Gender Non-conformity and Depression

The title tells the story. Scientists from Drexel University Medical School have assessed this issue: “Does Gender Nonconforming Behavior in Early Childhood Predict Adolescents’ Depressive Symptoms?“

It was authored by David S. Bennett, Eileen Borczon, and Michael Lewis.

Psypost has the story:

“Our findings indicate that children who exhibit gender nonconforming behaviors (e.g., boys playing with dolls, girls playing with trucks) in early childhood as rated by mothers appear to be at increased risk for depressive symptoms during adolescence,” Bennett told PsyPost.

It’s not the first time gender nonconformity has been linked to depression. A previous study of 6,082 high school students, published in JAMA Pediatrics in 2018, found that gender nonconformity was associated with mental distress.

Another study of 10,655 individuals found that gender nonconformity in childhood was a “strong predictor” of depressive symptoms across adolescence and early adulthood. That study, which was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 2013, also found that elevated levels of physical and emotional bullying and abuse in children who were nonconforming accounted for much of the increased risk.

Now, the question is, why is this so? Well, the scientists believe that children who cross-identify their genders are subject to bullying and abuse. Their peers are to blame. In truth, we might also say that a child that cannot decide whether it is a male or female cannot have a real place in an organized social group. Thus, the child will be marginalized, rejected from the group. This produces depression.

Because there is nothing wrong with a child exploring its gender by cross dressing or playing with toys that are normally associated with the other sex:

“As such, children who exhibit gender nonconforming behaviors may benefit from having parents who are accepting of their behaviors and professionals (e.g., teachers and healthcare providers) who are both accepting and knowledgeable regarding how to facilitate healthy adjustment among youth who exhibit gender nonconforming behaviors,” Bennett told PsyPost

But then, we can also ask ourselves whether these children have been encouraged by their “woke” parents to engage in gender non-conforming behaviors. Dr. Bennett was suggesting that the children adopt these behaviors independently and autonomously. And that parents do not accept it willingly. But, what if the opposite is true? What if parents buy boys dolls and oblige girls to play with trucks? And then, we ought also to distinguish between children who will grow up to cross dress and children who will become convinced that they really belong to the opposite sex.

Perhaps the outsiders, other children on the playground, are seeing things more clearly than are the parents and the woke professionals? They see that something is wrong, that something is off kilter. Being children, they express their feelings openly and honestly. Of course, if you really believe that we can be whatever gender we want to be, then you are obliged to deny biology and to take control of the minds of other people, beginning with children. 

The level of mind control required to make these children feel good about themselves will never really come to pass-- because it denies reality. It’s like saying that a man who decides that he is a woman will feel much better if only the world entire will blind itself to the obvious physical characteristics that show the person to be in severe denial.