On the subject of adoption, I have a friend who was adopted. Her birth mother (who she knew about) was very, very neglectful, drugs were a major factor and there was a revolving door of horrible men. My friend was adopted as a toddler by two loving parents (middle class, doctor and teacher). They also adopted my friends sister. They gave the girls a lovely, stable upbringing. My friend new she was adopted, they never kept any info from her. Her birth mother passed away but my friend never knew who her father was. We've been friends for over 30 years and and she has always felt an ache, that something is missing, she doesn't feel complete. She has so many questions and doesn't fully know who she is. She loves her adoptive parents, they have a great relationship and she considers them her true parents. But she is desperate to know who her bio father is. Her younger sister has very poor mental health, she is much more affected. They discovered some half siblings recently which has helped. But the not knowing, it eats away at a person.
Regarding, porn in schools - when my 16 year old started high school there was a sick trend. Other teens would find the worst porn they could and shove their phone without warning in the faces of new students. My son hated it. He is autistic so he felt very confused by it. Now, he knows those teens are arseholes being cretins for the sake of it but it's horrific. There were sexist remarks from boys at school when I was a tern but no mobile phones. Things have changed a lot since then but also not in some ways. Boys would make horrible remarks about girls developing breasts. If they had been adults, that would have been classed as sexual harassment.
Additionally, my formerly trans relative told me that when she was a 'man', people accepted her as such without question. She passed quite well because she is tall and had a naturally deep female voice and she grew a very long beard. She looked like a younger member of ZZTop. I don't think her male colleagues ever realised. She told me they were very two faced, lots of sexist talk amongst the men and in her presence but they would switch characters in the presence of women or bosses. She said it was quite the eye opener and knowing that, she would never trust a man again. They literally try to be wolves in sheep's clothing.
My husband who is one of the very few good men I know had sexist colleagues at his work, he said he was constantly telling them to stop it. He feels it's up to decent men to shut down toxic men. I agree but I'm not sure there are enough decent men to outnumber the bad ones.
