I'm not sure if I was just GNC or gender/body dysphoric. We didnt have the language for it 10-20 years ago. It felt debilitating, and I'm glad I had the time and space to grow out of it before it was politicized.

How dare she bring such calm common sense to the topic! Disgraceful!!

Yeah 5 years ago if a boy played with a doll, people would say it's okay, we should let him be. Now it means the boy might be a girl? Quite enforcing the stereotype.

The problem with these ideas is there is no specificity. What does “not feel like a man” mean exactly? You don’t want to watch sports? You prefer to pee sitting down? You ask for directions when you’re lost?

Yay! i love Helen! Her latest book was a very interesting read. Kind of scary, frankly, but very informative and well written.

OK so my 13 year old daughter has a friend who is a trans boy (a biological girl who is not on hormones etc) who is gay. I'm like WTF???? A tomboy who likes boys lol. Why not just be A-sexual until you are older? My daughter thinks I'm "hateful" towards all these new identities but I'm just Gen X and we just have no patience for this silliness. It feels totally indulgent and attentions seeking. Am I alone in this??

I have no idea what it means to say “I feel like a woman”. I’m just me. I get cues from my culture of what’s expected, and cues from my culture via observation of behaviours of people with bodies like mine. The thing is these expectations and observations often don’t map onto each other, this was more pronounced in the past when constraints on how we were expected to be were more pronounced culturally and in law. Gender is a relatively new word. It emerged at a time when many of the cultural and legal constraints were still in place. This is why I think what Helen says about the dis-ease as something we create, either as an imposition from culture, or within our own minds based on observing if we fit the cues, has merit. I’ve been listening to a podcast series hosted by trans men who are re-examining what they think the causes of their dysphoria were and the reasons why they transitioned. A lot of it seems to be an internalised homophobia which they credit to a lack of acceptability cues of masculine behaving females in their geographical communities, and also, often, the religion they were raised in.

Thank you, Coleman! Highly recommend Joyce’s book.

What people are ignoring is this is a group of people who have BODY dysphoria. Lots of people are discontent with their body. Claiming gender dysphoria is more sellable. I enjoyed this conversation with Helen Joyce. I used this follow her on Twitter before I got off.

The best clip I've ever watched on this subject. Fascinating guest!!

...and modern Trans activist people completely ignore the phenomenon of autogynephilia...

People want to be special, so they give their anxieties new names (or appropriate existing ones) and demand special treatment. Unless you have been diagnosed by a specialist with tons of experience as having chronic Gender Dysphoria, you're very likely just a normal nervous wreck like everybody else.

I find that it is interesting also that this movement is gaining traction alongside BLM age racial justice and Immigrant rights politics. Both centre on identity and oppression, making the connection inevitable interlinked in every aspect. In that logic then, LGBTQ activists and identity politics likely too began working on these links, growing up gay, I saw this more frequently in my late teens when Instagram was on rise. I think we really need to decode oppression, gender, discrimination and distress because there is clear oppression that exists and there is clear distress that exists but they are not one and the same thing. I also wonder if others can throw some wisdom in the chat about this but the neo pronoun thing especially noun pronoun just seems like a terrible fad that is making rounds on the internet that will either mess stuff really bad or will die out as a fad as adjusting to millions of rules to address others with pronouns sounds impossible.

Thank you so much for covering this important issue, Coleman. As a lesbian who desisted from "gender dysphoria," I can't stand the way it's marketed (that's the key to this whole issue - marketing - and especially marketing to LGB people) as something organic. The feeling that you're "in the wrong body" is a result of social circumstances; in the case of LGB people, it's often due to being told that our same-sex attraction is unnatural, that we're freaks for being different, that we'll never be accepted or loved for who we are. A huge number of lesbians, in particular, are now trying to become straight men through body modification, and destroying their mental and physical health in the process. I'd love to see you cover the "cotton ceiling" or the "terf" controversy in the future, or perhaps interview an LGB advocacy group (LGB Fight Back would be my pick).

She seems to really get it. I should read her book.

Aha, like quitting smoking is uncomfortable too! My ex husband is a "transsexual" and had the surgery in 1996. He wrote in a sworn affidavit that my refusal to stay in this marriage and see him through the "transition" CAUSED him to make the decision to go to the surgeons at Stanford! BTW, we were involved in 2 types of dance, and he was a very coordinated, skilled mover. Some kind of anxiety might come first, but then comes the narcissism. Why is no one saying this?

The Gender Birth Assignment Wizard: "Nurse, hand me the sorting hat!"

Lovely! Thank you!

great episode. right on, Coleman!

Interesting talk. The only things that runs counters to her positions is the fact that gender dysphoria has existed in ancient societies up to today.

Just listened to the entire conversation on Patreon. Coleman needs to do a much better job getting his guests to backup their assertions with data and empirical evidence. Every other statement out of this woman's mouth is "a lot of" and "this is a major problem with" but she never says how many is a lot or how she is defining major. It was the same issue in his conversation with the "climate scientist" and with Charles Murray. If Coleman just wants to just be a safe space for contrarians, regardless of the evidence backing their claims, I am perfectly fine with that. However, the cost will be that he cannot frame himself as an intellectual thinker because he is not engaged in intellectual thought. Most of his podcasts are turning into platforms for contrarian anecdotes, grievances, and hearsay.

This is really good.

I think when politics came into it, people chose what they felt rather than what they knew.

Is it possible that people who have social anxiety blame it on their sexual orientation?

I had gender dysphoria as a child, transient as i got older. For me it was because i had a personality disorder with borderline organisation (not the same as borderline personality disorder) which meant i wasnt attatched to my sense of self or my body and i didnt feel like i fit socially or had attatchments... A very confusing and distressing experience. Puberty was confronting in a whole other way, but i was less occupied with gender or the female body at being the cause of my distress. By that point i just decided i was a different species :p (joke, but feels)

I nominate Coleman Hughes to play Jimmy Smith in his biography

Some people suffer enormous distress by 🌨️.

Hey, Coleman, what's with the pink t-shirt? You trying to tell us something?

If someone wants to dress a certain way, be called a certain name, or use they/them pronouns, I don't care whether it was created by society or not. It's their decision, their life, and it's none of my business to tell other people how to live their lives. If they end up regretting it, they are adults and those decisions are on them. The only place where the social contagion thing is relevant is with young teenagers and children who might not have the maturity to make very long-term health decisions. In those cases, we should just make children wait till they are 18 till they can make permanent medical changes.

Economics 101: We get more of anything we subsidize.

Being a woman or a man is not about a feeling.

Yes ! ~ Every 12 year old should be able make the decision to ingest hormone blockers & direct their own gender transition. They should also be free to *carry a gun, smoke* *cigarettes & be given a* *pilots license* I was born a Turtle in a Top Hat , but identify as a Fish on a Bicycle. ( I'm a Hero / I'm a Victim ) & It's all your fault. 🙃

I want to know where this 80% number is coming from.

This was helpful. But as a man, I never "feel" otherwise.

I want Ben Shapiro to talk to this lady. Probly would save him alot of time and would be educational

isn't this 'helped' tremendously by girls believing that life is easy as a man, and boys experiencing that that is such a lie.

I’m a trans person who tried to run with the gender non conformist types because I’m a alternative punk rock kind of person. It was actually a big mistake, they don’t like legitimate body dysphoria, it makes them feel guilty.

I know firsthand about someone who was vacationing in Hawaii. She told her mom, "Why hasn't anyone noticed I'm trans?"

She is correct that most gay people fit gender nonconforming stereotypes. I think the reason for that is because gay men, for example, are exposed to feminizing hormones in the womb, or something of that nature, which has a feminizing impact on the brain. This leads these males to identify with and behave like women in significant ways and, also, to be attracted to masculine men. In the western world we tend to focus on the attraction to men part, as if that is the defining quality, when in reality that is just one part of what is obviously an overall gender identity misalignment. What Helen is saying is actually a common argument among radical gender critical feminists : that trans women are really just gay men. This seems like an odd argument to make, since most "gay men" are not merely "men who just happen to be attracted to other men", they are in fact biological males with feminized brains, so it should make sense that some will want to live as approximations of women. (So, are trans women really just gay men? Or are gay men really just trans women? It's entirely a matter of perspective here.) It concerns me that Helen makes this "trans women are just gay men" type of argument, because radfems usually advance this argument purely for the sake of justifying their anti-transition views. I certainly hope that Helen is not similarly ideologically motivated.

It bothers me that she suggests gender dysphoria is created culturally, and dodges the question when asked to clarify. This isn't borne out in any literature. People can be made to believe they have gender dysphoria just like people can be made to believe they have almost any kind of health problem when they are in fact healthy, (and this can cause a great deal of distress), but that doesn't mean they actually have that problem.

I disagree with her saying that gender dysphoria is merely a social phenomenon. There is a scientific basis to gender dysphoria as well. There have even been small scientific studies that show that the brain of trans women and trans men are structured more similarly to the gender they identify as. Furthermore, she also didn't mention the fact that hormone level exposure in the womb also has an impact on gender expression and a more feminized brain if exposed to more estrogen, for example. Therefore, it wouldn't be surprising that gender dysphoria would have always naturally occurred for a small segment of the population, sure life experience and societal influences can amplify or reduce one's dysphoria but that doesn't negate the fact that it was always there in the first place. I also don't get the point she made about most children growing out of their gender dysphoria when hitting puberty and then going on to identify as gay men. I'm a trans woman and my gender dysphoria significantly increased when I went through puberty, in fact, that is the period in which most trans people I know of actualize their gender identity because of all the discomforting body changes that occurred. I would question whether the gay men who were in these studies she is referencing had strong gender dysphoria because I can say for myself and so many other trans people who medically transitioned that most of the dysphoria comes from body discomfort, like your genitals, chest, hair etc. and that doesn't go away from simply socially expressing yourself in a more feminine and masculine way- it's the underlying discomfort in your body and anatomy which I believe is true gender dysphoria and what separates trans women and trans men from gay men, lesbians, and gender-fluid people. There were so many holes in her argument.

Please let's not forget this person is a journalist NOT a scientist or a medical professional. What she said is ONLY her personal opinion. Freedom of speech in America means you can spew misinformation its your own personal opinion.

there is no such thing as transition

Nah, she's off base. Legit gender dysphoria is a biological phenomenon that is quite distinct from being gay, which is a different biological phenomenon.

Had to stop listening cuz she sounded like she was talking through mud. Get a mic.