Diane Ehrensaft, a children’s hospital director and feminist professor in California, says the “trans revolution” should be seen as the next phase of the feminist movement. Ehrensaft is a driving force behind this revolution and is pleased that more and more children are identifying as what she calls “gender hybrids”.
– I totally agree that we are in the midst of a gender revolution and that children are leading it, and it’s wonderful to see, she says.
Ehrensaft is a high-profile feminist activist who has been appointed chief of mental health and chief psychologist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and holds a professorship at the UCSF School of Medicine.
Ehrensaft specializes in pediatric “gender-affirmative care for transgender and gender-expansive patients”. Her research has focused on how gender develops before puberty and the mental health effects of puberty blockers and sex hormones on children.
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The feminist professor also believes, among other things, that children can be transgender and also identify as “gender hybrids” – like what she calls “gender minotaurs”, where they can change their gender depending on the season or have multiple sexual identities at the same time, according to the New York Post.
Exactly what a “gender minotaur” is, however, is unclear and does not seem to be a fully established concept even in trans activist circles – but a common minotaur is a mythological creature half man and half bull that appears in Greek mythology.
“Wonderful to see”
According to Ehrensaft, it is children who are “leading a gender revolution”, which she insists is “wonderful to see”.
– I totally agree we are in the midst of a gender revolution and the children are leading it. And it’s a wonderful thing to see. And it’s also humbling to know [children] know more than we do about this topic of being gender expansive, the professor declared during a 2018 talk at the San Francisco Public Library.
She argues that the “trans revolution” can be seen as the next phase of the 1960s feminist movement, which she says was an ideological phase of challenging gender stereotypes.
– Now, we’ve got genders moving boulders, and it makes a lot of people nervous, she says.
“Language is political”
The professor has helped popularize terms such as “genderfluid” “non-binary” and “gender expansive” and has highlighted conversations with a seven-year-old child as evidence that there can be “gender minotaurs” and gender hybrids.
– A boy… twirled [in my office]… and said to me, ‘You see, I’m a Prius… I’m a boy in the front, and I’m a girl in the back’. I started meeting a whole bunch of other gender hybrids. And so we have the gender Prius, we have a gender Minotaur. And most of the kids who are gender minotaurs love mermaids. So make sure you have a lot of mermaid books. If you really you think about it, it works.
Other gender identities that Ehrensaft says should be respected and taken seriously include “protogay”, “prototrans”, “gender slave”, “gender ambidextrous” and “gender smoothie. She also notes that the ideological environment she is part of is constantly trying to change culture and language.
– And as you know, language is political. So what’s good today will be politically incorrect tomorrow. So we’ll just keep changing as we go.
Ehrensaft says she has received some backlash for her activism, including from Christians who say to her that “you have lost your way from your Christian God”, but she tells The Jewish News of Northern California that she doesn’t mind.
– I always chuckle at this one, because as a Jew, I never went looking for it, she said of the criticism.
