4 ms·
Paglia is one of those conservatives who is incredibly transphobic and hides it behind the facade of being a “provocateur.” She has defended the completely absu
by jolux 7y ago
Paglia is one of those conservatives who is incredibly transphobic and hides it behind the facade of being a “provocateur.” She has defended the completely absurd belief (in this case, proposed by Sheila Jeffries) that cross-gender hormone therapy is a conspiracy by big pharma to get trans people taking hormones for life, among other things:
“In it she [Jeffries] argues among other things, that the pharmaceutical industry, having lost income when routine estrogen therapy for menopausal women was abandoned because of its health risks, has been promoting the relatively new idea of transgenderism in order to create a permanent class of customers who will need to take prescribed hormones for life.”
From https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/camille-paglia-on-trump-democrats-transgenderism-and-islamist-terror https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/camille-p...
Bioidentical estradiol is a generic medication with many manufacturers and costs very little. There is not very much money to be made manufacturing it. More profitable would be the GnRH agonists, frequently used as the puberty blockers which she claims are so potentially dangerous. However their benefit is clear, and furthermore there is an entire field of medical research devoted to understanding the impacts of those drugs, and so far nothing in the evidence suggests blockers are significantly risky at all, let alone anywhere near as dangerous as the increased risk of suicide that trans kids have going through the wrong puberty.
Source for much of this: I’m a trans woman, also a pharmacology, psychiatry, and endocrinology nerd. I’m not taking hormones for life because I “need” to, I’m doing it because I want to, as is every other trans woman I know. If that changes, I can stop. It’s as simple as that.
- devtul 7y agoBlockers have a negative effect on bone density and it is unknown if they affect brain development. I guess we will only really see the negative effects(if any) in a couple of decades. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/when-transgender-kids-transition-medical-risks-are-both-known-and-unknown/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/when-transgender-...
- jolux 7y agoThe bone density risk is the only one that has been shown reliably, and even then it’s not enough to warrant not using them. A review of the current literature shows the evidence on brain development impact to be spotty. And here’s the Endocrine Society, saying they’re safe and effective: https://www.endocrine.org/news-room/press-release-archives/2013/medical-intervention-in-transgender-adolescents-appears-to-be-safe-and-effective https://www.endocrine.org/news-room/press-release-archives/2.... The doctors treating trans children keep up to date on this literature and should definitely review risks with parents and children. I personally had to sign an informed consent form stating that I had to assume I’d become immediately and irrevocably sterile upon starting treatment, but this is widely known among trans women to not be the case. Medical science is absolutely still catching up on transgender care, but all the concern trolling about risks in popular media is unwarranted. I had several unsuccessful suicide attempts in my adolescence, and I’ve been a loyal HNer since around the age of 14. That’s the huge risk that doctors and parents understand, and doctors, being for the most part hardcore utilitarians (particularly at the research level) will gladly take the small risk of blockers over that one.
- rtmaximo 7y agoI have trouble understanding the need to transition as a close friend is just undergoing it. Though I support him/her, I cannot bend my mind around it? What are the perceived benefits? In what way is it that different from using different clothes without the (not sure if small or big) risk of health? Is it not enough to know oneself is X or Y or Z identity-wise? Why is there a need to externalize it and externalize it in this particular way? At risk of sounding condescending, one particularly hard thing for me to understand is the need for the rest of her friends to call her appropriately especially since she is just beginning. If someone called me a girl or a woman (common childhood insult where I grew up, and very bad in its own way) I simply could not care less. What are the benefits of putting oneself over such a hard (at least it seems socially and medically) ordeal to change how others perceive one? One thing I know is that expecting others to perceive us in a certain way is a losing proposition. We can only change ourselves and it is unreasonable to expect it from everyone else I think. Once again, sorry for being so extended, I just would like to understand better my friend. I have tried asking her and she seems to have a block around it, saying that I would not understand. At a certain level I feel this is only a superficial change I think but then if it's that small then why bother? (I mean my friend still has his same personality and mind)
- homonculus1 7y agoPaglia is also trans...
- jolux 7y agoTrans people can be transphobic! Especially against trans women and other transfeminine people, which is where most of the brunt of Paglia’s transphobia is.
- faissaloo 7y agoOh I don't think she hides it, it's readily apparent. I don't really think there's anything wrong with it.
- jolux 7y agoSorry, you don’t think there’s anything wrong with being transphobic?
- faissaloo 7y agoPrecisely.
- dang 7y agoThis breaks the site guideline against flamebait. Would you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and not do this here?
- faissaloo 7y agoIt seems to me that the post I was replying to was the one flamebaiting.
- dang 7y agoEven so, it doesn't mean you can post like that to HN. You don't not get a speeding ticket because some other car passed you. I wouldn't say the GP was flamebait, though. Controversial no doubt, but not gratuitously provocative like your reply was. That's a big difference.
- faissaloo 7y agoI don't see how my post was any more gratuitous than the one I was replying to. Also a speeding ticket is not comparable because this is an issue which has greater societal implications.