Review of Medicine Stories - Episode 98

Episode 98

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“I was expecting a helpful episode I could share with my friends about neuro-divergent children and instead found a lot of surface level and damaging assertions being made about trans children. It makes me doubt your expertise, Amber, about other topics I know less about. The podcast promotes unschooling and child-led learning and claims to trust the innate knowledge of children, and yet you don’t seem to believe that children can draw a distinction for themselves between others’ reality and their own. Children can be impressionable but they can also be taught how to be discerning. If I really believed the extent of how you teach your child to sense danger relies on noticing the shape of someone’s body, I would be worried. It’s hard for me to believe that you truly think your child is intuiting some feminine or masculine essence rather than simply relying on physical markers they have learned from mass culture. There have been many successful societies that have lived in close connection to land that have recognized more than two genders. This episode really shows me that you haven’t fully researched this topic but rather have only looked for evidence to support your personal bias. I don’t see any of the nuance that I normally hear from you about other topics. I know you care deeply about people’s wellbeing. I also respect that you say what you believe. I think you ask some good questions in this episode but you are answering them from a place of ignorance. You have misrepresented the experience of trans children as being all about surgery and hormones (it’s not, I know trans children and adults who have done neither) and reducing it to body dysmorphia. You, who are often quite critical of Western medicine, have latched on to Western medicine’s diagnosis and terminology as though that (dysmorphia) is the root experience for all trans folks—hint: it’s a lot more about identity. You and your guest’s assertion that people aren’t oppressed due to the color of their skin is simply wrong. Poverty is a massive oppressor but so is skin color and if you don’t understand how or why you might consider learning from people with identities other than your own. You’ve reduced “teaching children about race” to “telling children they are bad” which isn’t at all the point. I think its probably true that since the experience of trans people and people of color is generally misunderstood by white or cisgendered people that many teachers (mostly white and cisgender) aren’t yet fully equipped to have the best conversation in the classroom. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t value in teaching our children about how problems of power with race and gender are still negatively impacting us all or how to respectfully use pronouns. Personally I find trans people’s disruption of gender and stereotypes liberating and inspiring. I’m surprised you of all people would fear this so much. I would like to see you explore how people support and legitimize trans identity through the modalities you trust and practice – especially if you believe it’s important to offer strategies for still-growing bodies and minds.”

Where_Trees_Convene via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 12/26/22