It was easy for him to accept because he’s 4
Even Parents Magazine? What next, The Mainstream Herald? The Churchy Gazette? Middleground Digest?
Headline:
Mom’s Viral Post Celebrates That ‘Some Women, Some Non-Binary People, & Some Men’ Get Their Periods
Yunh hunh, and some bats make webs, some spiders echolocate, some tigers knit, some orcas play Bach cello suites, some houses are made of cotton candy, some cars can climb trees, some hats can fill out tax forms – let’s see some viral posts celebrating that.
Last month, Always announced that the Venus symbol would be removed from their sanitary products’ packaging to be more inclusive of transgender and non-binary people. “For over 35 years Always has championed girls and women, and we will continue to do so,” Always’ parent company, Procter & Gamble said in a statement, according to NBC. “We’re also committed to diversity & inclusion and are on a continual journey to understand the needs of all of our consumers.” Now, a mom from Hull, England named Milly Bhaskara is furthering the conversation, showing parents how easy it is to introduce your L.O. to the concept that women aren’t the only people who menstruate.
Her L.O. is four. Of course you can introduce your L.O. age four to the concept that [your choice of bullshit here], because children age four believe what adults tell them. They don’t have anything to compare it to, they don’t have other information, and they don’t yet have brains mature enough to do skepticism.
Bhaskara—who boasts 173K followers and is known for her posts on mental health awareness and body acceptance—posted a super-cute photo of her 4-year-old son Eli holding a pin board sign that reads, “Some men have periods too. If I can get it, so can you.”
Super cute! Also not true! In fact complete and utter bullshit!
There are some women who call themselves trans men, and they can have periods (unless the blockers have prevented them), but that doesn’t mean men can. Men can’t.
The proud mom’s caption: “Some men have periods. Some non-binary people have periods. Some women have periods. Eli has been told about periods since he saw blood on my pants a couple of years ago. I didn’t use the language of women have periods because it’s not entirely inclusive.”
Bhaskara continued, “I told him that SOME women, SOME non-binary people and SOME men have periods. It was easy for him to accept as he hadn’t had to unlearn the engrained societal norm, but if a 4-year-old can grasp it, I’m sure most of us can have a crack at unlearning transphobic/misinformed norms and open our minds… ya think?”
That poor kid.
Though it is entirely true.
The article embeds another post from the same woman explaining that her family isn’t perfect. She then lists everybody’s flaws:
Yikes.
Went there, read the post, but unfortunately had to register to comment. As I only had a one-word comment, I decided to give it all a miss.
Ah well. Such is life. What will be will be. Could have been worse. Etc. But the variety of bullshit available these days never ceases to amaze me.
Skeletor, it’s astonishing how those “flaws” fall so in line with standard gender stereotyped behaviors. Except Eli, who seems to have behaviors that are somewhat normal for 4 year olds of either sex.
Four-year-olds can grasp a lot of things, like a fat magic elf who delivers toys to all kids all over the world instantaneously, or that it’s possible to be invisible. The fact that four-year-olds can “grasp” something is hardly reason for adults to believe it’s true.
Iknklast, yes, the flaws were a bit stereotyped.
Also kind of tmi to list everyone’s flaws for the whole world to see.
I suspect Eli has grasped nothing. He’s learned to repeat the things that cause his parents to praise him. Oh, I’m sure he believes what they have told him – that some men can menstruate – but I don’t think he understands enough to come to that conclusion himself. BECAUSE HE’S FOUR.
Like Ophelia said, poor kid.
Accepting and understanding are not necessarily the same thing.
Accepting and being brainwashed by authorities that evolution has molded one’s infantile brain to trust implicitly are also different.
Skeptics used to know that, but too many of them have apparently forgotten.
What an unbelievably silly argument. Kids aged four don’t have critical reasoning skills or knowledge of a fucking thing, except what they’ve been told by their parents. Saying that a four year old understands this concept does not at all mean that the concept is true. I’ve no idea who said it, but there is a well known quote on the subject: give me the boy, and I will give you the man (or words to that effect).
I distinctly recall a friend of a friend, who turned out to be a young earth creationist. I discovered this not from anything he said, but from something his son said back when he was around seven. We were over at his place and about to settle in to dinner I think, when his son popped into the room and presented some schoolwork to dad. I think the work had something to do with biology, because the boy announced to the room that he knew the expected answer to a question was something to do with evolution, but that he had stuck to his convictions and wrote in an answer about god creating the world as is, just like it says in genesis.
The parents fawned over him at that, really beaming with pride at the announcement that their son had lost marks intentionally, preferring to stick to the misinformation fed to him by his parents than what he knew from school. So how does that logic run again? Ah yes: if a child accepts it, it must be true… right?
And just… how can even a single adult look at that post and believe that the child knows what the fuck he is talking about?? A boy aged four holding up a board addressing about periods in a post in which the mother admits (proudly!) that she filled his head with this.
Holms. this one?
It’s generally considered to be a Jesuit saying although I’ve seen it attributed to Aristotle.
Holms,
The quote is commonly attributed to Ignatius of Loyola (though is also attributed to figures as varied as Aristotle and Vladimir Lenin), and properly is something like “Give me the child for his first seven years, and I will give you the man”. I believe the concept is essentially public domain at this point.
Seth:
NINJA’D you, although for some reason I typed “show” instead of “give.” It’s the “give” that’s the important part, so a fairly idiotic mistake.
Oh of course he grasps the whole thing fully. After all, she explained periods to him “a couple of years ago” when he was two. Probably right after he told her his preferred pronouns.
Argh… missed out a “he” there. I blame the dog. At least I managed to catch the word salad that resulted from his star-jump onto the tablet.
Related: I saw this glowing review on NPR of the book by the mother of “Jacob”, the nine-year-old girl who has been living as a boy for four years. None of it seems to address why a girl of that age might think she’s a boy, not let alone what she thinks boys and girls actually are; just an assertion, and how wonderful it is to go along with a small child’s claim about what they are, so long as she thinks she’s a boy rather than a dog or a firetruck.
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/11/07/mimi-lemay-transgender-what-we-will-become
Yes that’s the quote I was going for, and also, what on earth is an L.O.?
I took L.O. to mean Little One.
Legal Offspring?
Lesser Organism?
Large Object?
Last October?
Listless Octopus?
I had assumed Loved One or Little One.
“As I only had a one-word comment, I decided to give it all a miss.” Thanks, that was a very refreshing laugh!
I’m guessing that the idea that a 4 year old can “grasp” that men can get periods can ultimately be traced back to the idea that one’s “gender identity” is fixed in the womb. Thus, a 4 year old, like a 4 month old, has an innate understanding of whether they’re a boy or girl which is independent of whether they have a wienie or not. L.O., like everyone, was born with their perfect transgender ideology wrapped up in trailing clouds of glory.
It is the world that corrupts.
Once a child takes a bite of the apple of knowledge of Man and Woman, he is cast out of the gender fairy garden forever.