Wow. Thanks for explaining this. I had no idea about this glass delusion. And holy smokes, what a delusion it was. I’m definitely going to look for Victoria’s book to learn more.
I’m the mom of an ROGD teen, and I’m often enraged, horrified and sad (as per my handle) about transgenderism and gender ideology. This gives me hope that someday people will look back on all this in utter disbelief. But what and how long will it take for that to finally happen?
As confusing and hard to understand how certain men of the 15th to 17th Century Europe could have imagined they were in part made of glass (I can't even wrap my head around it), so would it have been to these men of the Enlightenment as baffling, I suspect, to believe that some men are in actual and absolute truth women and some women are in the same truth men. Neither delusion makes any sense to this commoner except to say it is a contagious hoax employed by lost souls to give some meaning to their lives.
Thanks for this. I just directed music for a high school production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. In that version of the story, the stepmother has a few small fragments of Venetian glass, which she hopes will confer status on her daughters before the prince. Little does she know that her slave Cinderella will appear at the ball wearing shoes made entirely of Venetian glass. And yes, we had a couple girls who insisted they be referred to by plural pronouns and seemed enraptured by gender confusion.
But I have one concern: "Fear of exposure, the fear of being seen for who one really is—of course this is terrifying to those trapped in delusions, either of glass or of a transgender identity." This fear must also paralyze the history professor who wrote this piece, to the extent that he/she must hide behind the curtain of anonymity. Not, of course, due to delusions, but due to the actual dangers that revealing the truth in an academic setting can manifest. I sincerely hope that you will find either the courage to proclaim the truth to your students, or to find a way to support yourself that does not place you in such danger.
"Specialized mystical knowledge was a component of this diagnosis..."
This diagnosis is even clearer of transgenderism - which is nearly textbook gnostic mysticism, with divine or beautiful souls trapped in an evil material reality from which they must be liberated. The "ancient" versions are more complete and accomplished, and are usually purported transcendent "completions" of revealed religion (Christianity, Judaism) or, in the "modern" cases, "completions" of philosophy via "History" (Marxism, etc.) or, in the case of transgenderism, a combination of of both religion implicitly) to be resolved by transhumanism (i.e. technology).
Neither philosophy (Love of Wisdom) nor revealed religion (Faith) offer certainty relating to the human questions - the philosopher does not attain more than partial wisdom, and the believer must accept his own uncertainty. Yearning for truth about the first things, both must accept that the whole of reality is not accessible.
Gnostic ideas ("Gnosis," or knowledge) purports to provide occult access which surpasses philosophy and faith. It is a degraded form of human knowledge, seeking false certainty (and other benefits, as the author discusses) to its adherents. It is related to the ideas of beauty and fragility, and indicates cultural or civilizational crisis - it is irrational.
Sometimes I wonder how much of my life is delusion. NOW is immediate, coming, here, and gone faster than a blink of an eye. The rest, my past, my future, is dreams. And I know I'm not made of glass.
More than just transgenderism, the glass delusion also parallels the currently fashionable "snowflake" mentality. The symptoms are the same. The cure is lack of money to indulge it.
Based on my experience of knowing two transgender men, neither of whom are related to me, I have come to believe that it is real - while there may be some people who are merely confused and potentially subject to undue influence, others are born with some internal conflict with their biological gender. I doubt Bruce Jenner transitioned because the social network influenced him to. People used to assume that homosexuality was a psychiatric condition that could be cured, too. However, it’s being a real condition doesn’t answer the question as to whether biological males should be able to compete in women’s sports, or go in women’s locker rooms etc. because there are legitimate competing concerns in favor of reserving societal space for biological women (as opposed to transgender women taking hormones). I don’t think that there should be an issue with transgender males competing against biological males in sports or using men’s bathrooms to the extent that they wish to do so because they have no physical advantages over biological men. I also believe that while there may be cases where transitioning teenagers might be appropriate, it should not be routine or easy. It should be decided by families and doctors using their best judgment based on the evidence and psychiatric evaluations in each case, with relatively little interference from the government. There should be scientific studies of outcomes of different approaches to try to gather evidence as to the best approach.
I can’t tell if this site is anti-transgender, or against transgender extremism directed towards minors. I agree with caution and going slow with minors until more is known about long term effects of treatment. Adults can make the own decisions based on informed consent and their decisions should be respected to the extent that they are not harming others. As to the delusion angle, one could easily argue that most religious beliefs are delusional, yet we choose to accept a variety of conflicting beliefs in the unknown because such beliefs are deeply personal and provide comfort to the individuals. Certainly there are political delusions as well. Calling transgendered persons delusional does not really answer any important questions since society already accepts many other possible delusions as valid.
If people are interested in a list of social contagions, mostly involving females ages 12-25, several are listed on our LGB medical watchdog org. regarding pediatric medical transition. It includes things like bulimia and the "needle girls." Thanks for covering this issue. It is truly appreciated.
Maybe nobody really believes “trans” women (that is to say men who want us to believe they are women) are women, but we agreed to lie. We kind of agree to lie about Santa and the tooth fairy in certain situations. We kind of agree to lie and say certain men are women, under certain circumstances. I personally enjoy situations where I have agreed to lie about Santa et al, but I don’t like situations where I am supposed to lie about certain men.
I consider the whole trans activism movement an attack against feminist accomplishments like Title 9. And the situations in prison are a huge unfair mistake. Some so-called women prisoners use their very feminine penises to impregnate women prisoners. Big mistake.
Is a désister someone who once believed men could change into women and got hurt?
This one was incredibly thoughtful. There are a lot of interesting models from history for what we're experiencing now, but this one seems particularly relevant.
One problem that is clear from our recently allowing men to be considered women (and women to be considered men) is that data are now muddled. We know that certain diseases are spread by men’s sexual activity with men, for example. Academic studies of that disease vector must be muddled if we count a biological woman who calls herself a man and has sex with a man (or another woman who calls herself a man)--- if we count this as male-male sex, we are mistaken. Our attempts to gain knowledge are confounded. Biological sex must be used in science. There is no such thing as “trans”, in that sex cannot be changed to suit a person’s wishes. The lies our society agrees to tell harm medical advances. Can’t we just accept these people without drugs and surgeries and tell the truth about them?
Thanks for this interesting and thought-provoking article - yes life is hard, then we die - how to accept the human condition without dangerous delusions/cop outs?
Wow. Thanks for explaining this. I had no idea about this glass delusion. And holy smokes, what a delusion it was. I’m definitely going to look for Victoria’s book to learn more.
I’m the mom of an ROGD teen, and I’m often enraged, horrified and sad (as per my handle) about transgenderism and gender ideology. This gives me hope that someday people will look back on all this in utter disbelief. But what and how long will it take for that to finally happen?
As confusing and hard to understand how certain men of the 15th to 17th Century Europe could have imagined they were in part made of glass (I can't even wrap my head around it), so would it have been to these men of the Enlightenment as baffling, I suspect, to believe that some men are in actual and absolute truth women and some women are in the same truth men. Neither delusion makes any sense to this commoner except to say it is a contagious hoax employed by lost souls to give some meaning to their lives.
Thanks for this. I just directed music for a high school production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. In that version of the story, the stepmother has a few small fragments of Venetian glass, which she hopes will confer status on her daughters before the prince. Little does she know that her slave Cinderella will appear at the ball wearing shoes made entirely of Venetian glass. And yes, we had a couple girls who insisted they be referred to by plural pronouns and seemed enraptured by gender confusion.
But I have one concern: "Fear of exposure, the fear of being seen for who one really is—of course this is terrifying to those trapped in delusions, either of glass or of a transgender identity." This fear must also paralyze the history professor who wrote this piece, to the extent that he/she must hide behind the curtain of anonymity. Not, of course, due to delusions, but due to the actual dangers that revealing the truth in an academic setting can manifest. I sincerely hope that you will find either the courage to proclaim the truth to your students, or to find a way to support yourself that does not place you in such danger.
Paul D. Brassey
"Specialized mystical knowledge was a component of this diagnosis..."
This diagnosis is even clearer of transgenderism - which is nearly textbook gnostic mysticism, with divine or beautiful souls trapped in an evil material reality from which they must be liberated. The "ancient" versions are more complete and accomplished, and are usually purported transcendent "completions" of revealed religion (Christianity, Judaism) or, in the "modern" cases, "completions" of philosophy via "History" (Marxism, etc.) or, in the case of transgenderism, a combination of of both religion implicitly) to be resolved by transhumanism (i.e. technology).
Neither philosophy (Love of Wisdom) nor revealed religion (Faith) offer certainty relating to the human questions - the philosopher does not attain more than partial wisdom, and the believer must accept his own uncertainty. Yearning for truth about the first things, both must accept that the whole of reality is not accessible.
Gnostic ideas ("Gnosis," or knowledge) purports to provide occult access which surpasses philosophy and faith. It is a degraded form of human knowledge, seeking false certainty (and other benefits, as the author discusses) to its adherents. It is related to the ideas of beauty and fragility, and indicates cultural or civilizational crisis - it is irrational.
Wow. THIS is excellent!
Sometimes I wonder how much of my life is delusion. NOW is immediate, coming, here, and gone faster than a blink of an eye. The rest, my past, my future, is dreams. And I know I'm not made of glass.
More than just transgenderism, the glass delusion also parallels the currently fashionable "snowflake" mentality. The symptoms are the same. The cure is lack of money to indulge it.
Based on my experience of knowing two transgender men, neither of whom are related to me, I have come to believe that it is real - while there may be some people who are merely confused and potentially subject to undue influence, others are born with some internal conflict with their biological gender. I doubt Bruce Jenner transitioned because the social network influenced him to. People used to assume that homosexuality was a psychiatric condition that could be cured, too. However, it’s being a real condition doesn’t answer the question as to whether biological males should be able to compete in women’s sports, or go in women’s locker rooms etc. because there are legitimate competing concerns in favor of reserving societal space for biological women (as opposed to transgender women taking hormones). I don’t think that there should be an issue with transgender males competing against biological males in sports or using men’s bathrooms to the extent that they wish to do so because they have no physical advantages over biological men. I also believe that while there may be cases where transitioning teenagers might be appropriate, it should not be routine or easy. It should be decided by families and doctors using their best judgment based on the evidence and psychiatric evaluations in each case, with relatively little interference from the government. There should be scientific studies of outcomes of different approaches to try to gather evidence as to the best approach.
I can’t tell if this site is anti-transgender, or against transgender extremism directed towards minors. I agree with caution and going slow with minors until more is known about long term effects of treatment. Adults can make the own decisions based on informed consent and their decisions should be respected to the extent that they are not harming others. As to the delusion angle, one could easily argue that most religious beliefs are delusional, yet we choose to accept a variety of conflicting beliefs in the unknown because such beliefs are deeply personal and provide comfort to the individuals. Certainly there are political delusions as well. Calling transgendered persons delusional does not really answer any important questions since society already accepts many other possible delusions as valid.
If people are interested in a list of social contagions, mostly involving females ages 12-25, several are listed on our LGB medical watchdog org. regarding pediatric medical transition. It includes things like bulimia and the "needle girls." Thanks for covering this issue. It is truly appreciated.
https://www.genderhq.org/increase-trans-females-nonbinary-dysphoria/#anchor-page11-section-b-research
No the number in GFM is 42000
Maybe nobody really believes “trans” women (that is to say men who want us to believe they are women) are women, but we agreed to lie. We kind of agree to lie about Santa and the tooth fairy in certain situations. We kind of agree to lie and say certain men are women, under certain circumstances. I personally enjoy situations where I have agreed to lie about Santa et al, but I don’t like situations where I am supposed to lie about certain men.
I consider the whole trans activism movement an attack against feminist accomplishments like Title 9. And the situations in prison are a huge unfair mistake. Some so-called women prisoners use their very feminine penises to impregnate women prisoners. Big mistake.
Is a désister someone who once believed men could change into women and got hurt?
This one was incredibly thoughtful. There are a lot of interesting models from history for what we're experiencing now, but this one seems particularly relevant.
Fantastic article. Humans are so complicated and goofy. Makes you wonder, once the transgender craze passes by, what next?
One of many fascinating historical parallels, thanks
What an excellent connection you've made here. (Wild applause from the gallery)
One problem that is clear from our recently allowing men to be considered women (and women to be considered men) is that data are now muddled. We know that certain diseases are spread by men’s sexual activity with men, for example. Academic studies of that disease vector must be muddled if we count a biological woman who calls herself a man and has sex with a man (or another woman who calls herself a man)--- if we count this as male-male sex, we are mistaken. Our attempts to gain knowledge are confounded. Biological sex must be used in science. There is no such thing as “trans”, in that sex cannot be changed to suit a person’s wishes. The lies our society agrees to tell harm medical advances. Can’t we just accept these people without drugs and surgeries and tell the truth about them?
Thanks for this interesting and thought-provoking article - yes life is hard, then we die - how to accept the human condition without dangerous delusions/cop outs?