middle school and pronouns/identity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Entirely anecdotal, but there also seems to have been a big surge of gender identity questioning a couple of years ago that has died down. That's when my then-elementary schooler's teachers were talking about it in class and a friend's sixth grader went to outdoor school with her grade and they had an entire cabin for gender neutral students.

This year my daughter went to sixth grade outdoor school and they had no student who identified as gender neutral, so just boys and girls cabins. And the former sixth grader who is now an eighth grader reports that most of her classmates are back to she/he identities.

If you checked the teens and tweens board two or three years ago, there were many, many more posts about pronouns and gender stuff. Even the LGBTQIA+ Issues and Relationship Discussion board isn't that active anymore. And i like to follow that board (gay brother.)

Three years ago, the tweens and teens were in their bedrooms watching TikTok non-stop with literally nothing else to do/nowhere to go than to stew in algorithmic content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a sophomore and it’s still very much a thing among her friend group. I think it depends on what kind of crowd/interests they gravitate to. Mine goes to a school for performing and visual arts, and cishet kids are very much in the minority there. They are deeply into identity exploration and pushing boundaries and the pronouns are all over the place. Probably not the case on the girls’ field hockey team.

And you are ok to have your DC around all of this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ones who aren’t serious/are attention-seeking grow out of it by 8th and you are just left with the ones who truly feel this way. At one point in 6th, I think a quarter of the girls were claiming to be lesbian, trans, bi or non binary. Many of them were faking.

This is true. It becomes less fashionable.

The ones that were doing it for attention have realized that none of their peers really care.

"You want to go by she/her? Sure, whatever. I'll call you that"

is a WAY different response than

"OMG, EVERYONE STOP! We are now calling Billy, Bella, and she now uses she and her. Bella, you are so brave and we won't let those close-minded bigots stop you from living YOUR TRUTH. We love you"

The lack of attention/oxygen naturally causes it to become less trendy

+1 Excellent way to put it!

I am a teacher, and the "fad" (yes, yes, I know... it is the truth for a very, very, very, very small number of students) seems to be waning a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a sophomore and it’s still very much a thing among her friend group. I think it depends on what kind of crowd/interests they gravitate to. Mine goes to a school for performing and visual arts, and cishet kids are very much in the minority there. They are deeply into identity exploration and pushing boundaries and the pronouns are all over the place. Probably not the case on the girls’ field hockey team.

And you are ok to have your DC around all of this?

Of course, she loves the school and has friends of all sorts whom she cares about deeply. Why wouldn’t I be ok? And unless you want a future devoid of artistic expression, you should be ok with it, too. The creative class these days is inextricably LGBTQ, or at least strongly allied. Free your mind a bit.

[Anonymous]

Pendulum swings both ways and passes through the middle too.

[Anonymous]

The trend is almost nonexistent among my kid’s friends at her new, larger middle school. At her old, teensy school it’s still going strong but it’s super artsy and the kids are always desperate for ways to stand out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Entirely anecdotal, but there also seems to have been a big surge of gender identity questioning a couple of years ago that has died down. That's when my then-elementary schooler's teachers were talking about it in class and a friend's sixth grader went to outdoor school with her grade and they had an entire cabin for gender neutral students.

This year my daughter went to sixth grade outdoor school and they had no student who identified as gender neutral, so just boys and girls cabins. And the former sixth grader who is now an eighth grader reports that most of her classmates are back to she/he identities.

If you checked the teens and tweens board two or three years ago, there were many, many more posts about pronouns and gender stuff. Even the LGBTQIA+ Issues and Relationship Discussion board isn't that active anymore. And i like to follow that board (gay brother.)

Three years ago, the tweens and teens were in their bedrooms watching TikTok non-stop with literally nothing else to do/nowhere to go than to stew in algorithmic content.

Exactly, and now the trend is fading away. TG.

[Anonymous]

According to my 9th grader, most of the biological females he knows who claimed to be non-binary in 7th grade are now back to going by she/her and consider themselves girls.

However, I know a couple of kids that age (non-local) who still identify as they/them last I heard.