Bernadette Wren:Tavistock 3

Featured

Part 3 on this talk by Wren.

You can see earlier parts of this series on this page:

Bernadette Wren

We rejoin Wren explaining about the rising referral rates to GIDs and the witch from predominantly male referrals to 75% female. Wren repeats the statement, made earlier, about the poor research base for the treatments for which she makes referrrals.

At this point Wren tells us that adults who have undergone these treatments do have a degree of continuing mental health issues, based on studies (which she does not name), but with small amounts of regret. For children and adolescents she references a Dutch study (again no specific reference provided) which followed a small group of “treated” referrals who were all doing well. She does, however, concede that this group tended to be very well functioning and arrive at the clinics at an older age. It is worth noting that the Tavistock were ideally placed to have conducted their own research. The childhood and adolescent branch of the tavistock was set up in 1989. They began administering puberty blockers in 2011. This talk was in 2019.

The next slide shows the diversity of the Tavistock’s clientele.

Evolutionary Biology

Finally we get to the question of evolutionary biology. Wren begins by pointing out that evolutionary biologists assume that humans are motivated by the aim of reproducing and leaving partial copies of ourselves on this earth; we are assumed to have an imperative to pass on our genes. She then breaks off and makes an interesting comment.

She continues by focussing on research re homosexuality which, she is careful to point out, she is not conflating with gender atypical presentations. She then says “Obviously, like Gender Dysphoria we assume like homosexuality has existed throughout history and in all known cultures” . I would say that is a highly contested statement, the latter yes, but “Gender Dysphoria” is a relatively new concept which has pathologised people who do not conform to expectations for their sex, many of them homosexual.

Wren continues by acknowledging that homosexuals are a statistically small section of society but then swiftly moves on to argue that sexuality can be fluid, particularly in females. (Is this how she is able to ignore the targeting of Lesbians who do not wish to entertain “male lesbians” as partners?).

Wren expresses caution about looking for a biological explanation, for both homosexuality and gender identity, because it risks being oppressive. If we seek explanations we could also seek the means to “cure” or “suppress” these experiences. This is where lumping homosexuality in with “gender minorities” is deeply unhelpful. The former does not need a lifetime’s dependence on cross sex hormones or risky surgeries.

Theories of adaptive advantage to homosexuality, she continues, are that they may confer advantages to relatives who do reproduce. Gay Uncles and Lesbian Aunts helping with child rearing, I assume she is referring to.

Next she turns to considering whether there is a biological basis for “gender identity”. Her hypothesis is that an explanation will not be located in a single gene but will be multi-factorial. She then switches to point out a third of their referrals have features of autism so, I assume she is making the link to autism as an inherited trait.

Heritability of “Gender Identity”.

Most of the evidence comes from twin studies. One such was by Holderman et al, in 2018. They looked at eleven studies. She breaks off to add a not of caution that these studies run the risk of conflating gender non-conforming behaviour with a transgender identity. [You don’t say! Exactly what we think has been happening at the Tavistock!]. Despite expressing reservations about the methodology, such as using sex stereotypes to determine whether a child displayed “opposite sex behaviours”, she repeats the conclusion that gender identity shows a pattern of heritability around 28% to 40% for identical twins, half that for non-identical twins.

Next she explores the work of Melissa Hines who looked at girls with disorders/differences of sexual development. They tended to show toy preferences aligned with “boy” choices but she concludes this was because they were less responsive to social cues directing them to “girl” toys.

Brain Structures

There is research looking at whether “transgender” individuals have brain structure more aligned to the opposite sex, with which they identify, or their natal sex. The criticism of these studies, that I have encountered ranges from small sample sizes ; failure to control for homosexuality; failure to consider the impact of opposite sex hormones and failure to account for neuro-plasticity. Wren concludes that the picture is uncertain.

Wren concludes that the explanations are likely to be multi-factorial, possibly a genetic predisposition, an interaction between social and biological factors and the role of culture; whether an individual lives in a society that encourages or suppresses atypical “gender identities”.

Wren also points out that if a biological maker were identified that may limit treatment for those who do not have that marker. That’s quite the statement. What it means is that Wren is happy for people to be medicalised even if it is discovered that they do not have the condition! She justifies this by reference to bodily autonomy and Human Rights.

Reproduction

There are a lot of “ifs” in this next statement. I guess when you have presided over the sterilisation of children you believe what you need to so you can sleep at night.

In the next bit Wren postulates that gender non-conformity in “cis-gendered” people may be an attractive feature signalling genetic superiority and this somehow leads to the idea that we may replicate gender diversity for some sort of evolutionary advantage. This, to me, feels like clutching at straws.

Cultural Evolution

Leaving evolutionary biology, Wren moves on to cultural evolution. This is the idea that these things can be “culturally transmitted” which, to me, seems dangerously close to the idea it is a social contagious.

She further reflects on how this might impact, in particular, adolescents for whom “there may be complex social forces shaping the formation of an atypical gender identity”.these social forces, she continues may be: 👇

In other words all the features of a typical adolescence that few people escape.

By jove she’s close to getting it!

But, not quite. She speculates on the interconnected ness of this generation and the speed of the transmission of ideas and how our youth are “a generation who are , almost routinely, asking themselves if they might be “trans” or differently gendered to explain their feelings their bodily alienation and discomfort and they are resistant to cultural norms for male and female behaviour and heteronormative sexuality”

Because of the above some people, she concludes, will feel they are “a better fit for another gender or indeed to attempt to be a different sex” . So, not to challenge societal norms at all, just take drugs and surgeries to better fit with the sexist stereotypes associated with the societally enforced, norms of behaviour you are putatively rebelling against!

Her conclusion.

Is it me or does she look haunted as she finishes with this statement?

Questions

There are questions about autism and how an inability to read social cues might lead to feeling of gender dysphoria. Wren answers this with reference to how their autism and their emerging gender identity may play a role. I don’t know the intention of the questioner but, to me, the concern is that autistic girls, and boys, may latch onto “Gender Dysphoria” as a more palatable explanation for not fitting in.

Another man asks a question which relates to cultural issues giving rise to “Gender Dysphoria” . This question very nearly hits the mark.

Wren thinks it is a very good question about “whether there are aspects of our culture that are amplifying gender dysphoria” and furthermore, in respect of the dramatic increase in numbers “as a service we are really on the backfoot in relation to these numbers” . She admits there are issues around the question of the high number of females referred to the Tavistock. She conceded that the pathways to the clinic may be very different for “people born into female bodies” ! Of course there are!

The next question centres on future directions for research. Wren can’t resist a side swipe at the Daily Mail who, she says, would have you believe the “trans lobby is very powerful” . Research, she answers, is very much focussed on the brain as preferred by “trans” people who see it as a route to validation. She talks about a focus on the suffering of those with “gender dysphoria” and whether the problem is an individual problem or societies for a lack of acceptance. (It does not seem to occur to her that if we tolerated behaviours that don’t match sexist expectation, for your sex, we could work to transform society instead of putting children/adolescents on a path requiring drugs and surgeries). She herself does not have a preferred area of research but does state that the Tavistock have just obtained a very large grant to track the people that have been through their service, for long term follow up for ten, twenty or thirty years. (Which is interesting because the Tavistock have previously claimed that is too difficult because people have changed their NHS numbers). Here was her answer.

The final question asked if a biological, or other cause is found and a treatment to resolve Gender Dysphoria (absent drugs and surgeries, I assume he means) would it be ethical to take this route? Wren answers with stories of people who reconciled to their sex after having been, initially, certain about their gender identity. She is careful to say they would not practice “Conversion Therapy” but if the young person was willing they would work, therapeutically with that person. This sounds as if a young person was so certain and would not co-operate then they would not get the chance to reconcile their sex /sexuality.

My conclusion.

Looks like we have our answer about which way the service is heading.

If you are able to support my work you can do so here. All gifts gratefully received.

D35496A1-6A40-413E-9A06-28E4F8EB3D8C

Researching Gender Identity Ideology and all its harms so we never forget.

£10.00

Bernadette Wren: Tavistock 2

Featured

Part two on this talk by Wren to a room full of evolutionary biologists.

You can read part 1, here, which covers the first fifteen minutes. A link to the YouTube is included.

Bernadette Wren:Tavistock

We return to Wren discussing the variety of ways societies have accommodated, mainly men, who do not conform to cultural expectations, for their sex. Many of these accommodations look, to me, as, potentially, benign ways to accommodate men who wish to have sex with men. The Hjira, who Wren references, though, may have a darker underbelly in that young boys may be groomed into these roles to provide a sexual outlet for older, married men who wish to have sex with boys. Likewise gay men may be left with little choice. This may be the only way for homosexuals to survive in India. See this account here. 👇 (Homosexuality was only legalised, by India, in 2018)

Hijra

Wren continues with this statement about “cisgender” people.

I am going to assume she means that people who identify with their birth sex can also be resistant to sex stereotypes, which of course is true. There have been people, I would argue the vast majority, who depart from sexist expectations for their sex. Despite Wren’s obsession with “de-pathologising” she has played a role in problematising behaviour at odds from cultural expectations for your sex. This has specific implications for gay people who can display “gender non-conformity” at an early, pre-sexual age. This deviation is not, however, confined to homosexuals, there are many, straight women, who have dominant personalities and there are “theatrical” straight males. The situation we have arrived it is one where the only “real” women are deemed to be the ones who conform to sexist “gender roles”. If this keeps up the vast majority of women will need to exit our sex class for not “womanning” correctly.

After a wander through other cultures, Wren returns to the U.K. context to explain that Western nations are catching up with the issue of “third genders”. [I sense she is building up to explaining the meteoric referrals to the Tavistock with her “look there are an estimated one million Hjiara people”. ]

On referrals to the Tavistock, Wren advises that many young people arrive with total conviction about their pathway. They feel it is an “un shiftable” part of their self ; some of those people went on to detransition.

Authentic Self

Some clinicians also share this believe system 👇. Those of with children who are part of the gender church will recognise the phrase “true self” or “authentic self”. Both recurrent phrases from the true believers. [The evidence for a biological under-pinning to “gender identity” is very poor, by the way ]

Gender Fluid

Wren is careful not to exclude anyone from the trans umbrella so she quickly adds this 👇to encompass the part-time larpers. She also avoids saying “healthy body” by using the term “non anomalous” for the bodies she sends to be cut up.

Non-Binary people

Non-Binary people claim to be neither male nor female but this does not preclude them from going under the surgeon’s knife. Wren advises that they want more “tailored” surgeries. To get an idea of the more extreme manifestation of “tailored” surgeries you can have a look at what is in offer in the United States. Nullification is the removal of all genitalia like a Ken Doll. Men can also opt to have a “neo-vagina” but retain their penis. Non-binary females can have a double mastectomy.

Referral Rates to the Tavistock, Children’s Service

All that scene setting was to prepare the audience for the following slides.

Unlike the earlier slides, Wren does not appear to want to linger on this one. As you can see there has been a dramatic increase in girls.

This is as good a point as any to break off, even though I have only made it to the 20 minute mark. Part 3 to follow. Now the Law suits are rolling in, I want to provide detailed coverage of the belief system underpinning practice at the Tavistock.

Article in The Times.

You can support my work here: Don’t prioritise me above legal cases. I get by but donations help me to keep going. Irrespective my work will remain open access.

D35496A1-6A40-413E-9A06-28E4F8EB3D8C

Investigating the Gender Industrial Complex, Gender Identity Ideology and the impact on women’s and Gay rights.

£10.00

Bernadette Wren:Tavistock

Featured

Can evolution explain Gender Diversity? (Part 1)

This post reviews a presentation by Bernadette Wren, while at the Tavistock, to a group of evolutionary biologists. You can find the link here:

Can Evolution explain Gender Diversity?

Wren opens by explaining this is a highly contested field, she is habitually nervous when speaking on this topic but she is confident the people in the room are too scholarly for there to be any uncivil discourse. She explains that she, herself, is curious about the topic and does not take a particular stand.

Here she comments on the issue of uncertainty in the practice of “gender medicine” ; emphasising the lack of a firm foundation for the management of “gender variance”.

She expresses the hope that an evolutionary perspective could reduce stigma for those who are “transgender” and perhaps this will lower the temperature in the public debate. On the referrals to the Tavistock she has this to say: 👇

The Tavistock, she advises, see people who are questioning the assignation of their “gender” and “gender roles” insofar as “they embody a set of expectations about how someone will live and how they will feel about being in the body”. Wren talks about their intense distress about their sexed body and suggests, in the past, this may have been a hidden distress. She argues that these feeling are not new but what is new are the numbers and the certainty with which they present, accompanied by demands for urgent medical intervention and pushy parents who she calls “assertively supportive”.

She described the Tavistock approach as “broadly affirmative”. They take the distress seriously and don’t assume a “psycho-pathological” causality, however, she claims, they do bear in mind if the onset of distress is linked to any trauma. She adds a caveat that they do not lose sight of an “unconflicted trans and gender diverse experience”. This is quite telling. Previous clinical practice would have maintained that anyone feeling as if they are “born in the wrong body” requires serious exploration of the underlying causes. Now we make a default assumption this is a natural development, a variation, unless evidence is presented to the contrary. This has major implications for how patients present themselves, perhaps downplaying psychological issues to swiftly access medical treatment? It also has consequences for how Gender Clinics respond to this condition and, it is my, firmly held, view that this is why we are seeing an explosion in the numbers of detransitioners. Here 👇 Wren still sees their service as “gatekeeping” medical intervention.

This is a list of names involved in a Tavistock working group looking at the, potential, role of evolutionary biology in “gender variance”. I have not encountered these names before so, I am merely including this slide for archival purposes and in case their names recur.

Next Wren shares some Gender New Speak and makes it clear she does so without apology. Check out the definition of SEX!

Next, Wren puts up a slide with estimates of the prevalence of people diagnosed with this condition. The slide is less interesting than what she says while it was on screen. I will include it for completeness. Surprise, Surprise, once you start talking about and publishing on “transsexuals” the prevalence increases.

Wren now cites the work of an evolutionary biologist “herself a transwoman” to muddy the waters about sex/gender, so let’s take a little detour to learn about the biologist whose insights she shares. 👇

Joan/Jonathan Roughgarden

While the above slide is on screen, Wren treats us to the above named 👆 scientist who has spent time cataloguing the lack of sexual dimorphism in the animal kingdom. Joan was Jonathon up until the age of 51. You can find a Ted Talk of his on YouTube. Here’s a statement he made in that talk.

Roughgarden takes us on a whistle stop tour of diversity in the animal kingdom including, of course, the clownfish. He has also written a book, Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender and Sexuality in nature and people. Below are a selection of quotes:

Roughgarden acknowledges we are divided into biological males/females based on whether we make large or small gametes.

He accepts the universality of the biological distinction but throws in a reference to claim a difference between sex and gender.

To insist on the salience of biological sex is a mistake called “essentialism”.

Instead we can choose who counts as a male or a female; how convenient for Joan/Jonathon.

He then adds some TRAlinist revisionism by re-classifying Joan of Arc as a “transgender man”; claiming we had a wealth of transvestite saints in the middle ages and that eunuchs were early transgender people.

Finally, before we leave Roughgarden to his musings, here are his thoughts on how to deal with “transphobia”; eerily reminiscent of calls to Lesbians to seek help to get over their hang ups about Lady Penis.

Intersex: Via Fausto-Sterling

Of course no discussion about biological sex would be complete without weaponising people with disorders/differences in development (DSDs). There are many conditions which lead to atypical chromosomal development, funnily enough these conditions occur in either males or females. They carry with them differing levels of severity in terms of the medical consequences. Fausto-Sterling famously claimed there were 5 sexes and “intersex” conditions were as common as red hair.

Worth a detour to share some of Fausto-Sterling’s thoughts. 😳.

Cultural Genitals to Lady Penis in women’s sport. 😳

Was Anne just having a laugh? (Worth including this just because of the tone of this public admonishment 😂).

All of which leads Wren to make this observation, which demonstrates that societies have handled the identification of the sexes reasonably well, even prior to karyotype tests.

I will leave part one on this talk, at this point. What you need to take away from this is that Wren and her fellow travellers really do think the world would be a better place if we stopped recognising biological sex. In their fantasy world this would eradicate sexism and make the world a better place.

To believe this you have to disregard facts like sex selective abortion *still* happens (even in the United Kingdom), at least 98% of sex offenders are male which is one reason WHY women fought for single sex spaces. Even after multiple surgeries men are still recognisable, as men. The fantasy of “passing” males means blocking male puberty and, as we know, this means the eradication of the ability to orgasm.

In the U.K, have had the vote for less than a 100 years *1, we still don’t have equal representation in parliament and, unless one party comes out for Women’s, sex based, rights, unequivocally, our votes will be rendered meaningless.

. (*1 women were granted the vote in 1918 but it was not extended to all women, over 21, until 1928).

You can support my work here, should you feel so inclined. Rumours to the contrary, women fighting this are not awash money. Unlike the organisations receiving the billions funnelled into spreading Gender Identity Ideology, by “Charitable” Foundations.

Researching Gender Identity Ideology, the impact (negative) on women’s sex based rights and gay rights, not forgetting the, Mengele adjacent, medicine practiced at the Tavistock.

£10.00

Treatment & Assessment: Tavistock

Featured

A look at this paper by Gary Butler, Natasha De Graaf, Bernadette Wren and Polly Carmichael, from March 2018.

Paper below.

Assessment & Treatment for GD

I have said many times that once you believe in an innate “Gender Identity” the pathway to normalising bodily modification becomes easier. What is astonishing, to me, is the fundamental mischaracterisation of those of us who are loosely identified as “gender critical”; as if we are the ones who cannot tolerate diversity of personal expression. Let us unpack this introduction to the paper. 👇

Children and adolescents are presenting, in ever increasing numbers, with “Gender Dysphoria” which manifests as a rejection of “conventional gender expectations”. There has long been a feminist project to reject sexist stereotypes, my feminism has never argued, if you don’t conform to those expectations, you should modify your body so it is more “congruent”. It astonishes me that some of the same women railing against “beach body” propaganda 👇 can see the regressive nature of “gendered expectations” ,in this campaign, but not in the idea the way you feel about yourself necessitates, not just a diet and a spray tan, but serious, life-altering, drugs and surgeries.

It would seem to be a reasonable line of enquiry to wonder whether these excessive pressures on teenage girls, in the age of the “selfie”, might have contributed to rise in females presenting at gender clinics? This is the scale of the increase. 👇. Notice that the paper adopts the captured language of the gender industrial complex by referring these girls as “birth assigned females” .

What did one of the paper’s authors, Bernadette Wren, Tavistock employee, have to say about this phenomenon? Here she is speaking to the Women’s and Equalities Committee. (Source Hansard). 👇

The cutting edge of a revolution.

Notice here Wren reveals the influence of trans lobby group Gendered Intelligence. She is not a neutral observer, this is what she is calls a “revolution many of us have really fought for”. Yet, what we have witnessed is a new form of bodily hatred, in the female sex, and we have responded by taking the cutting edge of the scalpel to young girls’ breasts.

In another admission Wren says her service has never turned anyone down for physical intervention.

Wren also ponders on whether we may find we have embarked on a path that is very “unwise”. Yep, you can say that again!

The Paper also recognises the pressure within the service to embark on medical treatments. This looks like an admission that there examples of this within G.I.Ds.

Elsewhere Wren acknowledges the influence of the internet and a growing tolerance of bodily modification, as a factor driving referrals.

This 👇 exposes a fundamental contradiction (one of many) within Gender Identity Ideology. If we were really more tolerant of “diverse gender expression” surely we would not be encouraging hormones and surgeries so your body confirms to stereotypical expectations?

Apart from the over-representation of females there is a startling percentage of autistic kids at gender clinics. This is so noticeable many people argue there is some connection between the condition, being neuro diverse, and “gender dysphoria”.

A more plausible explanation, to me, is that many of the ways we express ourselves as women, or men, are not innate but depend on our ability to pick up social cues. I am not a proponent of “blank state”, but we do learn, culturally determined, expectations, for our sex. Since this is something more difficult, for people with autism, the resultant feeling of incongruence could be predicted. Add in a typical propensity for black and white thinking and it’s the perfect storm for autistic people. I should add that I am no expert but I have an autistic nephew and have found it so instructive to see how he navigates the world.

That Stonewall tweet.

Another issue that lays bear this ideology is illustrated by the age range of referrals to the Tavistock. The youngest referral, to the Tavistock I have found, is age three.

Recently Stonewall sent out this tweet, which caused a lot of controversy. I believe the term is they were ratio’d

This sparked a lot of backlash but it’s not an unusual belief in the gender ideologue sector. Here’s what this paper says about the age of presentation of “gender incongruence” . It simply never occurred to me to judge my two boys, when aged two, according to gender conformity in their play.

Here the authors lend credence to “nonbinary”, “gender fluid” and “gender neutral”. I cannot take anyone seriously who buys into this nonsense. Sadly our political elite openly spouts this ridiculous ideology, even in parliament, and some seem to think it’s a solid foundation on which to make public policy and enact legislation. How these people can express a belief in the fluidity of “gender” while performing irreversible, medical, interventions in kids as young as ten is beyond my ken.

The people doing this to our kids don’t know what they are doing. How are these two statements, in this paper, compatible? You simply cannot claim something is physically reversible and that the effect of locking puberty is “largely unknown”. 👇

Another admission in this excerpt 👇 and they really do suggest the answer may be to start kids younger?

The paper spends some time discussing the issue of capacity to consent, informed consent and Gillick competence. They then outline scenarios where a child is not able to consent and this must be given by a parent /guardian. So, what if the parent doesn’t agree? Sadly, we know the answer to this from the experience of parents in Australia, the U.S and Canada; the State will remove the child from your care!

They proceed to recognise that the effect of blocking puberty, in the male sex, stunts genitalia and may compromise the ability (it does) to perform “traditional” surgery to construct a “neo-vagina” . I am going to go out on a limb here and say they should have thought about this before they started blocking puberty! It’s also a lie that they can create a clitoris in males. Sadly, our boys really believe this and if I sound merely angry I am failing to convey my white hot rage at these charlatans!

Not only is it not possible to make a clitoris out of penoscrotal skin it is becoming clear that these boys will not have the capacity to orgasm. I make no apology for including this quote, from Marci Bowers, again. Bowers should know they had the surgery as an adult man and have made a living performing these surgeries, including his most famous patient, Jazz Jennings.

They also know that the vast majority of these kids, if left alone, would desist and many would simply be homosexual.

Something tells me these excuses for a failure to do long term follow up are because they know what is down the road and are terrified to find out that they were indeed “unwise”. Remind me again who campaigned to change NHS numbers?

No conflict of interest?

I want to say a word about how journals accept it when these authors blithely claim they have no conflict of interest. Not only are they ideologically blinkered, their professional reputation, and salaries, rely on the Gender Industrial Complex. Additionally, now the law suits are coming, they have to pretend they didn’t know all of this, even though it’s increasingly apparent.

Our children have been lied to!

Scholars with a background in medicine/medical ethics will do a more expert job tackling this paper, I am neither. I am not a neutral observer, as long term readers will know. All I can see is the harm to my own one and I while I have to refrain from expressing this, in so many settings, I cannot repress the knowledge. Like too many parents I have a ringside seat to the self-harm my own GP is colluding with…

You can support my work here, only if you have surplus income and don’t prioritise me over any legal cases trying to bring this ideology crashing down.

Researching the catastrophic impact of the Gender Industrial Complex on children as well as the pernicious influence of Gender Identity Ideology on women’s and gay rights.

£10.00