If you just want to reaffirm your own beliefs then sure this is fine, but it won't convince anyone because you need to have already equated gender dysphoria with a life-threatening belief.
They may see it as "Imagine a child who is short and overweight but believes he's Michael Jordan and wants to play basketball...", suddenly the affirming parent doesn't seem so bad.
As a parent, you are charged with discernment and responsibility to do so FOR your child.
Short fat kid wants to be Michael Jordan - does NOT equate to - my kid wants to chop off his penis and take hormone blockers.
As a parent, you are charged with the responsibility to understand the difference.
If you want to be literal - then we can even look at these two examples by themselves and see that chasing one leads you down a path to better health while they other leads to a life of permanent medical dependency, mental instability - and often accompanied with Regret and Suicide.
Short fat kid who wants to be Jordan has to go exercise and practice - if they fail, they're in better health and understand concepts like Talents and the uniqueness we have. They experience working hard (I'm assuming they tried) for something. They experience failing at a goal - or not getting to their goal, but that failure turning into a success they didn't set out for.
Man who chops off their penis and takes meds forever? I don't even need to go down that list - there are plenty of "Detransition" vids out there and high suicide stats to paint the picture of that route.
It's not about reaffirming your beliefs. It's about being a responsible parent.
I appreciate the detailed reply but you're now targeting something very specific.
The meme, which is what I'm critiquing, doesn't get into penis-chopping and seems to cover all gender affirming care, the majority of which is non-permanent. That's where one would say the superman metaphor misses the mark.
If you just want to reaffirm your own beliefs then sure this is fine, but it won't convince anyone because you need to have already equated gender dysphoria with a life-threatening belief.
They may see it as "Imagine a child who is short and overweight but believes he's Michael Jordan and wants to play basketball...", suddenly the affirming parent doesn't seem so bad.
As a parent, you are charged with discernment and responsibility to do so FOR your child.
Short fat kid wants to be Michael Jordan - does NOT equate to - my kid wants to chop off his penis and take hormone blockers.
As a parent, you are charged with the responsibility to understand the difference.
If you want to be literal - then we can even look at these two examples by themselves and see that chasing one leads you down a path to better health while they other leads to a life of permanent medical dependency, mental instability - and often accompanied with Regret and Suicide.
Short fat kid who wants to be Jordan has to go exercise and practice - if they fail, they're in better health and understand concepts like Talents and the uniqueness we have. They experience working hard (I'm assuming they tried) for something. They experience failing at a goal - or not getting to their goal, but that failure turning into a success they didn't set out for.
Man who chops off their penis and takes meds forever? I don't even need to go down that list - there are plenty of "Detransition" vids out there and high suicide stats to paint the picture of that route.
It's not about reaffirming your beliefs. It's about being a responsible parent.
I appreciate the detailed reply but you're now targeting something very specific.
The meme, which is what I'm critiquing, doesn't get into penis-chopping and seems to cover all gender affirming care, the majority of which is non-permanent. That's where one would say the superman metaphor misses the mark.
No matter how hard the child tries, he will never be Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan, the kid is his own person.