Cultural constructs are subject to change.  The swirling vortex of negativity and disruption caused by the idea of ‘being trans’ is long overdue for an overhaul.  Go read the rest of The 21st Century Salonnière‘s article on her substack.

“It matters because if we were to really, really understand that our 21st century Western version of “being trans” is something we made up culturally, the rest of the debates on this topic fall away into nonsense.

For example, at what age can someone decide to remove their healthy breasts? At no age, really, should society sanction surgery — and the complications and consequences of it — for removing healthy body parts for no medical reason. It’s stupid, it’s unethical, it doesn’t solve a medical problem, and it creates medical problems in a certain number of people who have the surgery. There’s no value to it.

Another example: If “being trans” is a cultural creation, in what cases do we give really powerful, medically disruptive drugs to stop puberty in otherwise healthy adolescents? Duh, never.

If people are deeply distressed by their bodies, what should we offer them? We should offer them compassion, mental health services, support groups. We shouldn’t offer them “affirmation” that something is indeed wrong with them that needs to be fixed, because that’s simply false.

The outcome for gender noncomforming people is vastly different in a cultural context in which society treats them as if they’re A-ok and perfectly accepted and emotionally healthy and can be who they are (traditional Samoa) and a cultural context in which society treats them as if there’s something wrong that needs to be fixed or else they’ll kill themselves (21st century West).

The result in traditional Samoa was happy, functional people. The result in the 21st century West is miserable, fragile (and increasingly medically and emotionally damaged) people. Which outcome is better?

We completely, completely created this phenomenon of “being trans.” We can un-create it.”