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Societal Pressure and the Parental Role

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Part 2 in a series on transgenderism


Girl questioning identity and gender, parents, Biblical truth


I remember growing up and the multitude of conversations surrounding “peer pressure”. Parents, teachers, pastors, and other adults continually telling me to avoid it, to “watch out” for it, and to not be swayed by it. For our children, “peer pressure” doesn’t come with a sign or warning signal. Friends don’t walk up and say, “ok, I’m going to peer pressure you now”. Instead, “peer pressure” comes in many forms and disguises and all too often, before we know what happened, children and adults alike find themselves submitting and accepting something that they wouldn’t have. This sneaky tactic goes all the way back to Garden; the devil comes as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14.) The devil is a deceiver, he makes good look evil and evil look good.

Thanks to the internet, social media, and the drastic increase of information available at our fingertips and on every device we own, “peer pressure” has essentially morphed into “societal pressure” from people all across the globe, making it that much more difficult to protect, and prepare our children. The parental role in societal pressure has grown with this increase of information. We need to be able to explain what “societal pressure” is to our children, using more than the phrase itself, and we need to prepare them to recognize it for themselves when we aren’t around. From peer pressure that occurs on an individual basis to widespread pressure to accept social “norms”, it is vital for parents to recognize, understand and explain how this pressure works and how our children can respond.

 

Societal Pressure, an Example

Gender dysphoria is a recent example of societal pressure in that it appears to have become a social contagion, becoming popularized within our culture as something to do rather than being a rare medical diagnosis.

Historically, transgender tendencies present early in life. Rarely did a teen develop legitimate gender dysphoria out of nowhere. Yet, that is exactly what is currently happening with alarming frequency amongst the teenage population. Even more troubling is the fact that teenage girls have become the most likely to self-diagnose themselves.[1] Historically, boys were more likely to struggle with gender dysphoria & overwhelmingly so.


Gender pressure to be a girl or boy

This surge in self identifying as gender dysphoric amongst teen females started around 2017. This statistic is not unique to the United States, similar increases have taken place in Canada and European countries. In the western world, when combining both males and females, adolescent cases of gender dysphoria have increased more than 700-1,000% in certain states.

Further, studies indicate that the self-diagnosis of teens caught the parents completely off-guard, that their child had shown no previous signs of gender dysphoria.[2] Additionally, the study showed that many parents found the verbiage their children used when “coming out” was virtually scripted from internet sources.[3]

When considering the available evidence, it's becoming more difficult to ignore the indications that suggest that for many, transgenderism has more to do with social influences, rather than a legitimate phycological condition. Certainly, some battle legitimate gender dysphoria and we cannot ignore this. For the overwhelming majority, this is an example of societal pressure and influence.

4 Ideas to Strengthen Your Parental Roles Amidst Societal Pressure

There are several strategies parents can utilize to be effective in communicating about peer pressure and societal “norms” to their children.

1.    Parents need to initiate the conversation. We cannot wait for our children to bring the issue up to us. For a multitude of reasons, they might not ever ask. If we wait, we lose valuable time. The other side is not waiting. Society is not waiting. Media is not waiting. We cannot afford to wait. 

2.    We must be willing to ask questions. It is not enough to tell our children, “this never happened when I was younger”, or start a sentence with, “kids these days…” Given the example provided, we could be asking, “why has rates of adolescent gender dysphoria increased over 1,000 percent in certain areas in less than a decade?” “why has the population that was historically the least likely to struggle with gender dysphoria suddenly become the most likely?” “Why is this phenomenon presenting in certain states while not in other states?” “Why are there so many social media influences encouraging transitioning for myriad nonmental health related reasons?” For any societal “norm” that grows in popularity, we need to be asking questions, not blindly accepting it.

3.    Prepare our children to make a loving defense. Yes, we need to speak truth and know truth. Unfortunately, it’s easy to stop there and become judgmental or harsh in our delivery. Teaching our children how to lovingly speak truth to their friends, teachers, co-workers, and other people they cross paths with is an important component of our walk as Christians. We should be graceful, lovingly pointing others to Jesus, reminding them that their identity is rooted in the God who loves them.

4.    Remind them of their Identity. When pressure arises, it’s easy to think the newest idea, social phenomenon, or occurrence will give our lives greater meaning, purpose, or connect us to a community that provides belonging. That is very much what is seen in the gender dysphoria movement. It provides a connection and new identity to many lost, struggling young women. Reminding our children that their identity is in Christ and there is no greater community, meaning or purpose, is vital to protecting them against the pressures they come against.


[1] Nastasja M. de Graff, Guido Gionvanardi, Claudi Zitz, Polly Carmichael, Sex Ratio in Children and Adolescents Referred to theGender Identity Development Service in the UK (2009–2016), 2018.

[2] Lisa Littman Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show sigsn of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria, 2018.

[3] Ibid.




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