nurgletwh: jacquez45:beatrice-otter:foxmittens:thatpettyblackgirl: So, letting people be who t
nurgletwh: jacquez45: beatrice-otter: foxmittens: thatpettyblackgirl: So, letting people be who they want to be is a good thing. That’s shocking I tell you, just shocking. All I want to know is, how much time and money went into this research when you could’ve just asked trans folks how they felt for free The way research works is they probably did ask trans folks, and then systematically collected their responses. Research often is the collection of many many people’s responses, collected in a rigorous standardized way. They are not just saying “this is the case for some trans kids” they are saying “this is the majority experience” for the trans kids they studied/ which is a powerful and useful thing to be able to say. Yes it seems obvious but especially with social justice and medical research even if it is well known having a peer reviewed paper saying means that when some cis person is arguing the opposite you have a peer reviews paper to go, “look it’s been studied you are wrong”. Research studies inform policy and medical practice. It is a good thing that this paper has been made because it can be used as evidence. Minority groups benefit from research that looks at how things affect them and gives them a voice that is harder for policy makers to ignore. Bashing this study because it is obvious isn’t helpful, this study could seriously help trans kids, especially if it had been published in main stream media, because parents who are cis and don’t know anything about trans issues or don’t know if anyone they know is trans might find out their kids are and search for info and this will pop up. And because it’s from a trusted source, it’s research! they might think “oh maybe the best thing I can do for my kid is let them transition”. Poo pooing research that gives minorities a voice because it’s obvious for the maringalised group but not the hegemonic one hurts the marginalized group because the hegemonic group is the group that needs to learn how “obvious” it is. As an autistic, I roll my eyes quite regularly at “shocking” and “transformative” “new research” that shows some thing autistics have only been trying to tell people for decades. However. I am also quite thankful for it, because it means that whenever I or any other autistic person tries to tell people that, now we don’t have to put up with people saying “well, I’m sure it feels that way to you, but the experts say that it’s [this other way] instead!” It’s a really big deal to have the experts on your side for once. It can make a huge difference in how well people listen to you. Research that backs up what minoritized people say is AWESOME. We need more of it! Don’t ever, EVER knock it! It may seem obvious to us, but without it, people don’t listen! Studies like this are also used to affect things like insurance policy coverage. The existence of a study saying it’s healthier to let kids transition makes it more likely that trans kids will have medical coverage for transition-related expenses. Don’t make fun of research just because you don’t understand why it exists. And the other thing is, sometimes research proves that something “everyone knows” is obviously right, isn’t. With the data behind it, it changes from anecdotal “uncle Bob drank green tea and his angina went away!” with a dash of “so did Kelsey’s friend Mary, and she never had a heart attack either!” to something you can say with authority. You have data It also has to be repeatable, otherwise you have the cold fusion fiasco or the vaccines cause autism snafu. Without the data to support it, you don’t actually know what you think you know. You may have a highly informed opinion, but that’s all it is. It works for you, or a couple of people you know, and beyond that? You’re speculating with someone else’s well-being based on your little insulated data set. With the advent of the internet, you can end up with extraordinarily large insulated data sets, but without a control group, you still don’t know what is really going on. It’s isolated. “Everybody knows” is a wonderful song, but shitty science. Consider also: Without a lot of really well designed and executed research on a subject, there exists an information vacuum that anyone can fill with whatever they want. See also: how conversion therapy got started. Or all the “AIDS is god’s punishment!” shit Billy Graham used to spew. Or ABA (i.e. forced normalization using the exact same methods as used in conversion therapy) for autistics. Or I could go on. Yeah, a lot of what they find is actually super obvious to people who live it, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad that it’s in the literature now. Cuz the more gaps in the literature that are filled by good quality research, the less room to maneuver the regressives and abusers have to support their crap. -- source link