Thread by @ShahrarAli

OK sensitive topic but needs an airing. Here's part of form used by libraries as registration for 2021 Summer reading challenge *for kids aged 4-11*. Great initiative but why oh why were kids being asked "How would you describe yourself?" (optional) & excluding sex data?

Had good debate with librarian (identity withheld for protection) who also found it questionable, esp to be asking kids this young, to think about themselves quite so self-consciously as a gendered appearance or none. They even recounted how one of their own kids disliked it.

To be explicit about my own concerns now. Yes I do think it is wrong to omit objective sex classification data & flies in face of gold standard data collection exercises such as Census 2021 & almost certainly school data (which this data would need to talk to).

It's problematic to ask kids this age question like this & I would not approve my kids being encouraged to think like that at that age. Nothing wrong having a robust sense of reality --> sex = boy/girl. Perhaps @readingagency charity running competition would care to comment.

Interesting, I'm seeing two types of response: a) serious engagement with topic in terms of age-appropriate justification for this type of self-declared gender identity collection for years 4-11 to exclusion of sex data.
b) defensive, ad hominem attacks reducing sex to genitalia.

Type b) response also getting things back to front in terms of who is trying to out whom. If purpose of form were to identify "trans kids" then that's not a responsible way to go about it.

Okay so now we have a type c) response but also a non sequitur, "it's optional so get over it". I want to know whether this is an age-appropriate question to ask, not whether it's mandatory to answer.

Vast majority of kids will *know* themselves as boy/girl or male/female only as a result of *fact* of their biological sex (binary). To posit subjective gender stereotyping at their age "how they would describe themselves" coupled with non-binary classification is irresponsible.

Irresponsible because says nothing about system of ideas which could contribute to their self-assessment, many of which are bound to be patriarchal so should hardly be reinforced; and limiting because reading is supposed to broaden horizons not artificially constrain them.

And yes I care about what & how kids of today taught. It's deeply ironic that in a reading challenge exercise for 4-11 year olds they should have to be introduced to stereotypic gender thinking. It's obsessive & nobody has provided satisfactory institutional justification for it.

Finally tonight, which deserves to be imprinted on everyone's mind as they come to discussion on sex/gender identity incongruence. Why 25-fold rise in child & adolescent referrals to GIDS clinic 2009-19 & disproportionate natal-female population represented? (Griffin et al 2020).