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How Autism & Anorexia Unlocked the Mechanism Behind Gender Dysphoria
In this episode, the hosts dive into a thought-provoking analysis linking gender dysphoria, anorexia, and autism. They explore statistics and research to argue that gender dysphoria in the United States is a culture-bound syndrome similar to anorexia. The discussion delves into how autistic traits may contribute to these conditions, emphasizing the significant overlap and suggesting that societal acceptance of such identities is complex and potentially harmful. They highlight the emotional and social struggles faced by individuals with these conditions and propose alternative perspectives. An engaging and enlightening conversation sprinkled with personal anecdotes and cultural references.
Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello Simone! Today is an interesting day because I had a revelation as I was studying some data where, you know, sometimes I look at data I'll be like, hmm, that's weird. I've seen a number really similar to that somewhere else and I'm like Bring data. Bring data. Oh my God. Oh my God.
This explains everything. And I now feel like I have a much better understanding of what's causing the transgender phenomenon in the United States. Do tell.
Here's what Simone had to say at the end of this episode
Simone Collins: wow. I've now experienced a paradigm change. And I have a lot more empathy for people who have gender dysphoria
Malcolm Collins: What we are going to be arguing using data is that gender dysphoria is the same phenomenon as anorexia. Not a similar phenomenon, but literally the same phenomenon.
And as we read through this, we will both see what is causing the phenomenon. As well as why it is [00:01:00] specifically hitting the autistic population at such high rates and Yeah, i'll just jump right into it All right So the thing I was reading that first got me thinking this because it was like two statistics that overlapped and I was like that's weird Why do these statistics keep overlapping?
So statistic one was a scott alexander piece on
culture bound mental illnesses, specifically what a culture bound mental illness is, is it something like, in the recent episode we did, on the phenomenon in Africa or East Asia called Koro, where people think their penises are being stolen by witches.
And they, like, really believe this and there's lots of others that we're going to go over. But in the United States, one of the particularly best studied cases of a likely culturally bound illness, which will go over evidence that is culturally bound is anorexia. And when Scott Alexander was trying to judge because he said, yeah, but everything is like partly biological and partly culture bound.
So he and his piece was trying to judge how much is this, right? And he goes, well, I suspect that anorexia is [00:02:00] about 80% Culture bound and 20 percent biological. That checks out. I'm gonna be like, yeah, that, that checks out. Then at the end of the piece, he's like, now a lot of people reading this piece are probably thinking about gender dysphoria and the transgender phenomenon in the United States.
Is this a culture bound phenomenon? And his estimate, and I will note, Scott Alexander is a very, very, Pro trans person. Okay. And, but he also has like an incredible amount of integrity to be willing to say this because in San Francisco saying what he said is like walking down the seats was like the sign from die hard with a vengeance.
Oh, no, you're right.
In this scene. I imagine Samuel Jackson's character to be Scott Alexander's trans friends,
Trying to get him to take the piece down after it was first published. As I imagine quite a few, probably did.
Speaker: dial 9 1 1. Tell the police to get up here quick. Somebody's about to get killed.
Now you got about 10 seconds before those guys see you.
When they do, they will kill [00:03:00] you. You understa
Published on 1 year ago