Re: Feminism or youth rights? Time to choose.

"feminism hasn't decided what its stance towards trans should be." True that feminism is no monolith on the trans issue. Perhaps its the aforementioned fear of male sexuality that divides them, some who are concerned about the introduction of natal males into traditionally female-only spaces and others who are more conciliatory. If I were more cynical, I might say the latter group's fear of male sexuality is assuaged by the dick-chopping, but I tend to think they are genuine believers. Still, it should be concerning that gays and transwomen seem to be the chief defusers of their phallophobia. But my point with the TERFs was not that feminist division was to our benefit, but that it shows that the feminist does not wag the rainbow. In fact, protectionist ideology is much broader than feminism (and even Leftism itself). "... society has changed its attitude on so many other issues (gays, feminism)?" Concerns about dangers to kids is a perennial moral panic going back to the 19th century up to today's fear of social media's impact. A great part of the process by which society changed to accept those other groups such as blacks (who might rape our daughters), gays (who might recruit our sons) and transexuals (currently dealing with their own groomer panic re: the transkids issue) involved enduring such smears. The fear of pedophilia is but one part of the larger fear. As tempting as it may be to feel singled-out, one must make the Copernican effort to see the larger picture. "Boys' sexuality wasn't regarded as evil the way it is today, don't you think?" Yes, it was. Sex itself was long considered an evil and even masturbation was seen as the Devil's playground. They were more resigned to it, to be sure, but especially among educated elites sex was a source of panic (the lower classes were more permissive, but that has increasingly given way to the gentrification of sexual mores). But I wasn't talking about the fear of boys' sexuality. We had both been talking about the fear of men's sexuality which is certainly rooted in paternalist fears of defloration. You can't put that all on feminism. They're just one of the latest factions to join the bandwagon. "proper institutions" I rather think we've had enough of "institutions," feminist or otherwise.