Studies show we need to go beyond the assumption that all gender dysphoria must be understood solely in terms of a private and immutable ‘gender identity’.  In just seven years, there has been a nearly 4,000% increase in children seeking treatment for sexual identity confusion in the United Kingdom. One study showed that when a teen announces a transgender identity to their peer group, the number of friends who also became transgender-identified was 3.5 per group. The exponential surge and demographic flip in teenage trans identification requires exploration of network dynamics.

 

We ask you to examine:

 

The full text of the descriptive study on a phenomena of networked, clustered trans identification amongst teenage girls (Littman 2018). Because of attempts to suppress this paper, we ask you to read the defence of Littman’s methodology (2020)

 

What detransitioners say about the influence of social media on the emergence of their trans identity.

 

The book by Abigail Shrier examines the surge in girls identifying as boys in the context of social pressures, including exposure to pornography that enacts degradation and suffering of females.

 

The report that exposed how Instagram is harmful to girls who cannot match impossible expectations for female bodies. This is part of the context for the surge in trans identification.

 

The emergence of other internet-influenced social phenomena e.g. ‘Tourettes from Tiktok’ where girls presenting to neurology clinics had followed ‘tiktok’ social media influencers. 

 

An overview of network dynamics by Nicholas Christakis. Christakis and Fowler used longitudinal data to show network impacts on binge drinking, smoking cessation, altruism, and depression. If network dynamics are so significant in adults, why would they not be active in adolescents?