Well done! I'm so glad to see this today and appreciate the approach to subject and the craftsmanship. I can imagine you may have small bite media for this too, and will look forward to sharing those. So often, the play-it-in-the-background method or share it results in very tiny amounts of attention span. (!) I appreciated so much how you explained many moments in the video that you were using metaphor - I see that happening with my kid, that she has "literally" understood something until I specifically say it is a metaphor, or not a hard and fast rule, or just a best case scenario guide, etc. The desire for rules and explicit "road maps" is so strong. I look forward to more and am very happy for you in your new endeavor.
It also occurs to me that you might take the topic of metaphor and overlay it with the concepts of verbal or written language; how varied the interpretations of text can be (dms, texting, etc). I tend to think I understand people better with auditory exchanges, and even these are imperfect.
This is wonderful, Sasha. I think of identity as a question to ponder rather than one to answer—Somewhat rhetorical. Similarly to the metaphor of gender, identity is visceral and sensorily experienced. But the moment we name it or even describe our sense of identity, we can then become limited by our perception of those words used to define it, and ourselves.
Well said, Evelyn. I largely agree, with just one exception. I'm mentioning it here not to argue with you, but to suggest to Sasha that that may be a worthy topic for exploration in the channel.
PONDERING IDENTITY: I find myself concerned by the degree to which people (especially young people) ponder their identity these days. Pondering identity makes identity... ponderous. Slow, heavy, laborious, and excessively solemn. People take themselves and their identities WAY too seriously. The degree of self-focus is unhealthy, and has a tendency to become narcissistic.
I would sooner see people out in the world playing, exploring, learning, helping others... and spending exactly ZERO time pondering their identity. As Sasha says in the video, an identity is something that accrues through living your life more than through thinking about it. In the long run this approach appears to be much healthier for most people.
Wonderful exception. Completely agree! I’ll revise my framing of pondering it, to: a question to ponder fleetingly and flexibly, rather than obsessively, so it can recede to the background and evolve as we get busy living and being in relationship with others and our world.
I loved the video. It’s so needed. Thank you for pursuing this project. There’s a lot of support for parents now but the kids need substantive, thoughtful, nonjudgmental content. I wish I had constructive feedback. I will watch again. But first time through-just perfect!
Thank you Sasha! Among your great gifts are the respect, curiosity, and genuine presence you bring to all of your work. All those gifts are evident in this video, and I expect it will be disarming and ultimately enormously helpful to young people watching. I can imagine at least three of the many trans-identified kids in my life watching this with curiosity and openness. What a welcome contribution!!! Nice work.
I have some other topic ideas for you. These are all pretty obvious so perhaps you already have some of them planned or even created.
1) IDENTITY: I especially love the move from "gender identity" to "personal identity." I think you could say more about this, and perhaps do a standalone video on that topic alone.
2) LIMITATIONS of LABELS: Point out the constraining limitations of identity labels in general -- not just about gender. How putting ourselves into boxes can actually impede self-understanding. Possibly refer to various online quizzes or popular psych assessment tools (MBTI, attachment types, DiSC, Insights, etc.) and talk about how people tend to shut down self-exploration and self-understanding once they have latched on to a particular label. This also applies to other labels we may use such as homo/hetero/demi/asexual... race and ethnicity based labels... mental health diagnoses... etc.
3) MANY METAPHORS: Philosophers focused on metaphor have pointed out that we need *many* metaphors to understand any abstract concept -- one metaphor is never enough. So, for example, love may be viewed as journey (we're at a crossroads, we're just not going the same direction), as a powerful force (magnetic attraction, s/he blew me away), or as a fluid (overflowing with love) -- to name just a few of the many different ways we conceive of love. If gender is a metaphor, and we require multiple avenues to understand what it is pointing to, then by definition it cannot be just one concrete thing.
4) LITERAL vs METAPHORICAL: You've already touched on this in this video, but I think you could go deeper and be more explicit. Especially among young people, it's become an increasingly popular turn of phrase to use the term literal to refer to things that are not remotely literal at all. ("OMG I LITERALLY almost DIED on that hike!" <-- referring to a walk that was slightly sweaty and tiring.) Help viewers understand that while some things are genuinely literal, tangible, and concrete, metaphors by definition are not. Their purpose is to help us understand and communicate about the world that we live in... but they are not LITERALLY true.
And so on. I could talk about this for hours. SO GLAD you are doing this!!! I wish you much success.
Well done! I'm so glad to see this today and appreciate the approach to subject and the craftsmanship. I can imagine you may have small bite media for this too, and will look forward to sharing those. So often, the play-it-in-the-background method or share it results in very tiny amounts of attention span. (!) I appreciated so much how you explained many moments in the video that you were using metaphor - I see that happening with my kid, that she has "literally" understood something until I specifically say it is a metaphor, or not a hard and fast rule, or just a best case scenario guide, etc. The desire for rules and explicit "road maps" is so strong. I look forward to more and am very happy for you in your new endeavor.
It also occurs to me that you might take the topic of metaphor and overlay it with the concepts of verbal or written language; how varied the interpretations of text can be (dms, texting, etc). I tend to think I understand people better with auditory exchanges, and even these are imperfect.
great idea!
This is wonderful, Sasha. I think of identity as a question to ponder rather than one to answer—Somewhat rhetorical. Similarly to the metaphor of gender, identity is visceral and sensorily experienced. But the moment we name it or even describe our sense of identity, we can then become limited by our perception of those words used to define it, and ourselves.
Well said, Evelyn. I largely agree, with just one exception. I'm mentioning it here not to argue with you, but to suggest to Sasha that that may be a worthy topic for exploration in the channel.
PONDERING IDENTITY: I find myself concerned by the degree to which people (especially young people) ponder their identity these days. Pondering identity makes identity... ponderous. Slow, heavy, laborious, and excessively solemn. People take themselves and their identities WAY too seriously. The degree of self-focus is unhealthy, and has a tendency to become narcissistic.
I would sooner see people out in the world playing, exploring, learning, helping others... and spending exactly ZERO time pondering their identity. As Sasha says in the video, an identity is something that accrues through living your life more than through thinking about it. In the long run this approach appears to be much healthier for most people.
Wonderful exception. Completely agree! I’ll revise my framing of pondering it, to: a question to ponder fleetingly and flexibly, rather than obsessively, so it can recede to the background and evolve as we get busy living and being in relationship with others and our world.
Yes yes! I love this, Evelyn. Well said, once again. :-)
I loved the video. It’s so needed. Thank you for pursuing this project. There’s a lot of support for parents now but the kids need substantive, thoughtful, nonjudgmental content. I wish I had constructive feedback. I will watch again. But first time through-just perfect!
Yes! Such a great idea!
Thank you Sasha! Among your great gifts are the respect, curiosity, and genuine presence you bring to all of your work. All those gifts are evident in this video, and I expect it will be disarming and ultimately enormously helpful to young people watching. I can imagine at least three of the many trans-identified kids in my life watching this with curiosity and openness. What a welcome contribution!!! Nice work.
I have some other topic ideas for you. These are all pretty obvious so perhaps you already have some of them planned or even created.
1) IDENTITY: I especially love the move from "gender identity" to "personal identity." I think you could say more about this, and perhaps do a standalone video on that topic alone.
2) LIMITATIONS of LABELS: Point out the constraining limitations of identity labels in general -- not just about gender. How putting ourselves into boxes can actually impede self-understanding. Possibly refer to various online quizzes or popular psych assessment tools (MBTI, attachment types, DiSC, Insights, etc.) and talk about how people tend to shut down self-exploration and self-understanding once they have latched on to a particular label. This also applies to other labels we may use such as homo/hetero/demi/asexual... race and ethnicity based labels... mental health diagnoses... etc.
3) MANY METAPHORS: Philosophers focused on metaphor have pointed out that we need *many* metaphors to understand any abstract concept -- one metaphor is never enough. So, for example, love may be viewed as journey (we're at a crossroads, we're just not going the same direction), as a powerful force (magnetic attraction, s/he blew me away), or as a fluid (overflowing with love) -- to name just a few of the many different ways we conceive of love. If gender is a metaphor, and we require multiple avenues to understand what it is pointing to, then by definition it cannot be just one concrete thing.
4) LITERAL vs METAPHORICAL: You've already touched on this in this video, but I think you could go deeper and be more explicit. Especially among young people, it's become an increasingly popular turn of phrase to use the term literal to refer to things that are not remotely literal at all. ("OMG I LITERALLY almost DIED on that hike!" <-- referring to a walk that was slightly sweaty and tiring.) Help viewers understand that while some things are genuinely literal, tangible, and concrete, metaphors by definition are not. Their purpose is to help us understand and communicate about the world that we live in... but they are not LITERALLY true.
And so on. I could talk about this for hours. SO GLAD you are doing this!!! I wish you much success.