I grew up in the 1960’s in a small town in central Minnesota. In those days, parents didn’t run to the pediatrician whenever one of their kids sneezed. So, going to see a doctor was a rare thing. For me anyway.
I had the mumps, measles and chicken pox, and never once visited a doctor. Aside from those three things, I was a pretty healthy kid. Barring some sort of accident, there was no reason for me to go to a doctor. So, I didn’t.
In those days, not all small towns in central Minnesota had a doctor. But our town did. And, to make things even more rare for the times, our doctor was female.
Everyone knew she was female. The phonebook and her business cards clearly listed her name, as did the window on the front of her practice. I lived out in the country so I didn’t really see that many people, but as far as I knew, nobody had a problem going to a female doctor.
So, I knew that our town had a female doctor, but I had never actually met her. Until I was seven or eight years old.
Turn and Cough
If I remember correctly, there was some sort of an athletic thing going on at school. The parents were offered the opportunity to purchase accident insurance for their kid for a couple of bucks.
My parents decided to buy the insurance. Unfortunately for seven-or-eight-year-old me, one of the requirements was that I had to get a physical. Which would be the first time I ever had a physical.
Remember, I knew our doctor was a woman, but I had never actually met her. On the way to my appointment, my dad told me that while the doctor was a woman, she looked like a man.
I had heard all about what goes on at a physical, so my biggest concern wasn’t what the doctor looked like, it was that I was about to have a stranger fondle my dangly-bits.
The doctor turned out to be a tiny little thing with short hair, big sideburns, a flannel shirt, jeans and a gravelly voice. Which, I suspect, was caused by the fact that she chain-smoked unfiltered cigarettes before, during and after her appointments. But yeah, to my untrained eye, she looked and sounded like a very short man.
Keep in mind, I lived in rural Minnesota and lived a sheltered life. I didn’t even see my first black person until I was in my teens. So having a female doctor that looked and sounded like a man should have been a big deal.
But it wasn’t a big deal. It was just something that was.
Ignorance is Bliss
For whatever reason, our doctor decided she was going to look like a man. But she didn’t claim to be a man. Though it undoubtedly would have been easier for her if she had. She didn’t change her name or insist we refer to her as “he/him”. She didn’t make a big deal out of her appearance. So, neither did anyone else.
My young self didn’t care what she looked like. She was just different than everyone else. To me, having her look like a man was really no different than someone missing an arm or a leg, or having any other type of handicap.
So, I did what I was taught to do. I ignored it. I was taught to treat people with a handicap the same way I’d treat anyone else. And that’s what I did.
Why does the adult me have issues with so-called gender-dysphoric people when the child me didn’t? What changed?
Well, it wasn’t me. I’d be perfectly fine with ignoring WINO’s* and MINO’s* if I could.
*see episode #169, “Woman in Name Only”
If folks that wanted to pretend they’re the opposite gender understood they’re only pretending, then I could ignore them. But they actually believe that they are the opposite gender. And even worse, they expect everyone else to believe it too.
Not the Bee
Which brings me to the recent story of a group of young girls and a boy in Deerfield, IL. The boy chose to pretend he’s a girl. And he needed a place to change his clothes for gym class.
Keep in mind that there is already a gender-neutral option at that school. So, this didn’t have to be an issue. Accommodations had already been made for boys who want to pretend to be girls. But that wasn’t good enough. The boy was allowed to use the girls-only locker room. The same locker room that the girls were using.
It’s no surprise that the girls felt uncomfortable undressing in front of a boy. So, they complained about it. To no avail.
In an effort to protect the girls, the mother of one of the girls approached the school administrators and told them that they were violating President Trump’s Executive Order against boys using girls’ locker rooms.
The school administrators said they didn’t care.
A few days later, the girls refused to change their clothes in front of the boy. Instead of protecting those girls and respecting their feelings, school administrators and teachers forced the girls to undress in front of the boy and told them not to complain while they did it.
In other words, the school administrators told those teenage girls that they were going to have to strip in front of the boy, and they were going to like it. Or at least act like they do.
This went on for a week.
Normalizing the Abnormal
At the next school board meeting, the mother who spoke out against this travesty was met with boos from “transgender” activists.
One activist, who is obviously a woman pretending to be a man, said, “The discomfort or privacy concerns of other students, teachers, or parents are not valid reasons to deny or limit the full and equal use of those facilities based on a student’s gender-related identity.”
Of course it is. The girls didn’t choose to feel discomfort when what is supposed to be their private space was intruded upon by a boy. But the boy chose to pretend to be a girl. Or, more likely, his parents decided that for him.
She continued by saying, “Instead, any student, teacher or other individuals seeking more privacy should be accommodated by providing that individual with a more private option.”
Notice that she didn’t say that private options should be used by the boy. Her solution was to let the boy have the full-sized locker room and force all the girls to use the gender-neutral option.
She also mentioned she has a child who is pretending to be something he or she isn’t. That should have been a clue that this woman isn’t playing with a full deck. Not only has she ruined her own life, she’s also ruining the life of her child. And she’s proud of it.
This woman shouldn’t be treated as some sort of expert. She should be pitied and maybe even charged with child abuse.
(Don’t) Stop Looking at Me!
The doctor from my youth could have made a big deal out of her affliction. But she chose not to. And, as a result, my young self didn’t give her a second thought. Nor did my adult self. In fact, I had completely forgotten about her for more than a half a century.
But my adult self simply can’t ignore this story. And neither could the young girls that were forced by their teachers to expose themselves to a boy. Officials who are supposed to be responsible for protecting these young women instead forced them into a traumatic situation from which it may take years to recover.
This didn’t have to be an issue. The boy had other options. But he and his parents chose not to use them. Instead, they took what should have been a private thing and made a public spectacle out of it. Then they got mad when someone noticed.
OK. I admit it. This is the most uninspired title I’ve come up with so far. I spent two days thinking of what to call this one and eventually gave up. So, I’m going with the not-very-original Episode 191.
Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter and I’ll send you an email whenever I publish something new. That way you’re not to miss any of my snarky comments.
