183 - Running From Rockets and Walking Toward Womanhood, with Maia Poet

Gender: A Wider Lens

Sasha Ayad and Stella O'Malley

Health & Fitness, Society & Culture, Mental Health

4.6 • 961 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2024

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Another special mid-week episode release! Sasha will be back for our next episode, but don’t miss this deeply moving conversation between Stella and guest, Maia Poet, who shares her powerful story of self-discovery through the lenses of gender identity, conflict, and societal expectations. Maia recounts the emotional and psychological conflict she faced living as a trans man in a religious society, and how war—especially the harrowing events of October 7th—shifted her entire perspective on her body and identity.

In this conversation, Maia opens up about the transformative power of community, particularly her encounters with detransitioners, and the critical role they played in her journey toward desistance. Maia also delves into the complex moral dilemmas of discussing gender identity with children, and how surviving war solidified her understanding of the strength and resilience of her natural female body.

Listeners will gain unique insight into the profound complexities of gender nonconformity in a society that, under the false pretense of “authenticity,” is failing to accommodate such experiences. The lack of space for nonconformity is paving a destructive path towards body dysmorphia, crisis of self-identity, and harmful medical transition — a broken and twisted journey towards self-love and acceptance.

For links and resources relevant to this episode, access the full show notes at https://www.widerlenspod.com/p/episode-183

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Stella O’Malley: http://www.stellaomalley.com/parent-coaching

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Stella O'Malley, a psychotherapist in Ireland.
0:04.4	And I'm Sasha Ayyad, an adolescent therapist in the United States.
0:08.6	And this is Gender, a wider lens, a podcast dedicated to the shifting concepts around gender in our contemporary culture.
0:16.0	Through in-depth interviews, personal stories, and psychological exploration, we seek to open up the discourse around this hot button issue.
0:25.0	Join us as we look at gender from a wider lens.
0:29.0	Hi there, no Sasha this week sadly but instead we have just a solo episode with myself and a very very
0:40.4	interesting woman called Maya. Maya was trans identified for 12 years and
0:45.8	she's coming on for 25 so it was half her life and she desisted recently but the
0:51.0	story about how she identified as trans, why she identified as trans, what was life like for her when she was deep deep in the woods of identifying as trans and then what brought her out.
1:05.0	It's very, very powerful and it moves from, you know, middle America really over to Israel. And you know she she speaks so evocatively of what life was
1:16.4	like as presenting as a man in Israel and then ultimately ending up you know in a
1:22.3	bunker in Israel and she talks as well about how actually she was listening to our podcast and how she ultimately desisted and what brought her to a place where she thought I'm actually a woman and I'm a lesbian and I don't need to medically transition so I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.
1:42.4	Before we dive into the conversation I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.
1:43.0	Before we dive into the conversation, we want to take a quick moment and thank our sponsors
1:47.8	Gen Spect and Therapy First.
1:50.0	Gen Spect is an international organization committed to fostering a healthy approach to sex and gender.
1:56.0	Gen Specte will be hosting the Bigger Picture Conference in Lisbon, Portugal this September.
2:01.0	To learn more about who will be speaking at the conference and to
2:04.4	order your tickets, visit GenSpect.org. Therapy1st is a non-profit worldwide
2:10.6	professional association of mental Providers who view
2:14.5	Psychotherapy as the appropriate first-line treatment for gender dysphoria.
2:18.2	Therapy First supports Psychotherapists working with gender dysphoric youth
	...

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