ABSTRACT

The current increase in the visibility of trans people in the media has been accompanied by a backlash in the form of an increased deployment of narratives of ‘sex change regret’ or ‘de/retransition.’ Through analysing mainstream media articles from 2015–2018, this paper identifies and discusses three main themes detected in discussions of de/retransition. First, the articles claim that the social and political climate has become too accepting of trans identities and, thus, any discussion of de/retransition is silenced because of ‘political correctness.’ Second, while the articles collected tend to begin with a general discussion of the phenomenon of de/retransitioning, they slide into addressing (White, cisgender) children and the need to protect them from misdiagnosis. Third, the fear about misdiagnosis of (White, cisgender) children is intensified by the focus on a recently hypothesised category of gender dysphoria – rapid-onset gender dysphoria – that suggests some children’s and adolescents’ dysphoric feelings are a result of ‘social contagion.’ Mainstream media discussions of de/retransition focus on the aforementioned themes in an attempt to question contemporary approaches to regulating access to gender-affirming medical care for trans individuals.

摘要

当前跨性别者在媒体中的知名度不断提高，同时伴随着“性变后悔”或“贬低/变性”叙事形式的反弹。通过分析2015年至2018年的主流媒体文章，本文确定并讨论了在转折/转折讨论中发现的三个主要主题。首先，这些文章声称，社会和政治气氛已经变得过于接受跨性别身份，因此，由于“政治上的正确性”，任何关于取消/重新过渡的讨论都被搁置了。其次，虽然收集的文章倾向于从关于反/再过渡现象的一般性讨论开始，但它们却涉及到（白人，顺性别）儿童，以及保护他们免受误诊的需要。第三，担心（怀特，最近假想的一类性别焦虑症（快速发作的性别焦虑症）的关注加剧了儿童的焦虑，这表明某些儿童和青少年的烦躁情绪是“社会传染”的结果。主流媒体对降职/再过渡的讨论集中在上述主题上，试图质疑当代规范跨性别者获得性别确认医疗服务的方法。