 |
Debra W. Soh | |
|---|---|
 Soh on Reason TV in 2020 | |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Education | Ryerson University (BSc) York University (MSc, PhD) |
| Known for |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Functional and Structural Neuroimaging of Paraphilic Hypersexuality in Men |
| Doctoral advisor | Keith Schneider [1] |
| Website | drdebrasoh |
Debra W. Soh is a Canadian science columnist, author, and former academic sex researcher. [2]
Soh holds a Ph.D. degree in sexual neuroscience from York University in Toronto. [3] Her dissertation was titled Functional and Structural Neuroimaging of Paraphilic Hypersexuality in Men, and her committee included Keith Schneider of York University and James Cantor of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. [4] During her graduate studies, Soh received the Michael Smith Foreign Research Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and York's Provost Dissertation Scholarship. [5]
While at York, she studied paraphilias, which are abnormal sexual preferences. Her research indicates that these are neurological conditions rather than learned behaviours. [6] A 2016 Cosmopolitan article highlighted some of Soh's findings and their implications for determining which men are likely to commit rape. [7]
Soh has written articles for Quillette , The Globe and Mail , New York magazine, Playboy , Los Angeles Times , and The Wall Street Journal . [5] She began hosting Quillette's Wrongspeak podcast with Jonathan Kay in May 2018. [2] In the spring of 2021, Soh started "The Dr. Debra Soh" podcast. [8] Soh describes herself as a former feminist who later became disillusioned with the term. [9]
In a 2015 editorial, Soh criticized the prevalence of childhood gender transitions, advising parents and doctors to wait "until a child has reached cognitive maturity." [10] Soh's essay, which referenced gender non-conforming aspects of her own childhood, argued that "a social transition back to one's original gender role can be an emotionally difficult experience." David A. French characterized this as "an understatement." [11] Soh has also written against anti-conversion therapy laws that include both sexual orientation and gender identity, believing that such laws conflate the two and prevent legitimate therapeutic counselling for individuals with gender dysphoria. [12] She believes that the current societal view to allow for gender transition in childhood is mostly based on homophobia due to studies which show that many transgender children will desist and detransition in adolescence and early adulthood and come out as gay or lesbian. [13] Fellow Canadian academics Florence Ashley and Alexandre Baril disputed Soh's interpretation of these studies. [14]
Soh opposed the 2015 decision to close Toronto's gender identity clinic, which was known for beginning treatment after or during puberty in most cases. [15] [16] A previous inquiry had put the clinic's chief physician, Kenneth Zucker, at odds with other gender dysphoria specialists who encourage social transitions at ages as young as three. [17] Critics of Soh on this matter have stated that hormones are prescribed after puberty according to the Endocrine Society guidelines. [18] The following year, Soh wrote an editorial which criticized CBC News for cancelling its airing of a British documentary that featured Zucker. [19]
In 2016, Soh spent a weekend documenting the furry fandom in order to dispel myths about the subculture being primarily sexual in nature. [20]
In August 2017, Soh wrote a column for The Globe and Mail and contributed to an article at Quillette defending engineer James Damore's memo "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber." [21] [22] She continued to give interviews on the topic over the following year. [23] Soh was described as a member of the "intellectual dark web" by New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss. [24]
Soh left Wrongspeak at the end of 2018.
In April 2019, Soh supported a lawsuit by Nova Scotia resident Lorne Grabher against the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. The suit was filed to reinstate a license plate bearing Grabher's last name whose similarity to the phrase "grab her" had made it the subject of a complaint. Soh testified that the plate would not encourage any socially adjusted person to commit a violent act and opined that the government was "overreaching." [25] [26]
On 4 August 2020, Soh published her first book, The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society. [27]
In the spring of 2021, Soh started her own podcast, "The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast".
Soh is of Malaysian-Chinese descent. [28]
Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person feels due to a mismatch between their gender identity—their personal sense of their own gender—and their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until 2013 with the release of the DSM-5. The condition was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.
Sex reassignment surgery (SRS), also known as gender reassignment surgery (GRS) and several other names, is a surgical procedure by which a transgender person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble those socially associated with their identified gender. It is part of a treatment for gender dysphoria in transgender people. The term is also sometimes used to describe surgical intervention for intersex people.
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the individual's gender identity. Gender expression typically reflects a person's gender identity, but this is not always the case. While a person may express behaviors, attitudes, and appearances consistent with a particular gender role, such expression may not necessarily reflect their gender identity. The term gender identity was coined by Robert J. Stoller in 1964 and popularized by John Money.
The following outline offers an overview and guide to transgender topics.
Gender dysphoria in children (GD), also known as gender incongruence of childhood, is a formal diagnosis for children who experience significant discontent due to a mismatch between their assigned sex and gender identity. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder in children (GIDC) was used by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until it was renamed gender dysphoria in children in 2013 with the release of the DSM-5. The diagnosis was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.
Blanchard's transsexualism typology is a proposed psychological typology of gender dysphoria, transsexualism, and fetishistic transvestism, created by Ray Blanchard through the 1980s and 1990s, building on the work of prior researchers, including his colleague Kurt Freund. Blanchard categorized trans women into two groups: homosexual transsexuals who are attracted exclusively to men, and who seek sex reassignment surgery because they are feminine in both behavior and appearance; and autogynephilic transsexuals who are sexually aroused at the idea of having a female body.
Kenneth J. Zucker is an American-Canadian psychologist and sexologist. He was named editor-in-chief of Archives of Sexual Behavior in 2001. He was psychologist-in-chief at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and head of its Gender Identity Service until its closure in December 2015. Zucker is a professor in the departments of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Toronto.
Transgender people have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from the sex that they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender, often shortened as trans, is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex, it may also include people who are non-binary or genderqueer. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. The term transgender may be defined very broadly to include cross-dressers.
Transsexuals are people who experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance to help them align their body with their identified sex or gender.
Transgender youth are children or adolescents who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Because transgender youth are usually dependent on their parents for care, shelter, financial support, and other needs, transgender youth face different challenges compared to adults. Professional medical associations state that appropriate care may include supportive mental health care, social transition, and puberty blockers, which delay puberty and the development of secondary sex characteristics to give children time to make decisions about more permanent courses of action.
A trans woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and sometimes sex reassignment surgery, which can bring relief and resolve feelings of gender dysphoria. Trans women may be heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual, asexual, or identify with other terms.
Puberty blockers, also called puberty inhibitors, are drugs used to postpone puberty in children. The most commonly used puberty blockers are gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, which inhibit the release of sex hormones, including testosterone and estrogen. In addition to their various other medical uses, puberty blockers are used for transgender children to delay the development of unwanted sex characteristics, so as to allow transgender youth more time to explore their identity.
Transgender health care includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental health conditions, as well as sex reassignment therapies, for transgender individuals. Questions implicated in transgender health care include gender variance, sex reassignment therapy, health risks, and access to healthcare for trans people in different countries around the world.
Quillette is an online magazine founded by Australian journalist Claire Lehmann. The magazine primarily focuses on science, technology, news, culture, and politics. It also publishes two podcasts, Wrongspeak and Quillette.
Detransition is the cessation or reversal of a transgender identification or gender transition, whether by social, legal, or medical means. Some individuals detransition on a temporary basis. Desistance is a related term used to describe the cessation of transgender identity or gender dysphoria and has a higher occurrence.
Blaire White is an American YouTuber and political commentator. Politically right-wing, White has been critical of third-wave feminism, activists she views as social justice warriors, and activist movements such as Black Lives Matter.
Meghan Emily Murphy is a Canadian writer, journalist, and founder of Feminist Current, a feminist website and podcast. Her writing, speeches, and talks have criticized third-wave feminism, male feminists, the sex industry, exploitation of women in mass media, censorship, and gender identity legislation.
The rapid-onset gender dysphoria controversy centers around the concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD), proposed to be a subtype of gender dysphoria caused by peer influence and social contagion. It is not recognized by any major professional association as a valid mental health diagnosis, and its use has been discouraged by the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and other medical organizations due to a lack of reputable scientific evidence for the concept.
Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters is a 2020 book by Abigail Shrier, published by Regnery Publishing. The book endorses the contentious concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria, which is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by any major professional institution and is not backed by credible scientific evidence.
Although it is not known exactly what causes one to be on the autism spectrum or what causes one's sexual orientation or gender identity partly due to the focus on children instead of adults, a few limited studies into autistic people have shown higher rates of LGBT identities and feelings among autistic people than the general population. In particular, significant overlap between autism and transgender identity have been found, including gender dysphoria.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link){{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link){{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)