"Sissy" Therapy

Comment by Juli Hendrix on June 7, 2011 at 2:52pm

Wow, very disturbing.

Comment by Marsha M. Marsha on June 7, 2011 at 2:56pm

This is very sad, and it could have been me if I had tried to buck the system then, but I supressed my gender enough to get by.

Comment by Genivieve Le Duc on June 7, 2011 at 3:04pm

This mirrors my childhood almost identically, even to the era. The exception for me was it was my nanny and my older siblings who were administering the punishment to "toughen me up." I had 5 older brothers...
Now wounds healed and they are all super supportive. This is a case where "Kirk" couldn't reconnect with his true self.

Comment by Diane Michelle on June 7, 2011 at 3:11pm

What a bad childhood to live with.

Comment by Kara Sprague on June 7, 2011 at 4:08pm

No therapy abuse like this, but an abusive stepfather at the time my true self was starting to come out.
"Don't talk like that." "Don't hold your hands like that." Statements like that with a belt to back them up.
After a particularly bad beating, my mother sent me out of state to live out-of-state with my father. That saved my life. I was also lucky that the beating did not happen because I was dressed up in her clothes the night before (when they were gone). Trust me, if it had been, I would have heard it and God only knows how much damage he would have inflicted.
My time in that situation was brief...probably around a year. But I'm only now beginning to feel how deep the repercussions of it.
The message was sent and I received it loud and clear -- "Don't be THAT WAY." I feared this wrath, to the point where my prayers changed from "Please let me wake up a girl" to "Please make these thoughts go away."
My father wasn't like this, but there was pre-Internet, pre-support groups, the early 80s. My father later thought I might be "different", but didn't say anything at the time. There were no avenues for me to be me and on occasion when they did, I was afraid of being found out, exposed. So either I didn't act on them or did and would feel shame afterwards.
That year or so of time, at the point where a supportive, understanding environment could have helped my true self out, wound up turning me into a scared, skittish puppy afraid of the next beatdown, even after this scum was long out of my life. Cue the ensuing almost three decades of denial and burial that is only now being stripped away.
So, yeah, count me among those who have a sore spot with abusers whose answer to a "sissy boy" is to get a beat somebody with a belt until they're bloody.

Comment by Genivieve Le Duc on June 7, 2011 at 4:18pm

Sadly, an all to familiar story for our sisterhood from the pre-web days. I only hope that this is less common for the younger girls.

Comment by Adeena Dawn Forrester on June 7, 2011 at 4:48pm

I found the article disturbing and horrible--but unfortunately not surprising. Psychotherapists have tried many idiotic paths to lead to "fixing" the problem such as brain surgery, electro-shock therapy, drugs, etc. You name it, they've tried it. Maybe someday it will be realized that you can't fix what isn't broken. Who knows?

I myself was never placed in therapy for it as a child. Instead I was shown the "right" way to live by my father and by being beat up in school every day. I just hope enough information and intelligence is out there someday to stop this so other girls can be free to just live.

Comment by Julia Giannopoulos on June 7, 2011 at 4:50pm

one more reason on a list of hundreds as to why repairative therapy does not work.


Julia

Comment by Jaquiline Julianne Rose on June 7, 2011 at 7:54pm

it's difficult to type through teary eyes . that's just sick and twisted, I can only imagine how scared and alone that poor boy must have felt. that wasn't therapy, it was sustained abuse. I sincerely pray this sort of thing is not still happening . .

Comment by Nicole Aime on June 7, 2011 at 9:11pm

The article is sad, not just because of the suicide and the abusive reparative therapy that the young boy had to endure, but, here it is 2011, and the assumption still is that effeminate boys are homosexual. I read no where in the article that Kirk was gay. It's no wonder why people do not understand TSism.

And unwanted homosexuality? The only thing unwanted about Kirk was his femininity - and the stigma that the parents felt about having a gay son. For an adult, who is gay, but does not want to be, I say, go for it. Get your therapy. But to put a beautiful child through hell, just because the parents are ignorant, self-conscious and selfish is a crime - not only for the doctors who pawn this off as legitimate therapy, but for the parents as well.

I dare say that the majority of trans women on this site have endured some form of being fixed by their parents - usually a dad. It can range from physical abuse to tearing a teddy bear out of your hands. How many were taken to doctors and shrinks? How many had to undergo testosterone treatments, psychotherapy, drugs and perhaps even shock therapy. I am grateful that I fall into the teddy bear category - only because my dad was lazy when it came to parenting.

Sometimes my keyboard takes a beating - sorry little PC.

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