1./ Of magic, miracles and the mental health impact of gender identity propaganda. After Emma Corin in a chest binder and Elliot Page's top surgery we're now regaled by Tommy Dorfman reintroduced as a 'woman', who says 'she' was trapped "in the wrong body". Miracle or madness?👇
2./ Dorfman's story was showcased in @TIME whose owner the billionaire Marc @Benioff likes a miracle or two. His own life was magically transformed when he met an Indian guru Mata Amritanandamayi, known as the hugging saint.👇 dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…
3./ Mata built a vast business empire. Her biography tells a miraculous story of how she survived for a time on a diet of glass and faeces, diverted storms and fed a thousand people from a single pot. That makes Tommy's miracle sound positively mundane.👇nytimes.com/2013/05/26/bus…
4./ The trans movement itself began with a story that hovered between miracle and madness, 'Man to Woman', the biography of Lili Elbe, who had a sex change op in the 1930s. In 'The Danish Girl', based on her story, Lili learns how to pout from a brothel dancer. Miracle or mad?
5./ Lili's story often swings into almost pathological homophobia. For one thing she believed her body was possessed by two people : 'Andreas' and herself. Disgusted by the suggestion Andreas might be homosexual she claims he has to die and "perhaps I am his murderer". Ok...👇 
6./ Lili became so delusional she claimed when slices of ovary were inserted into her she was suddenly rejuvenated. Popularised by Eugene Steinach, it was a widely held belief that gland transplants could make you younger. We now know it's bunkum.👇mcgill.ca/oss/article/he…
7./ Lili's story is full of nonsense like this. Immediately after her op she claims she suddenly spoke with a high-pitched voice and began to "menstruate" through her nose. She also claimed no one recognised her as Andreas which makes one wonder whether everyone was being polite.
8./ Once she'd suffered extraordinary pain Lili finally felt able to settle down with a man. Self-loathing homosexual? Who knows. Either way, for the next 60 years the desire to chop your body around to fit an inner 'identity' was viewed with suspicion. Then came a revolution.👇
9./ In the 90s, experts in transsexuality like Russell Reid (the key advisor on the Gender Recognition Act) began to argue medicine should affirm any strongly felt inner identity, including those who wanted their limbs amputated. Here's Reid comparing the two conditions. 👇
10./ I worked on this BBC Horizon, following a German guy, Hans Schuab, who wanted a leg amputated. Reid interviewed him and declared him completely sane. But here's the thing, he and the surgeon also concluded that Hans's desire to be an amputee was not fetishistic.
11./ Y'see, fetishism might have suggested an obsession bordering on madness. But it was clear to me there WAS a sexual element to Hans's desire to have a leg removed. Soon after his op it was revealed another guy who was amputated ran a fetish site.👇heraldscotland.com/news/12215344.…
12./ After the scandal, amputations of healthy limbs on the NHS were banned, despite wannabe-amputees using the same arguments as those who wanted to have "sex change" ops. They claimed, for example, they'd commit suicide unless they lost a limb. Or two.👇abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Heal…
13./ The medical profession solemnly concluded tho that cutting off healthy limbs to satisfy a strange inner identity was just too dangerous. What if it normalised a type of madness and encouraged it? Even Russell Reid concluded the wannabes's psyche "was damaged in some way".
14./ But why is wanting to remove a limb the result of a damaged psyche but wanting to remove your breasts or penis isn't? What's the difference between a modern miracle and a form of madness? It's an important question because proponents of elective amputation are back.👇
15./ In an extraordinary article in 2020 @RichardBGibson defended the removal of healthy limbs including those of Hans; arguing the harm of their amputations would be less than not doing it. Miracle or madness? It depends on who we're talking about.👇journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
16./ Gibson acknowledges Hans' condition was originally rooted in a type of sexual fetishism. But whether or not removing a limb from Hans made him happier or not what would be the impact on society as a whole of satisfying such fetishes? Gibson is silent on that.
17./ If doctors and surgeons start changing bodies to fit every inner identity the impact on the mental health of young people and the vulnerable could be considerable. Self-harm is currently considered a mental health condition. This could normalise it. 👇bbc.co.uk/news/uk-557309…
18./ Most of us would agree that even if a tiny minority felt happier affirmed in their desire to mutilate their body the dangers of the impact on others would outweigh that small benefit. Young people might be misled by uplifting tales, like those of Hans and his now absent leg.
19./ So what is the impact of a steady stream of "uplifting" tales of people surgically or hormonally transforming their body which they, like Tommy Dorfman, claim is 'wrong'? Might those stories of miraculous transformations contribute to mental health issues for many others?
20./ The medics who drove this phenomenon claimed to be full of goodwill and care. As did Russell Reid, before he was found guilty of misconduct. He'd given hormones to a woman who wanted be a man...because she believed she was Jesus. Miracle or madness? 👇theguardian.com/society/2007/m…
21./ Is our media exhibiting a similar complacency now to Reid's as they applaud every transition no questions asked? When we look back maybe we'll conclude it wasn't any individual who was mad but society as a whole; gas lit by the stories of 'miracles' that were no such thing.
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