HP/De Tijd — “I-I-I’m Not Prepared to Take Responsibility for This!” (2023)
This article by journalist Jan Kuitenbrouwer appeared in HP/De Tijd on January 19, 2023. It is the second part of a two-part series about what he calls his Most Hard-Fought Publication in 45 Years. The first part appeared in the same magazine a week earlier.
The main article on this subject is HP/De Tijd.
The two-part series covers the collaboration with media sociologist Peter Vasterman and the difficulty of getting a critical article about the gender debate published in a Dutch newspaper. Kuitenbrouwer begins this part by correcting something he wrote in the first part.
What It Is About
The title refers to the hesitation he encountered over that publication. According to Kuitenbrouwer, scientists indulge in magical thinking while calling their critics unscientific. The piece is therefore primarily an inside account of how the social debate about gender unfolds in the Dutch media. The full article is available only to HP/De Tijd subscribers.
The Opinion Piece in Question
The publication at the center of the two-part series is the opinion piece Trans Healthcare, Too, Must Meet Medical and Scientific Standards, which Kuitenbrouwer and Vasterman published on December 30, 2022. In the introduction to this second part, HP/De Tijd writes that Kuitenbrouwer continues the story of how he and Vasterman managed to get a trans-critical piece published in a Dutch newspaper. The correction at the beginning concerns whether Dutch media had reported on a particular development; the freely readable part of the article ends there. Kuitenbrouwer uses the sentence about magical thinking to describe how, in his view, fact and fiction have switched places in this debate.
The Authors and the Responses
Jan Kuitenbrouwer is a journalist; in the article, he refers to 45 years of publishing. Peter Vasterman is a media sociologist and has his own page in this archive: Peter Vasterman on the struggle between sex and gender. The two continued publishing together; in April 2024, they published an article entitled Dutch Protocol in Transgender Healthcare Is Unsustainable. Their work also met with fierce opposition. An article appeared on the opinion website Joop accusing Kuitenbrouwer of holding anti-trans views. The article in HP/De Tijd is one participant’s account and presents his side of the story. The substantive issue behind the opinion piece—the basis for the Dutch Protocol—is addressed separately on this site, as are the systematic reviews cited by critics.
Why It Is Included in This Archive
The article documents a period in which criticism of gender policy struggled to find a place in the press and connects with other sources on developments in the Netherlands. A broader analysis of one-sided reporting on gender healthcare can be found on gendermedia.nl.