WHY ARE SO MANY ADULTS IN POSITIONS OF POWER DEMANDING THAT SCHOOLS INSPECT CHILDREN’S GENITALS?? FOR SPORTS??? ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SPORTS????? IT’S FUCKING WEIRD!! IT’S NOT NORMAL FOR ADULTS TO CARE THIS MUCH ABOUT RANDOM SCHOOL CHILDREN’S GENITALS OK?? it’s not about safety or fairness in sports it’s about control and treating kids like property instead of people
i feel like im going fucking crazy why are the same people who always scream ‘think of the children’ always the ones going out of their way to hurt them
It’s because when many conservatives bring this point up, they’re talking about a hypothetical idea of a child, a magic symbol of innocence.
Actual children are messy and imperfect and depending on which conservative you ask, some of them think it’s okay to beat them up for acting the way children usually do. I have yet to see a conservative actually advocate for proper youth rights.
There’s a reason conservatives raise a stink over pedophilia and abortion but do the exact opposite of what will help. They don’t like it when the victims they advocate for actually speak up and say, “please end child marriage” or “spanking just makes kids grow up afraid” or “the person who did this to me was a religious elder and not a drag queen”.
They’ve managed to get a powerful confirmation bias into their constituents that draws on years of transphobia and even antisemitic conspiracy. And of course, there’s racism too. Some conservatives will not see a child of color as a child at all.
The child further right conservatives want to protect becomes less and less real by the day.
And when they talk about this to moderates, more rational conservatives, liberals, and even leftists? They say “think of the children” and most people assume they’re talking about actual children.
Everyone wants to protect the children, but when it means a fake child instead of actual children, it means people can use it to support whatever they want, instead of taking a step back.