Latest / Rachel Oates / Matt Walsh's Lazy, Hateful Children's Book
Transcript
- 0:00Hey everyone, and welcome back to a new video.
- 0:02If you don't know me, my name is Rachel and it's really great to
- 0:04have you here. We talk about everything on this
- 0:06channel, from feminist issues to kind of liberal social
- 0:09commentary to book reviews and occasionally a little bit of
- 0:11poetry analysis. And it's really nice to have
- 0:14you. So a couple of weeks ago now, I
- 0:16made a video about some creepy comments that Matt Walsh made
- 0:19about kids and consent and how he just doesn't understand what
- 0:22consent is and doesn't understand the importance of it.
- 0:25And since then, people in the comments were telling me that I
- 0:27need to read his attempt at a children's book called Johnny
- 0:30the Walrus. In this book, Matt is attempting
- 0:33to satirise in a way other children's books about
- 0:37acceptance and letting kids discover who they really are.
- 0:39And he's critiquing those concepts.
- 0:41He doesn't want kids to be who they are.
- 0:44He doesn't want kids to have self acceptance.
- 0:47He is, of course, and surprisingly, also transcend an
- 0:51incredibly transphobic message. Matt Walsh hates trans people,
- 0:55and he continually tells the world that trans people are
- 0:58mutilating children, turning the kids trans, and so on.
- 1:04And he perpetuates all these harmful myths and more in this
- 1:07horrific book. Of course, we know none of these
- 1:11things are true. And so of course, we're going to
- 1:13be addressing them in this video and correcting some of the
- 1:15misconceptions. But first, let's take a look at
- 1:17the book. And I think it's important to
- 1:19remember that, like, Matt has written this as a children's
- 1:22book to satirise other children's books.
- 1:25But you might say, oh, well, you know, at least he's got an idle
- 1:28audience for, like, no, he has gone out of his way to read this
- 1:31book to children. It's just teaching them really
- 1:34damn harmful messages. OK, hello boys and girls.
- 1:43My name is Matt Walsh. I am a children's author and
- 1:46I've written a book called Johnny the Walrus.
- 1:49This book is all about identity and imagination.
- 1:52What is identity? Does anyone know what identity
- 1:54means? You know, you know what identity
- 1:58is. No.
- 1:58OK. That's what this book is about.
- 2:00It's all about a boy who pretends to be a walrus.
- 2:02He identifies as a walrus, and his mom's a little silly.
- 2:05She takes it seriously and thinks he really is a walrus.
- 2:07That's silly, isn't it? So what's is this thing doing on
- 2:10the? Whole that's we don't have to
- 2:12worry about that. We're going to read the book
- 2:13now, OK? Johnny's a boy with a big
- 2:17imagination. One day he's a dog, the next day
- 2:21a crustacean. It's like a crab or or a
- 2:24lobster. His growth was just stunted.
- 2:27But she really thinks this kid is a walrus.
- 2:29He. Was.
- 2:32Not no, the end. Thank you.
- 2:41No, I just sat down and wrote it.
- 2:42There's another one there. We got a bunch of them.
- 2:44We're going to be all over the place soon enough.
- 2:46You can ask your parents to buy it for you.
- 2:49Is there is there a particular ending we're looking for here,
- 2:51or just? Just before we get started,
- 2:55because I always forget to ask if you're new here, it would be
- 2:56wonderful if you want to subscribe to see more videos
- 2:58from me. And if you've been around a
- 2:59while, just check you're still subscribed because, you know,
- 3:01that's always really good. But yeah, let's jump into the
- 3:04video. Matt Walsh talks a lot about the
- 3:07left indoctrinating kids and propaganda for kids.
- 3:11But that's exactly what he's doing.
- 3:13This is exactly what he's doing with this book.
- 3:15He is a hypocrite. So the book, this book is so
- 3:19poorly made and illustrated that I genuinely thought I'd
- 3:22downloaded the wrong version. At first I thought I'd
- 3:24downloaded the wrong book. I'd downloaded an earlier draft
- 3:26of it, something had gone wrong. But no, this is just genuinely
- 3:30how the book is. Now the book is only available
- 3:33as like a board book, and I couldn't get that.
- 3:35So I downloaded a copy of it online that was like a scan of
- 3:38the book, and now the quality of the scan isn't great.
- 3:40So let's put that aside. The problem I have is with the
- 3:44quality of the illustrations. They are so poor, not just
- 3:48technically, but they're lazily made.
- 3:50It is appalling. I can't believe a man with as
- 3:54much money and resources and Matt as Matt Walsh has, could
- 3:58hire someone to make this quality of work.
- 4:00He's clearly like Matt is just lazy and cheap and he has no
- 4:04pride in anything he does. If this book was really
- 4:07illustrated by a six year old, as it looks to be, then I
- 4:10apologise. You know, this is great work for
- 4:11a six year old. However, I'm pretty sure it was
- 4:14done by an adult. And for that I have to be a
- 4:16little critical. And mostly I'm critiquing Matt
- 4:19for choosing to publish this as it is because it's because it's
- 4:23so damn unprofessional and he has the resources to make it
- 4:26better. He chose to hire someone.
- 4:29He just chose to hire someone who created poor illustrations
- 4:33of a poor quality that are just lazily done.
- 4:36So let's have a look at the story together.
- 4:38This is Johnny the walrus. Johnny's a boy with a big
- 4:42imagination. One day he's a dog, the next day
- 4:45a crustacean. I know he's going for rhyming
- 4:47couplets here, which are common amongst children's books, and
- 4:50they're actually fantastic. Kids hearing rhymes and stuff
- 4:53can really help with their understanding of language and
- 4:55development. That's great.
- 4:56However, customers have said this book is for kids aged 4 to
- 5:008, and I feel like crustacean is maybe a little bit too much of a
- 5:04big word for them. The thing is, this is a board
- 5:06book, which is normally given to babies, and again, crustacean
- 5:09isn't normally a word you would see in those kinds of books.
- 5:12So this is just a pet peeve. I have people who think writing
- 5:15a children's book is so easy because it's kids, you can do
- 5:17whatever, you just need to make it simple.
- 5:19But it's not. The people who write the best
- 5:21children's books have a genuine understanding of child
- 5:24development and how their understanding of language grows
- 5:28and develops and how to appeal to them and how to write a book
- 5:31which is going to be educational and enjoyable.
- 5:34Matt doesn't know any of this, so if you want to look at the
- 5:36quality of this book as a children's book, it's just
- 5:38incredibly poor. One morning he came downstairs
- 5:40barking and clapping with wood spoons for tusks and sock fins
- 5:46are flapping. I'm Johnny the Walrus, he said
- 5:48with a roar. The wood floors, my ocean, the
- 5:52carpet's my shore. Johnny's mum loves her son's
- 5:55make believe time. You're Johnny the Walrus till
- 5:58you change your mind. And we see in the illustrations
- 6:01for those of you just listening, that she takes a photo of her
- 6:04son on my phone and post it on social media, which again, can
- 6:07we just take a moment for that because like, let's not share
- 6:09kids on social media without their consent, please.
- 6:12You know, Matt is like, yeah, that's the most normal and
- 6:14ordinary thing to do in this. It's like, Nah, that's something
- 6:16we should be critiquing and not normalising in kids books.
- 6:19But anyway. So then a bunch of negative
- 6:22reactions and angry faces and thumbs down start appearing on
- 6:25the mum's phone and Matt writes. But Johnny's mum's phone said
- 6:29it's not. Just pretend.
- 6:31Only a bigot would say that. How dare you offend?
- 6:34OK, so let's take a proper break here to address what's happening
- 6:37so far. So in this, Matt is conveying a
- 6:40story in which a kid dresses up for fun for a game.
- 6:43He pretends to be an animal, a walrus.
- 6:46The mother thinks it's cute. And then those damn liberals, as
- 6:49Matt wants to say, tries to force her and her son to make
- 6:53his costume a permanent identity.
- 6:55Of course, in this, dressing up as a walrus is meant to be an
- 6:58analogy for being trans, which is just offensive in so many
- 7:02ways. Can we not compare trans people
- 7:04to animals please? It's just I, I think that's the
- 7:07bare minimum we can do, right? But other than just that, for
- 7:11one, being transgender is not just dressing up as something or
- 7:14someone. And most trans people are not
- 7:17trans because other people have told them they're trans or
- 7:20forced them into it. And this includes kids.
- 7:22You cannot tell another person they are trans or not.
- 7:25You cannot force a person to be trans or not.
- 7:28Other people cannot decide for an individual what gender they
- 7:31are. And that includes children.
- 7:32And that seems certain that kids are all indoctrinated and forced
- 7:37into thinking they're a different gender.
- 7:39But all the studies we've ever done prove that this just isn't
- 7:41true. You cannot force a kid to feel
- 7:45like a gender they aren't, whether that's the gender they
- 7:47were assigned at birth or not. So Al and Fox Fisher wrote a
- 7:51great little book for teens who are questioning their gender
- 7:53identity titled The Trans Teen Survival Guide, which is not not
- 7:58a book about forcing anyone to be trans as Matt would probably
- 8:01try and claim it is. But instead, it's a great little
- 8:03book for teenagers who feel like they might be questioning their
- 8:06own gender identity. It tells them that this is the
- 8:09deal with gender. This is what it is.
- 8:10This is what it can mean to some people.
- 8:12This is what it can mean to other people.
- 8:14This is how some people feel about their gender identity.
- 8:16This is how other people feel about it.
- 8:18Everyone has a different experience.
- 8:20If you think you might be feeling a certain way, if you
- 8:23think you might be trans, if you think you know you're feeling
- 8:26this, this, and this, then here's how you can find help and
- 8:29support. And if you do conclude that
- 8:31you're trans, here's what options are available to you.
- 8:35This is what some people choose to go through.
- 8:37This is what life is like for these people.
- 8:40Lots of options. It's, it's a really good
- 8:43educational little book for anyone who might be questioning.
- 8:46It's not forcing anyone to do anything or be anything that
- 8:49they're not. It's not telling people you have
- 8:51to do this, this, this and this. It's just saying, hey, here's
- 8:54some options. This is what other people have
- 8:56been through. Here's how we can help you
- 8:58figure it out for yourself. In the book, they know that most
- 9:01kids have an idea of gender and a sense of their own gender by
- 9:05the age of about 3 or 4 years old.
- 9:07And so in a lot of kids who are trans, this is when they might
- 9:11start displaying signs of discomfort or gender dysphoria
- 9:14at having to present as or be labelled as a gender that
- 9:17they're not. So they write kids who are trans
- 9:20will usually vocalise the fact they are trans, saying that they
- 9:23are in fact a different gender than the one they were assigned.
- 9:26For example, Mummy, I'm a boy or when will I turn into a girl?
- 9:30And it isn't just one flippant comment.
- 9:32So it's not like in Matt Walsh's book way, like they just dress
- 9:35up as something one time. It's like, oh, it must be the
- 9:37it's it's a consistent thing. Yeah.
- 9:39It isn't just one flippant comment.
- 9:41They usually insist on this quite often and might even say
- 9:43that they want to cut their genitals off or wish they could
- 9:46grow certain things. It appears as a deep rooted
- 9:49stress about themselves and their body that is quite
- 9:51persistent. This is way beyond a girl simply
- 9:54being a tomboy or a boy being a bit effeminate.
- 9:57It's about a deep inner sense of self that kids can feel very
- 10:01strongly. And I'll say it again, this
- 10:03isn't about a kid playing dress up once or twice and then a
- 10:06mother saying, oh, this must mean XY and Z.
- 10:08I'm going to force you to do this, this and this.
- 10:11These kids usually display a level of discomfort or
- 10:14questionnaire identity consistently over a prolonged
- 10:17period of time. These kids don't necessarily
- 10:19know how to vocalise this. They don't know words like
- 10:22transgender. They just know this feels wrong.
- 10:25They know that they're not a boy or a girl and they, they
- 10:29question this. They, they look for support in
- 10:31this. They feel discomfort about this.
- 10:34The Fish has gone on to suggest that letting your child explore
- 10:37and experiment with expression is the best thing you can do.
- 10:40And forcing them to wear or do something they don't want is
- 10:43quite distressing for them and can cause harm.
- 10:46And this is something that Matt Walsh does not understand at
- 10:48all. He literally portrays it as
- 10:50like, if you're a liberal parent, then you'll force your
- 10:53kid to present as the opposite gender no matter what they say.
- 10:56And as we'll see in the next part of this book, and I think
- 11:00it's funny because not funny. Ha ha, funny.
- 11:03Like, oh God, Can you believe he's doing this?
- 11:05But it's funny because Matt is critiquing liberal parents in
- 11:09this book because he thinks liberal parents force their kids
- 11:12to be trans against their will, basically.
- 11:16He doesn't realise that what him and other right wingers are
- 11:20doing is forcing trans kids to present as CIS, and that causes
- 11:24harm. So when he's critiquing a mother
- 11:27in this book for forcing her kid to be something they're not, he
- 11:30doesn't realise that that's exactly what he's doing and
- 11:33that's what causes the harm. Forcing a kid to be someone
- 11:36they're not. It's not nothing to do with
- 11:38whether they're actually trans or CIS or not, it's to do with
- 11:41the forcing the kid. That's where the issue lies.
- 11:45And I would say that most non transphobic parents who have a
- 11:49kid who is questioning their gender identity isn't going to
- 11:52be forcing them to present in a certain way or do certain
- 11:55things. Just allowing their kid time to
- 11:57explore and figure things out for themselves is the healthiest
- 12:00thing you can do. You know, that really pushes in
- 12:02this book and seems to really believe this idea that kids will
- 12:05never be trans if they never hear the word transgender, you
- 12:08know, But we all know that ignorance doesn't replace
- 12:10reality. Kenny Ethan Jones is a trans man
- 12:13who wrote of his own experience as a child.
- 12:15I didn't know what transness was, but even without the
- 12:18language to put to it, I knew it felt true.
- 12:21I wasn't delusional. I understood the difference
- 12:23between boys and girls. I just felt like somehow society
- 12:26got it wrong when categorising me.
- 12:29He was a kid who didn't know he was transgender in those words,
- 12:33but he did. He didn't know what being
- 12:35transgender was. He just knew there was something
- 12:38wrong inside him and he didn't have the words to describe it
- 12:41and get help. And This is why education is so
- 12:45important for kids. Pretending something doesn't
- 12:47exist doesn't make it go away. Just because I don't know the
- 12:51species of the name of flower, for example, that doesn't stop
- 12:53it existing. Just because you don't know you
- 12:56have cancer, that doesn't mean it can't hurt you.
- 12:58Education is essential for getting people who need it help
- 13:02and support. When we can put labels to
- 13:05things, when we have the language to express what we're
- 13:07feeling and thinking and who we are, that's how we get help and
- 13:11support and can be healthy and happy.
- 13:14Ignorance only hurts more people.
- 13:16To go back to Matt's book, we see a bunch of protesters and I
- 13:20think these meant to be liberal protesters.
- 13:22They have posters saying things like stop anti walrus ISM let
- 13:26Johnny transition. Human walruses are real
- 13:29walruses. Johnny is a real walrus.
- 13:33And Matt writes Mummy was told to take John for a checkup.
- 13:38You'll need to eat worms and to put on grey makeup, says the
- 13:41doctor with pink hair. Because of course, the Doctor
- 13:46goes on to say the worms give you whiskers, the grey blends
- 13:48you in and a simple procedure cuts feet into fins and the
- 13:53Doctor is holding a giant massive bone saw.
- 13:56And again, if you if you're only listening to the audio of this,
- 13:59like they've made the doctor big scary.
- 14:03They've like used horror film lighting to light their face and
- 14:06make them look creepy. And this is obviously a
- 14:09completely harmful representation of what hormone
- 14:12blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and even physical
- 14:15surgeries are. It's, it's not like this at all.
- 14:19Um, the greys, it seems it's meant to be like grey makeup to
- 14:22make him more walrusy. I think that's meant to
- 14:24represent like clothes and makeup and so on.
- 14:27The eating worms, I think is obviously meant to be like a
- 14:30hormone replacement therapy analogy.
- 14:33And this is all just such a misrepresentation of what it's
- 14:36actually like for trans kids. So I'll reiterate in this story,
- 14:40Johnny, the kid who has been forced to become a walrus, has
- 14:43never said he is a walrus. He has never expressed I feel
- 14:47like a walrus. I want to be a walrus.
- 14:50He was just playing a game of dress up.
- 14:52So this is not at all actually comparable to kids who are trans
- 14:56and say I think I'm the wrong gender.
- 14:58I think I'm a boy, a girl, I have no gender.
- 15:00You know what I mean? It's not.
- 15:02It's not even comparable. But let's say for the sake of
- 15:05argument that this was a book about a kid who said they were a
- 15:09walrus or transgender. Again, this is not what actual
- 15:14treatment for kids is like. Not not even a little bit.
- 15:17This is not what care for trans kids is like, and I think it's
- 15:20dangerous to represent it in this way for a couple of
- 15:22reasons. Firstly, let's think about the
- 15:25innocent kids reading this book or listening to Matt read it to
- 15:28them, and they won't understand what this is an analogy for.
- 15:32They won't understand that this is meant to be satirising trans
- 15:35issues. All this section is teaching
- 15:38them is that doctors are scary and you can't trust them.
- 15:40And that's really damn dangerous because if these kids do have
- 15:43health problems and do need to see a doctor, they're just going
- 15:46to be petrified and not maybe be able to express what's happening
- 15:49to them. They're not going to be able to
- 15:50get the help that they need and that's really dangerous.
- 15:53Secondly, it's perpetuating harmful myths about what
- 15:56Healthcare is actually like for trans people.
- 15:58And this is just going to make it harder for trans people in
- 16:00the future to get the access to the care that they need.
- 16:03So what are these harmful myths that I keep mentioning?
- 16:05Well, for starters, in this book, I'd say Johnny looks to be
- 16:07about 5 or 6 years old maybe. I'm not sure I'm bad at judging
- 16:10kids ages, but I think it's around that if a kid of five or
- 16:13six years old ever expressed that they thought they might be
- 16:15transgender and they would never be given hormone blockers,
- 16:19hormone replacement treatments, and they definitely wouldn't be
- 16:22given any gender assignment surgeries.
- 16:25Just absolutely. To even claim that they would do
- 16:27this for a 5 or 6 year old kid is fear mongering and false.
- 16:31The kid might speak to some doctors, they might see
- 16:34therapists, they might start getting help, they might start
- 16:37changing the way they dress, they might ask to have different
- 16:40pronouns used for them, but they would never get medical
- 16:42treatment at 5 or 6 years old. The very first treatment that
- 16:46any young person can have expressed as they might be
- 16:48transgender is generally hormone blockers, and these are never
- 16:52given to children until they've actually started puberty.
- 16:55This will be a different time for every individual, but
- 16:57usually it won't be until somewhere between the ages of 12
- 17:00and 17. And even then it's not as simple
- 17:03as just showing up and being handed a bunch of medication.
- 17:05There's, there's hoops people have to jump through.
- 17:07There's different treatments, seeing different doctors, going
- 17:10to therapies and all sorts. So Kenny, Ethan Jones, who we
- 17:13mentioned a little bit ago, he wrote a great book called Dear
- 17:16Cisgender People, a guide to trans allyship and empathy.
- 17:19And in it he wrote, there's a misconception in the media that
- 17:22the NHS is handing out meds to preteens all Willy nilly, but
- 17:25that's not the case. Even being prescribed puberty
- 17:28blockers, which happened the year before my diagnosis, was
- 17:31only granted to me because I become suicidal.
- 17:34Don't get me wrong, and please, there are thorough cheques in
- 17:36place, but I believe there is a safer way to assess someone's
- 17:39eligibility than the one I went through.
- 17:42It was emotionally torturous having to relive traumatic
- 17:45events in order to prove myself eligible for gender affirming
- 17:48treatment. I was made to spew out my
- 17:50deepest pain over and over again.
- 17:53Owl and Fox Fisher write more about this and more about the
- 17:56actual process for teens in detail.
- 17:58So they write that puberty blockers, also known as hormone
- 18:00blockers or or hormone stoppers, are medicines that have been
- 18:04used for quite some time now. They have been used for all
- 18:07sorts of different things. But in the case of trans people,
- 18:09they are taken to slow down the effects of puberty so that trans
- 18:12teens don't have to go through puberty that could absolutely
- 18:15devastate them. And I'll also say puberty
- 18:18blockers and puberty stoppers are often given to CIS gender
- 18:21kids as well who start puberty too early in a way that could be
- 18:24detrimental to their health or social development or other
- 18:27things. Puberty blockers are gender
- 18:29affirming care. They are not just care for trans
- 18:32people. Yes, they're gender affirming
- 18:33for trans people as well, but that could be gender affirming
- 18:36for CIS people as well. People don't really understand
- 18:38what the term gender affirming means and that's an issue Alan
- 18:44Fox Fisher gong to write. It's about alleviating some of
- 18:47the distress they might feel. IE puberty blockers are used to
- 18:50increase the well-being of trans key teen, are used to increase
- 18:55the well-being of trans teens and prevent dysphoria,
- 18:58depression and poor mental health.
- 19:00Puberty blockers can therefore be a lifesaver for trans teens.
- 19:05Puberty blockers can be prescribed at the start of
- 19:07puberty and are prescribed for a few years at a time or until
- 19:10people are between 16 and 18 years old.
- 19:13Around that age, you can make a decision on whether you want to
- 19:16start cross hormones that will start shaping your body and sex
- 19:19characteristics in a way that you want.
- 19:22Later on, when you're 18, you can make decisions on whether
- 19:25you want to undergo any surgeries.
- 19:27Just remember that you're under no obligation to do so and that
- 19:30all trans people and their journeys are different.
- 19:33And that's such an important thing to remember that people
- 19:35like Matt Walsh just seem to ignore and forget.
- 19:39They're going to write that a rather persistent and false myth
- 19:41states that trans children and trans teenagers are being given
- 19:44access to cross hormones and surgeries in droves.
- 19:47This couldn't be farther from the truth, as in most countries
- 19:50trans children and teenagers and trans people in general don't
- 19:54even have access to such healthcare.
- 19:56It's only a handful of countries that actually offer services to
- 19:59trans children and teens, and in the UK there are no medical
- 20:03interventions provided until after a teenager hits puberty,
- 20:07and even then. They are certainly not given
- 20:09access to cross hormones that will alter their body, nor are
- 20:13they given any type of surgeries.
- 20:15Instead, those who are able to access the services are given
- 20:18what are called puberty hormone blockers or hormone stoppers as
- 20:21we've been saying. I feel like I'm saying hormone
- 20:23weird. Sorry, I don't know why.
- 20:24And the thing to remember is that hormone blockers, hormone
- 20:27stoppers are reversible. If you stop taking them, puberty
- 20:30will start again. Your hormones will start
- 20:32producing again as normal. This is not irreversible and
- 20:36irreparable. And if these teens who need them
- 20:39don't get puberty blockers when they need them, then the results
- 20:42can be devastating when talking depression, self harm, suicide,
- 20:46all incredibly common amongst trans kids and teens who are
- 20:49forced to go through puberty against their will and see their
- 20:52body change into someone they're not.
- 20:54And like I say, if a teen is on puberty blockers for a while and
- 20:57realises you know what, actually I'm not sure.
- 20:59Maybe I'm not trans, maybe I am, but I'm not ready to take this
- 21:03further. Maybe I just want to give myself
- 21:04a little more time or anything else like that.
- 21:06That is absolutely fine. They don't need to go and start
- 21:10any hormone replacement therapies.
- 21:11They can stop taking puberty blockers and puberty will
- 21:14proceed as biologically normal in their body.
- 21:18It's not cruel, it's not mutilating, it's not being
- 21:21forced on kids. It's simply allowing kids it's a
- 21:24chance to be who they really are and explore their gender
- 21:28identity for themselves. If you force a kid to go through
- 21:31puberty that they don't want, that can result in permanent
- 21:34changes to the body that can cause lifelong dysphoria.
- 21:37Allowing a team to have puberty blockers is saying, hey, we're
- 21:40going to put a pause on this until you're ready to decide
- 21:43what you want. Do you want these
- 21:44characteristics or these characteristics?
- 21:46How do you want your body to look and feel and be?
- 21:50We're going to give you time to mature, to grow up, to think
- 21:54about this, and then you can decide when you're older.
- 21:57But we're not going to allow permanent changes to happen that
- 22:01will be irreversible. That's what puberty blockers do.
- 22:04They stop irreversible body changes happening.
- 22:07And most teens who take puberty blockers actually find it so
- 22:10helpful. So this is just one example from
- 22:12the Fisher's book of a 15 year old boy called Michael who
- 22:14writes. I started hormone blockers when
- 22:17I was 14, just over a year after my first appointment with the
- 22:21doctors he saw. I was already five years into
- 22:23puberty at that point, and so most of the changes had already
- 22:26occurred, but it relieved my constant stress about the
- 22:29situation worsening. The cessation of my periods was
- 22:32the best part, as they'd always been excruciatingly painful for
- 22:34me, both mentally because of dysphoria and physically.
- 22:38The fact that I no longer experience something that the
- 22:40vast majority of girls in my year, but not the boys do is
- 22:43often greatly comforting to me. And I just wish Matt would
- 22:46listen to these stories of actual trans kids and like,
- 22:50because that's the thing. I can sit here as a sys woman,
- 22:52be like, you know, like my opinion doesn't really matter,
- 22:55does it? What I'm here to do is lift up
- 22:57these voices of actual trans people who are speaking about
- 23:00this and talking about it and be like, listen to them.
- 23:02That's that's my job here. But again, Matt won't listen to
- 23:06these people and he doesn't portray this in his book to
- 23:09carry on. And Johnny says it's gross
- 23:12eating worms, mum. They're also damn twitchy.
- 23:15Oh Dang Dang twitchy. Sorry with AG because he's a
- 23:18kid. Wood spoons kind of hurt and the
- 23:21makeup is itchy. So again, I'm going to say
- 23:25clearly this is not the kids choice.
- 23:26This is not what he wants. It's been forced upon him.
- 23:29So this is not a good analogy for trans kids at all.
- 23:32If anything, this is more of an an analogy for trans kids being
- 23:36forced to present as CIS. You know what I mean?
- 23:39The book goes on and Matt writes, deep down Johnny's mum
- 23:42knew something was wrong, but she felt so much pressure she
- 23:45just went along the Internet. People knew just what to do and
- 23:50Mummy was told to take John to the zoo.
- 23:53When Johnny arrived, the walrus is grunted.
- 23:55My boy's a real walrus. His growth was just stunted.
- 23:59The zookeeper thought, what's she talking about?
- 24:03And then the zookeeper says, mum, that's just a boy with wood
- 24:06spoons in his mouth. The mum says, but if I believe
- 24:10that, they'll say I'm phobic. And the zookeeper says,
- 24:13protecting your son, ma'am, that's what's most heroic.
- 24:17And I did have to laugh at Matt Walsh Basing the zookeeper
- 24:22character's look of himself. He's like, this is just a self
- 24:25insert for him. Like, oh, I'm going to be the
- 24:27hero of this story. It's it's very silly.
- 24:29That said, this is the one good page.
- 24:31If you RIP it out of the book and leave it alone and, you
- 24:34know, just stand alone, this is the one page in the book that's
- 24:37actually good. Protecting your child is what's
- 24:39most heroic. That's a great sentiment and I
- 24:42completely agree with it. You just shouldn't listen to
- 24:44anything Matt Walsh says in order to do this because this
- 24:47book is not about protecting kids.
- 24:49He's not about protecting kids. He doesn't even care about kids
- 24:53consent. And Matt is not protecting
- 24:56children. Matt is forcing children to be
- 24:58something that he wants them to be against their will often, and
- 25:02that's not heroic. That's not protecting them.
- 25:05Protecting your child does not mean forcing a gender identity
- 25:08upon them, whether this is the one they're assigned at birth or
- 25:11not. Protecting them means allowing
- 25:13them the freedom to figure out for themselves who they are
- 25:16while you offer your love and support and don't allow other
- 25:20people to bully and oppress them.
- 25:22That's what protecting your kid is.
- 25:23That's what being heroic is. That's what being a decent
- 25:27parent is. As the Trans Teen Survival Guide
- 25:31says, not being able to express yourself and be your authentic
- 25:34self can be extremely traumatising for trans kids and
- 25:37they really need support. Trans kids who don't get support
- 25:40end up feeling very distressed and depressed and might develop
- 25:43other mental health issues or even try to take their own
- 25:46lives. Without wanting to sound too
- 25:47serious or dramatic, it really is a matter of life and death
- 25:50for trans people. It's really a matter of wanting
- 25:53to have a child who is allowed to be themselves and feel happy,
- 25:56as opposed to suppressing them and forcing them to internalise
- 26:00this, causing serious negative effects on their mental health.
- 26:03And in a turmoil, as Kenny reminds us in his book,
- 26:07transphobic hate crimes in the UK quadrupled between 2015 and
- 26:102020. In 2022, Medical News Today
- 26:13reported that transgender adolescents was 7.6 times as
- 26:16likely to attempt suicide assesses peers.
- 26:19The situation is even more concerning for those in the
- 26:21black trans community who experience homelessness at five
- 26:25times the rate of the general population.
- 26:28And I bring this up to point out that if people listen to Matt
- 26:31Walsh and force their kids to be people that they're not, then
- 26:35they may be literally driving their children to suicide,
- 26:39driving their children to homelessness, driving their
- 26:41children to pain and suffering and oppression at the hands of
- 26:45other people as well as themselves.
- 26:47It is that serious and I don't see how any decent parent would
- 26:53want that for their child. The book ends with a picture of
- 26:56the mother taking the spoons out of the kids mouth and says at
- 26:59last Johnny's mummy was able to see that Johnny's not what he's
- 27:03pretending to be. Now mummy ignores the mean
- 27:06things on her phone while Johnny pretends he's a bird flying
- 27:10home. And this is where the book ends
- 27:12with Matt's insinuation that trans people are just pretending
- 27:15to be whatever gender they are, which we obviously know is not
- 27:17true. The underlying problem in all
- 27:20this, though, is that Matt Walsh has lived such a privileged life
- 27:25and he fundamentally lacks empathy for other people, so he
- 27:29can't imagine anyone in this world having a different
- 27:31experience to him or different values to him.
- 27:35And so when anyone says, well, I have a different experience to
- 27:37you, he just mocks them and belittles them and puts them
- 27:40down and bullies them to the point where he is oppressing and
- 27:44hurting these people. He looks at a trans woman and
- 27:47thinks, well, we both started off being assigned male, but I
- 27:50don't want to be a woman, so they must be pretending.
- 27:52And that's just the most insane logic because he just doesn't
- 27:56have empathy, empathy for other people.
- 27:58He can't put himself in other people's shoes.
- 28:01He can't see that other people don't have the same experiences
- 28:03as him. I think instead he needs to
- 28:06reframe the way he's thinking and instead think about like him
- 28:09himself as he is now, and how he feels about his gender identity
- 28:12and who he is as a man, and start thinking, well, what if
- 28:15you were actually assigned female at birth?
- 28:17What if you were born with a vagina, for example?
- 28:21What if you were born and assigned a woman and had to go
- 28:24through female puberty and have periods and grow breasts, for
- 28:27example, but in your mind you were still Matt Walsh and you
- 28:30were still a man and you still wanted your beard and your
- 28:33muscles and your penis, Assuming he has one.
- 28:35I'm not sure at this point, but I joke.
- 28:40But I think he needs to reframe it in that way and understand
- 28:44that if he was suddenly in a woman's body and going through
- 28:47everything a woman does, but he knew he was a man, he'd feel
- 28:51wrong, wouldn't he? He'd feel messed up.
- 28:53And that's what it's like for trans people.
- 28:55It's not about pretending. That's not how bodies and
- 28:58biology work. And I always find it really
- 29:01interesting when people start talking about like biological
- 29:03males and females and this and this.
- 29:05And I'm like, do you not realise that the stuff that's going on
- 29:07in your brain is part of your biology?
- 29:10So when a person is transgender, they are, they may, how do I put
- 29:17this? They may be in some ways
- 29:20sexually male or female. They may have certain genitals,
- 29:23they may have certain chromosomes, they may have
- 29:25certain hormones that their body is producing.
- 29:28But their brain is saying I'm X gender, I'm a man, I'm a woman,
- 29:32I'm whatever. And with your brain telling you
- 29:35that and every part of your consciousness screaming, this is
- 29:39who I am. That is a part of your biology.
- 29:42You know what I mean? So OK, I think you can be, for
- 29:47example, biologically male and biologically a woman at the same
- 29:51time, or biologically female and biologically a man.
- 29:55Do you know what I mean? What's happening in your head is
- 29:57still a part of your biology. It's still real.
- 30:00And I just feel like this is something that so many people
- 30:03forget. They seem to think that, you
- 30:05know, if your head's telling you something, if you're having
- 30:07these feelings or whatever, like you can't be real.
- 30:09I'm like, yes, but it is. It is real, and I've spoken
- 30:12right before, but there's whole studies that show that like the
- 30:15entire brain structure and brain chemistry of trans people is
- 30:20more aligned with the gender they feel they are than the
- 30:22gender they were assigned at birth.
- 30:24So trans men have more typically male, if you want to put it that
- 30:28way, brains. And then obviously like a
- 30:30cisgender woman does, so their brains are male, you know, it's
- 30:34anyway. So it could be argued that their
- 30:37brains are in fact male because they're men.
- 30:40Do you know what I mean? Anyway, my point is now Walsh is
- 30:45dumb and lacks empathy and he is indoctrinating children and he
- 30:49should be kept away from all kids forever because he is
- 30:51creepy as hell and we don't like him.
- 30:54But that's where I'm going to end this video today, so thank
- 30:57you for watching, thank you for being here.
- 30:58I appreciate you. I know this was a shorter video,
- 31:01but I just wanted to talk about this because it's ridiculous.
- 31:05And yeah, I appreciate your support.
- 31:07If you want to see more about me and my life and what I'm doing,
- 31:10I've been doing some really cool stuff lately, photographing some
- 31:12great bands and shows and things like that.
- 31:14Then you can follow me over on Instagram at Rachel Oates with a
- 31:160. My new book Outside is available
- 31:19now and I'm really, really excited about it.
- 31:20It's an amazing almost 300 page collection of photography,
- 31:25paintings, short essays and poetry and it's my baby.
- 31:29I've worked so hard on this and it's absolutely terrifying
- 31:32putting it out into the world, but I'm finally feeling brave
- 31:36enough to share it with you guys.
- 31:36So if you want to get a copy of that you can do.
- 31:38It's available as a hardback, which also comes with a code so
- 31:41you can download a free audiobook version of it from my
- 31:43website or you can get it as an ebook and it's available on all
- 31:47Amazons that I could make it available on.
- 31:49They deal with the printing and fulfilment for me.
- 31:51So yeah, there you go. Sometimes these serious topics
- 31:55do get demonetized by YouTube. So if you want to keep seeing me
- 31:57make videos like this and you can support me over on Patreon
- 32:00for as little as a pound or a dollar a month.
- 32:03I try and keep it all as as cheap as possible.
- 32:06And I also post things like extra photos over there,
- 32:08sometimes script notes, and there's some little extra like
- 32:11RT videos and stuff like that. And yeah, and at the high tiers,
- 32:16you can also get exclusive stickers and photography and art
- 32:20prints sent out to you every couple of months.
- 32:22So it's really fun and I love it.
- 32:25And anyway, that is me done for today.
- 32:26So thank you so, so much for watching.
- 32:27I appreciate you and I'll see you all again really, really
- 32:29soon.