January 25, 2025 - 1:00pm
Propaganda works. That’s the logical conclusion to be drawn from the staggering increase reported in the number of children who believe they are the wrong sex. An analysis of GP records suggests there were over 10,000 diagnoses of gender dysphoria in England in 2021, compared with fewer than 200 in 2011. That’s a fiftyfold increase in a decade.
This is what happens when children and their parents are bombarded with scientifically illiterate messages. Girls are particularly susceptible, confirmed by the fact that the same study, published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, shows that twice as many girls are affected than boys. More than half the children in the research had anxiety, depression or had self-harmed.
Some girls have always felt uncomfortable about the rapid changes to their bodies that come with puberty, but now they have even more reason for anxiety. Very young boys are able to access porn, something that’s been linked to an increase in sexual assaults in schools. Last week, several charities wrote to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, pointing out that peer-on-peer abuse is affecting ever younger children, including in primary schools.
Yet many schools are switching to “gender neutral” toilets, forcing girls to share facilities with boys. The prospect of teenage girls having to change tampons within feet of jeering adolescent boys doesn’t appear to worry headteachers eager to demonstrate their commitment to gender ideology. The campaign group For Women Scotland has found that at least 60% of Scottish secondary schools allow “trans” children to use the toilets designated for the opposite sex, regardless of how other pupils feel.
What this represents is an increasingly hostile climate for girls. No one should be surprised if some respond by pretending that they’re not female at all, using the language they’ve been taught in sex education lessons to declare themselves trans or non-binary. This has been promoted by influential organisations and even Government ministers, who have been more concerned with being “trans allies” than safeguarding.
Labour ministers in Wales have aspired to make it “the most LGBTQ+ friendly nation in Europe”. The results, reported by the Welsh feminist group Merched Cymru last year, are entirely predictable. Among schools that responded to Freedom of Information requests, three-quarters said they oblige or put strong pressure on pupils to use “preferred pronouns”. Almost 70% admitted that they would not necessarily inform parents if a pupil expressed a wish to transition. One parent interviewed for the report said her daughter’s school had referred her to social services three times because she refused to affirm the child’s “trans” identity.
This is state-sanctioned child abuse. But when gender ideology has established such a hold in education, it’s easy to see how an unhappy or autistic child might think it’s the answer to their distress. The latest figures, if scaled up nationally, would mean that one in every 1,200 kids aged 18 and under had a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. At least the present government has stopped the practice of prescribing puberty blockers, but it needs to go much further.
There will always be young people, disproportionately girls, who find growing up difficult. Encouraging them to think they were born in the wrong body is no more ethical than affirming weight loss in girls who have anorexia. This is an entirely artificial phenomenon, created by activists determined to impose delusional ideas on impressionable young people. The damage is already apparent, and it needs to be removed from the education system without delay.
Joan Smith is a novelist and columnist. She was previously Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board, and is on the advisory group for Sex Matters. Her book Unfortunately, She Was A Nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome’s Imperial Women was published in November 2024.
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SubscribeIt seems that the commitment to this ideology varies between schools, and between areas of the U.K. if that is so it should be possible to determine whether it is schools that are having the impact rather than some other factor.
I wonder whether If a child identifies as a cat they will be given a litter tray.
The number of children in school in the U.K. is about 10.6 million. So that means that about 1 in1000 children in school is affected. That may be quite high, but if the cause is school propaganda, it is not very effective if it affects only one child in a school of a thousand.
The same goes for explanations from pornography – assuming that porn use is as common in school children as is claimed. One would expect the numbers affected to be far higher.
Did you read the bit about the huge rise in cases since 2011? That’s the key stat, not whether it “affects only one child in a school of a thousand”.
That’s begging the question. It may have been under diagnosed before.
Diagnosed? It’s not an illness, but the choice of term speaks volumes.
Gender dysphoria is something that is diagnosed.
Go back and read the author:
10,000 delusional beliefs in a non-reality, supported by 10,000 self-serving GPs.
I know – sounds implausible doesn’t it.
The same argument that’s used about autism. False, but vague enough to be close to unfalsifiable.
When one child is persuaded that they are in the wrong body and begins ‘treatment’ for it, it is not just that child who is affected. Those affected include their parents, siblings, friends, classmates, all those forced to rename them and use ‘their’ pronouns, and in the wider analysis, every citizen of the country in which they live.
Hear, hear! School embrace of gender ideology is a significant factor in its ascendance and endurance among troubled youth. These kids are encouraged to latch onto “trans” as the reason for their emotional difficulties, which are typically due to comorbidities that don’t have the same social cachet nor get the same affirmative validation. However, schools are not the only culprit, as the headline implies.
Well that certainly threw a few bones to the dogs. Meanwhile trite statements such as the below are made –
“There will always be young people, disproportionately girls, who find growing up difficult.”
whereas at least some quite substantial data would suggest the precise opposite
“In all age categories for children and young people, young men are more likely to take their own lives than young women. Between the ages 15-24 in the UK, male suicides were three times more common than female suicides (ONS total of 532 total male suicides, compared to 182 total female suicides in 2018).”
From https://stateofchildhealth.rcpch.ac.uk/evidence/mental-health/suicide/
Thanks for some balance. Though it might still be the case that girls find negotiating puberty more difficult – which is what I think the author means. Still good to question the idea that life for men is a bed of roses.
Perhaps that is what is meant and perhaps that is true. But in general pretty much everyone finds puberty difficult one way or another, some much more than others and some less so, whether they are boys or girls.
Worth pointing out, I feel, that more males commit suicide because, generally, they use more lethal means and are therefore less likely to survive the suicide attempt. I have no figures on this – apologies for that – but it is said to be the case that attempted suicide would place females above men in the stats. As I say I have no statistics to support the assertion but I don’t think it is as simple as the number of ‘successful’ suicides would perhaps suggest.
Yes I’ve heard that before and know that is true. But then you have to consider whether some people choosing less lethal methods are actually wanting to end their lives, or just sending out a cry for help. It’s a complicated question but the writer just stated ‘It’s more difficult for teenage girls’, as though it’s an obvious fact. It isn’t.
It is not “worth pointing out” anything when it is simply the way you feel with zero evidence to back it up.
They may not have any stats to hand, but there are stats out there that back up what they say.
Ah, it’s our own teenage girl, Champagne Socialist! I’m sorry that you’re personal puberty experience is taking such a toll honey.
As I should have done, you could of course have looked up some data to back up your oh-so-cutting reply to my post which would have made it less childish and more considered. Still, what can one expect from someone who appears to simply like being nasty to other people who comment.
As I said this is not a simple issue but the following data does lend some weight to the point I was making.
Results from the Youth Risks Behaviours Survey in the US from 2021: Female students attempted suicide 1.86 times as often as male students.
What I wrote in my comment was never, as you so ridiculously stated, ‘simply the way I feel’ about the issue.
Well success is what matters in the end, right?
What do you expect?
Teach very young children they can change ‘gender’ of course a proportion will do.
How do you get out of this?
Explain what ‘gender’ is. Explain why it is being taught.
Give this knowledge to parents so they can explain calmly and rationally why they will not allow their school to teach it.
Such a sharp rejection of personal empowerment
Confusing 5 year olds about whether they are boys or girls does not empower them.
I would call it a rejection of the psychological and emotional abuse of young children.
Like Trump has declared, there are two genders!!! Who knew!!!
Even better, Trump requires that the federal government refer to “sex” in documents, not “gender.”
It seems to be a feature of humankind that a significant number of its members deviate from what might be considered the norms for their sex.
It is estimated, for example that 3.3% are gay, lesbian or bisexual. According to the figures in the article, 0.1% of school children have been referred for gender dysphoria, a far smaller percentage.
Given that gender dysphoria seems to be a real thing – it’s diagnosis long predates trans ideology – what percentage of children would we expect to suffer from it? On this basis, and compared to figures for homosexuality, 0.1% does not appear to be exceptionally high.
0.1% may not be high, but there’s no way if knowing what the ‘natural’ rate is – it could be anything from just above zero to a higher proportion. Comparison to homosexuality isn’t instructive as that is a different thing.
Agree, but it’s not startlingly high. It’s not an exact comparison, but both are examples of deviation from norms relating to sex. And both are about people exhibiting behaviours normally associated with the other sex.
The real (and also totally bizarre) situation.
Children are taught ‘gender’ by a tiny group of activists. Parents have no idea what their children are being taught.
No one is allowed to say why any of this is happening. Feminism makes sure of that. Unherd get a non-Feminist to explain what is going on.
Feminists will have to one day accept Gender was created by Feminists and is taught in their name.
This has to he discussed.
Until that day the Gender and Trans bandwagons will continue rolling on crushing children in their paths.
Richard I don’t think you will find many feminists who believe in TWAW ( trans women are women) or that biological men can participate in women’s sports.
Actually it’s the majority. Just not on here.
I clipped the end of 2nd wave feminism which saw biological sex as the reason why women were discriminated against, particularly economically. The rot set in with the establishment of gender studies departments in universities which were aligned with post-modernist ideology.
In 1980 the rate for transsexualim in the whole population was 1 female per 100,000. (DSM III guidelines 1980).
Of all 15 year olds, roughly 400,000 in UK using the pre-gender figures one would expect only 4. That means all the other girls with ‘gender dysphoria’ have been taught it.
The 4 in 1980 could have been ‘taught’ it too. Maybe there were just fewer ‘teachers’ then.
No. It was considered to be a mental disorder in the 1950s
All the information is published. All the theory was created.
But no one can be told.
The only reason I can think of is shame. Feminists have created a monster and no one must know.
Feminists did create a set of organisations that pushed successfully for equality. Having effectively reached that, these organisations needed to generate another cause to survive (and stay salaried). Hence all this appalling nonsense.
I honestly think that goes for both feminist sides in this debate. The one side needed a new form of patriarchal oppression to oppose and a new victim group to save; the other needed a new battle to fight and a new enemy to hate.
Social conservatives have been recruited as naive allies of the second group.
Meantime less emotionally driven, more rational souls are trying to understand both the trans phenomena, and the dynamics of the ideological bun fight over it.
StoneWall have a lot to answer for. Instead of closing down when their aims had been achieved, they wanted to preserve their jobs and so found another cause, that of promoting trans ideas and this they did very very effectively devising something called ‘Diversity Champions. Many companies and authorities wanting to appear ‘cool’ paid to join this scheme.
The Unherd obsession with trans kids continues!
It’s not a joking matter. Obviously you don’t have children.
Let’s hope so.
UnHerd must be secretly trans. Hey, we got the term for internalized homophobia; you might think the progressives should have gotten a move on by now and shifted toward “internalized transphobia.”
The perverted need to mutilate children by progressives and socialists continues!! How sick you people are.
While I certainly agree that teaching gender theory in school is appalling, I am not convinced schools are (solely) to blame.
Take catholic school for which indoctrination is normal, yet we don’t see an over abundance of nuns and priests, or indeed, attendance at Sunday mass.
I think the point is that religion is not cool, but changing pronouns, etc is all the rage. School can indoctrinate as much as they like, but they still need a lot of external help.
You used to see more of it in Catholic children before the teachings of the Church had to fight TV & the Internet for control of children’s minds. It didn’t help that parents often saw this as a blessing for the family….not to mention that it would be one less mouth to feed.
Hmmmm????
“ Propaganda works. That’s the logical conclusion to be drawn from the staggering increase reported in the number of children who believe they are the wrong sex.”
There is a flip side to this particular view of the issue and that is propaganda most definitely works and the Alt right babble it profusely.
This whole nonsense that sex is a clear cut binary physiology fails any real scientific analysis.
It’s such a tragedy Gender can’t be debated.
One more no-go area to add to a long list.
Yet here we are debating it on a public forum!
Although I hesitate to describe your insane ramblings as debate…
So no debate from you. Surprise surprise.
What a disgrace the Left are. Desex children and you laugh. Then spew out insults.
The idea that “you can be born in the wrong body” is complete and utter claptrap. Illogical, mystical mumbo-jumbo. It implies the existence of some ephemeral “thing” that is “you” and is something that is somehow separate from your body – perhaps “installed” in your body after it has been commissioned, and sometimes, apparently, in the wrong one.
You may well be unhappy with your body. Indeed, I’ve spent much of my life wishing mine was rather taller and slimmer. You might even wish you had one of the opposite sex, but learning to live with what you are (and to like it) is all part of the painful process of growing up. Which is why it is so dangerous and amounts to child abuse to teach these ideas to children… give them the idea that their perfectly normal dislike of themselves is because they are “in the wrong body” and they will grasp what appears a relatively easy and less painful solution – without, of course, any understanding of the implications.
But the idea that you can be “born in the wrong body” is just nonsense. It’s depressing that so many fall for it. Teaching it to children should be criminal. What next? Alchemy and witchcraft?
Job one in Britain and the US is reclaiming the schools from these pathological extremists turning classrooms into relentless propaganda mills.
I bet this nonsense is not taught at the Michaela School in the UK.
As I’ve said before, how did it ever come to this?