and of changes in behaviour (e.g., cross-sex play behaviour or homosexuality).” (from Trautner et al., 2003, in the International Journal of Behavioral Development)
Nevertheless, it takes children some time to work out both whether they themselves are a girl or a boy, and that both they and others cannot change sex. Working out which they are themselves happens earlier, and is based in all the studies that have been done on physical appearance and stereotypes.
She then proceeds to show several examples of this. Children see gender in terms of stereotypical haircuts and dress. This information explains the reasons why people are concerned, including LGB people, parents, and even gender dysphoria professionals, that grey area youth, more likely to be LGB when they get older, may be harmed by having their gender confusion validated.
The reasons for stereotyping are rooted in the need for humans, including children, to be able to make generalizations at times in life (even if they are problematic sometimes):
Making generalisations is a very useful skill for a baby or child — if they couldn’t make generalisations, they would never be able to work out that a new cat they saw was in fact a cat, or a new apple was just as good to eat as the last one, or a new car is likely also to go places. Children can work out at a very young age that there are men and women, boys and girls, in the world — it’s probably quite useful for them to work this out in the general scheme of things².
So when they see all the girls at nursery wearing pink and having long hair, well, that’s what girls do! And they also realise, from what people are saying, and from how their parents dress them, what toys they are given, and what toys other children who look like them (same clothes, same hair) what they are supposed to like and do based on what sex they are.³
And:
Children know what they like. When society and the world tells them that the things they like are those that boys like — but they have been told in words that they are a girl — well, that’s easy. They already know that having short hair makes you into a boy. They know that playing with cars makes you into a boy. So it’s easy! Boy all the way. And their version of the world, at their age, means that changing sex is totally possible.
Dr. Alcock’s comments emphasis nurture. In contrast, the narrative promoted by the Trans Youth Project is generally “innate gender identity.” The Trans Youth Project studies are being used to validate early social transitions of thousands of children, to put thousands more on hormone blockers, and to support arguments for earlier and earlier medical interventions (whether this is the researchers’ intentions or not). In this article, head psychologist Kristina Olson doesn’t mention the possibility of desistance or its association with adult LGB identity. In this article, she calls concerns about the psychological impact of social transition “alarmist.” And here, the Trans Youth Project promotes the view that trans children “know who they are” when they both say they are trans and match cross-sex interests of controls. Olson’s view is that desistance was over stated in previous research. Her cohort’s declarations of “I am a girl” (versus wanting to be a girl), as well as a match in cross-sex interests, indicates a testable, innate trans identity.
Alcock indicates children may be influenced to understand their gender due to being drawn to cross-sex interests and style and opposite sex playmates. This is precisely Debra Soh’s criticism of the gender dysphoria affirmative model as stated in “The Unspoken Homophobia Propelling the Transgender Movement in Children” and elsewhere. It’s also getting difficult to argue that culture doesn’t affect gender dysphoria in youth as the demographics between younger and older people are so different, with now an increase in females transitioning.
A review of the trans child narrative and how it is heavily promoted through gender stereotypes can be found here and here. All of the educational graphics involve short hair versus long hair and GI Joe and Barbie type of imagery.
Children who will grow up to be trans adults are drawn to stereotypical cross-sex interests. But so are pre-gay/lesbian/bi children.
Autism spectrum individuals may also be susceptible to seeing their cross-sex interests as being indicative of their “innate” gender identity, as rigid and obsessive thinking may be part of the symptoms (here and here).
These are issues as medical transition starts as young as nine years old now in the United States.
GHQ seeks to learn the influence of gender ideology on pre-same-sex attracted and other gender nonconforming youth to ensure those youth are not over-medicalized as minors. Since detransitioned young people are often LGB, this is a population that deserves study and protection, as do trans youth. Determining all of these influences is necessary in determining best pathways to support dysphoric youth.
REFERENCES
Alcock, K. (2019, May 29). Young children, reality, sex and gender. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@katieja/young-children-reality-sex-and-gender-3421f4f165f1