Transgender models are all the rage now. Ford Models, whose clients have included the likes of Ryan Lochte, Lindsay Lohan, and Christy Turlington, announced they were signing their first transgender model, Andreja Pejic. Playboy magazine also announced recently they would feature its first transgender playmate in its November/December issue. While many progressives applauded both these decisions, others did not, including former Playboy playmate Jenna Jameson.
While it’s a good thing to be inclusive, kind, and helpful to people struggling with gender dysphoria, we should not celebrate transgender models the same way we shouldn’t celebrate models who are bulimic, anorexic, depressed, or suicidal (due to pressure to be thin). Not only is it unhealthy for those struggling, but it sends the wrong message about gender to the rest of society.
It’s popular now to believe gender is fluid.
Fact check false… https://t.co/PBLmRDGs9D
— Jenna Jameson (@jennajameson) October 21, 2017
But gender is not fluid or a social construct, it’s pre-determined and present at birth via a baby’s sex organs. True, in our society, boys tend to act, dress, and behave one way as a general rule and girls tend to act, dress, and behave differently — but that isn’t true across the board, nor is that a bad thing. The fact that most (but not all) boys tend to make “vroom” sounds when they play with trucks and girls like to pretend to play “house” with dolls isn’t a gender construct, but a natural expression of how they’re already wired.
Applauding adults who struggle with their gender and who, believing themselves to be a girl on the inside rather than a boy, then “transition” through surgery, clothing, and makeup, seems to be the “nice” thing to do; but it’s actually more harmful. It not only allows that person to deny truth, but then society pats them on the back for it. Would you affirm a young girl who wanted to dress like a princess for the day? Sure, even though it’s unlikely she’ll grow up to be a princess. Would you affirm a young girl who wanted to dress like a dolphin — for a lifetime? No, of course not. Because it’s biologically impossible.
Transgenderism originates as a psychological issue, much like anorexia. Both manifest themselves outwardly but begin in the mind. Encouraging an adult, or especially a child, to transition (and then applauding them for it publicly, as Playboy and Ford Models have done), perpetuates the myth that gender is a construct and psychological illnesses should be celebrated. It would be far healthier for the people who have transitioned, who are struggling inwardly, and for society as a whole, if compassionate observers continued to affirm reality and truth.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
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