politics

In the conservative mindset, any person under 18 is the property of their parents, which they can do whatever the fuck they want with.

And in some cases even earlier. IIRC there was a study a few years back about how there's a very visible tendency of the average age of puberty has dropped significantly in the past 100 years - specifically, measured in average age of first menstruation, which was as high as 16-17 in the mid-1800s, dropped to around 14.5-15 by 1920, and further dropped to around 12 by the 1980s, and latest data, based on the UK NHS reports from 2010, now put the average at 10.5.

Now, I won't get into conspiracy theory regions as to WHY it's happening (to my knowledge none of the theories, let them be based on reality or conspiracies, have been actually confirmed to a level where the scientific community is comfortable pointing fingers), but it is happening.

And a very interesting aspect of this is the legal framework. The age of majority - which is often tied to the age of consent, as well as the age of full bodily autonomy (sans edge cases where the person doesn't have the mental capacity to make autonomous decisions) - has stayed relatively static at 18 for the past ~200 years, while the closest related biological event, puberty et al, in ~160 years has dropped over 1/3, or nearly 6 years... Basically, 160 years ago you entered puberty, and a year or two later you were considered an adult, able to make life altering decisions. Today, you go through puberty, and might still need to wait 5-6 years to be an adult...

Now don't get me wrong, put the pitchforks down, I'm not one of those weirdos who wants to lower the age of consent. I'm just pointing out that biology has changed over the course of some 8 generations or even less, and our legal code regarding a lot of things affected by puberty has stayed rigid.

And that just doesn't sit well with me. 160 years ago, we considered kids a year or two after hitting puberty to be grownups, even though they would've learned maybe 1/10 by that time that today we get taught in the first 4-6 years of school. Yet today, with much more learning about every single topic, including human sexuality et al, we don't consider these human beings capable of explaining to a specialist that they're feeling body dysphoria, that they feel more comfortable in a gender role different than the one assigned with their birth sex? It's not even making a unilateral decision, it's not "mum I wanna be a girl", it's them explaining to a medical professional how they're not feeling comfortable in their own bodies!

This just further reinforces my belief that the current approach to politics - which dictates regulations like trans people accessing appropriate care at the right ages - simply doesn't work. We keep electing old farts whom are simply detached from reality, having them debate topics they don't understand, ignore their constituents.

And endocrine systems, yes.

Hell I hit it at 8. Mind you it may have been a stress response to my whole fucken existence at the time but it hit like a truck regardless. Had a shitty little stache at 12.