Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier: A Defense

In this blog I discuss Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters (Washington; D.C., Regnery Publishing, 2020). Many people think you should not read this book: I think you should.

A Canadian Case

In late April, 2023, Lane Tredger, the first non-binary member of the legislature of Yukon Territory, Canada (population 44,000) complained to the library at Yukon’s capital city, Whitehorse (population 28,000). They had noticed that the library had posted Abigail Shrier’s book, Irreversible Damage, as a staff pick. This is a common procedure in Canadian libraries, where members of staff advertise a book they consider particularly worthwhile.  Tredger argued that Schrier’s book was “blatantly transphobic.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/irreversible-damage-whitehorse-library-pick-1.6826815

The library eventually decided that the book would remain in the Whitehorse collection, but without the staff pick sticker, and that it would be more rigorous in selecting staff picks. To its credit, the director of the Yukon Public Libraries said that “Libraries aren’t the arbiters of hate speech: that’s for the courts to decide.”. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/whitehorse-library-book-irreversible-damage-decision-1.6882585#:

What Shrier Argued

I wonder if Lane Tredger actually read Schrier’s book. I have. Shrier does not claim that no one is genuinely trans: she interviewed several adult trans people whose chosen trans identities she respected. She specifically stated “I have nothing but respect for the transgender adults I’ve interviewed. They were among the most sober, thoughtful, and decent people I have come to know in the course of writing this book” (219).

But Shrier is concerned that far too many young girls believe that they are actually boys, and that far too many parents, teachers, medical professionals, and other adults are willing to “affirm” these statements about identity. Her book is full of stories of girls who thought they were boys.

In the 2010s, Shrier states, claims of adolescent gender dysphoria increased by 1,000 per cent in the US (32). She is particularly concerned with what she considers the “craze” of rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD), often found within girls’ friendship groups, several members at a time of such groups identifying as trans (26). Shrier attributes this craze in part to “transgender influencers” on social media. These influencers, she asserts, coach girls to lie to doctors, inventing histories of gender dysphoria while omitting details of their mental health history, to convince doctors to immediately start gender transition treatments even though ROGD might mask other mental health problems (34, 55).

 Girls are susceptible to this RODG craze, Shrier argues, because of several factors affecting their sense of identity. These include the social isolation of today’s adolescents, compounding the normal stresses of female puberty. Such problems are also influenced, paradoxically, by the current narrowing of gender roles, so that girls who “act like” boys begin to believe they actually are boys (pp. 3-18). “Gender-nonconforming” females are seen as actually, or somewhat, male, overturning the long-ago gains of the feminist movement that defended women seen as unfeminine because of their interests in “male” pursuits such as athletics or engineering (63). Notably, there does not appear to be a reverse trend, in which unprecedentedly large numbers of boys suddenly claim they are girls. Perhaps this is in part because being female is still lower status than being male.

In general, Shrier believes that patients are often drawn to “symptom pools,” or “culturally acceptable ways of manifesting distress that lead to recognized diagnoses” (136). Thus, young girls who are distressed about several different aspects of their lives might self-diagnose as in need of gender transition. Such other aspects could include being sexually attracted to girls and women, instead of boys or men; dressing or acting in ways not conforming to pervasive gender stereotypes; or having interests not typical for young girls. Shrier states that several young girls she interviewed told her that lesbians were mocked for being girls who could not admit they were boys, “trans” identities being higher status in high schools than “lesbian” identities (151).

 

Young women who “failed” at being girls, according to Shrier, could transfer their identity to being male, and as trans people, moreover, could enjoy the “pleasure” of being “oppressed.” This particularly appealed to young white girls who otherwise had to categorize themselves as members of the oppressor class. Now they could “take cover” in being members of a victim group, women no longer being considered oppressed (154-7).

 

Shrier is concerned about the effects on girls’ health of early transitioning. Future infertility, she maintains, is one such problem. Others are a higher risk of osteoporosis as bone density is suppressed, interference with brain development, possible loss of sexual function, cancer, endometriosis, hysterectomies, and even heart attacks (82-83, 165, 169-70). Gender surgeries, Shrier argues, are experimental and lack proper oversight (142). Even binding one’s breasts can have detrimental health consequences (47).

 

At least one medication, Lupron, prescribed to block puberty had not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for that purpose at the time of writing, yet it was commonly used  (164). In general, “The dangers [of trans medications and surgery] are legion. The safeguards absent” (183). Yet gender reassignment clinics are multiplying in the US, in part because insurance companies are obliged to pay for gender reassignment treatment on the grounds that otherwise they would be discriminating. In 2007 there was only one gender-reassignment clinic, at the time Shrier wrote there were over fifty (167).

 

Shrier’s allegation are backed up by the personal testimony of one transgender man, who accumulated one million dollars in medical bills for treatment that left them with several severe medical complications. Yet they could not sue their doctors as there were no standards of care in transgender medicine to which the doctors were obliged to adhere. ( (https://www.newsweek.com/we-need-balance-when-it-comes-gender-dysphoric-kids-i-would-know-opinion-1567277)

 

Shrier argues that many health professionals who presumably would not accept patients’ self-diagnosis in any other situation, be it physical or mental health, are now convinced that they should accept and affirm children’s self-diagnosis of gender identity (97-121). Yet, Shrier asserts, several studies show that about seventy per cent of young children who experience childhood gender dysphoria grow out of it, if they are not encourages to socially transition (119). One study showed that 85 per cent of children exhibiting gender dysphoria outgrew it (256, n. 11).

Shrier’s book should not be censored.  Yet this is what the American Booksellers’ Association essentially did in July 2021 when it apologized for its “violence” in sending free copies of Shrier’s “anti-trans” book to 750 member bookstore.  The apology backfired, however, as publicity surrounding it resulted in an increase in the book’s sales. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/07/16/irreversible-damage-anti-trans-booksellers-association/

 

Evaluate and Disagree: Don’t Censor

 

People who disagree with Shrier should first carefully read her book.  Then they should address her evidence, as a professional psychologist, Christopher Ferguson, did. He criticized Schrier for not being sufficiently conversant with the scientific evidence that sex is not determined only by X or Y chromosomes but instead resides in the hypothalmus, and as such, “is largely immutable.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/checkpoints/202101/review-irreversible-damage-abigail-shrier)

 

Some evidence is now emerging from countries other than the US that supports Shrier’s point of view. In Sweden, there was a 1,500 per cent increase between 2008 and 2018 in gender dysphoria among people “born as girls” between 13 and 17 years old.. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/22/ssweden-teenage-Transgender-row-dysphoria-diagnoses-soar In the UK, 1,806 girls were referred for gender treatment in 2017/18, as compared to only 40 in 2009/10.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6172097/investigation-ordered-number-transitioning-referrals-increase-four-thousand-cent.html. As of August 2022, a class action suit against the Tavistock Institute, the UK’s former center for gender dysphoria treatment, was in preparation, claiming that children were “rushed into taking life-altering puberty blockers without adequate consideration or proper diagnosis.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/tavistock-gender-clinic-lawyers-latest-b2143006.html.

 

As I said at the outset of this blog, I am very concerned by people who denounce books and advocate their withdrawal from the public view, rather than taking authors’ arguments seriously. Maybe Shrier has it all wrong. But maybe, as the evidence from other countries suggests, she doesn’t. In any event, the thing to do is read her book and make up your own mind.

 

Driving with Will: A Memoir of Will Coleman

Note; readers of my blog may not know that for many years I have published poetry in various local and Canadian outlets.  Recently, I've taken up trying to write creative non-fiction.  Below is my memoir of the distinguished Canadian political scientist, Will Coleman, who died on March 24, 2023.  Will was my friend and colleague for over 40 years.

 

 

My friend Will died on March 24. He’d been suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s, but died of a stroke.

I have many memories of Will, starting in the late 1970s when we were both young faculty members at McMaster University.

I left McMaster for Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo in 2003. After Will joined the University of Waterloo a few years later, we started commuting together when our schedules permitted. I would pick him up at his house at 8:00 AM, by which time he’d already been up and working for three hours. Normally a very quiet person, Will would start talking as soon as he got into the car, telling me everything that had happened to him since we’d last driven together. Or almost everything: I was completely unaware of a blossoming friendship with a woman down the street, Suet-Ha Loo, until he told me a few days before the event that they were getting married.

Will was extremely proud of his children and grandchildren. He loved his Sunday mornings baby-sitting Quinn, the son of his own son Matthew. Will and Quinn would sit on a bench on Aberdeen Avenue near where Quinn lived with his parents, and Quinn would shout “car,” or “truck” at every vehicle that passed.  I also enjoyed hearing about Will's daughter Kaitlyn, who’d obtained a degree in Museum Studies, and her interesting job helping to explore Toronto construction sites for historical artifacts. Will always spoke with great admiration and affection for his mother, whom he visited twice yearly in British Columbia until she died.

Will talked a lot about the various marathon races he competed in. At one point he was particularly peeved by a competitor from Niagara Falls who kept winning first place in their age category while Will came second, in part because he (the competitor) was at the lower end of the age range. Will thought this was scandalous. Once, the competitor was disqualified so Will came first. The competitor was annoyed, but Will felt he had won fairly.

I used to tease Will about his annual trips to a Buddhist retreat where he would be silent for a week or more at a time.  He was an extremely quiet person, so I thought he should go to noisiness retreats instead.  He accepted my teasing graciously.

After Will retired, I had lunch with him a few times.  We spent one long summer’s afternoon on the patio of Quatrefoil Restaurant in Dundas, with a couple of colleagues who’d come from Waterloo to see us.  Will was anxious to get home though, to feed his new wife’s cat.  The last time I saw him, I invited him to lunch with me and my husband at our house.  I’d gone to the local health food store on Locke Street, to buy some vegan food for him; even as his disease progressed, he still diligently maintained his vegan habits.  His eyes lit up when I told him I’d bought some vegan chocolate chip cookies and he was welcome to take the leftovers home.

Will was my friend: may his memory be a blessing.

Readable Books on Human Rights

 The owners of a website called Shepherd: explore, discover, read," ask scholars to recommend readable books in their area of expertise in return for publicizing one of the scholar's own works.  Today (June 5, 2023) they posted my five recommendations.  The books I recommended were Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon; Fatima Mernissi, Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood;  Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea; Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape; and Robert Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine.   You can read why I chose these books here: 

https://shepherd.com/best-books/readable-stories-on-human-rights