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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
informative
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Medical trauma
fast-paced
Shrier does an excellent job setting aside the fraught culture war issues to zero in on her focus: why has there been an explosion in transgender identification among teenage girls who manifested no prior symptoms. She interviewed a wide cross-section of parents and individuals to pry into the issue and understand the many factors that could be at play.
uh, yikes, disgusting, just say youre a terf and go♡
dark
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Being a 'daughter seduced by the transgender craze', as Shrier lovingly refers to us, I have mixed feelings about this book.
I wish it had been written by an author who handled the issue with more consistent sensitivity. For someone who makes the link between rapid onset gender dysphoria and eating disorders in teenage girls (a theory that absolutely has weight behind it, in my experience), I find it inappropriate that she would simultaneously be at times be snarky when talking about those teens. Mostly she is empathetic and sensitive to the hurt these girls are going through, at other times rather derisive and patronising. She justifies using the word "craze" to describe the phenomenon of ROGD by citing its sociological definition, but it just feels unnecessarily inflammatory and appealing to those who would write off ROGD teens and transgender people as 'crazy', while turning off those who would perhaps most benefit from hearing this side of the story.
The last part of the book I found particularly frustrating: how to "inoculate" your daughter from the social contagion of gender dysphoria - with the first solution being the removal of the smartphone. Yes, there is a huge social aspect in ROGD, but the depth of the issue is a lot more complex. ROGD isn't an indiscriminate virus attacking your children that you can inoculate them against. Throughout the book Shrier touches on the issues of gender roles, sexuality confusion, mental illness, pornography, autism. But when it comes to her final advice to parents, she surprisingly doesn't seem to take into account these issues (bar the gender roles) and instead focuses more on the social aspect and the assertion of parental authority. It was disappointingly simplistic after she began discussing the complexities of rapid onset gender dysphoria - she instead just returns to the environments of the US college campus and Tumblr as the causes for this phenomenon.
Notwithstanding the problems I have with Shrier's account, and the one-sidedness of the book (I am not in any way the target audience of Irreversible Damage, being its subject instead, and I felt this acutely at times), I really felt like she hit the nail on the head at certain points. The description of the particular demographic of teenage girls that tend to get swept up in ROGD was alarmingly spot on, and I do feel grateful that people are at least discussing this when so many health professionals seem to be reluctant to admit that there is a glaringly obvious issue going on here. Her honesty in discussing the risks of HRT and surgery was refreshing in a time where so many seem to hail transition as a perfect cure for dysphoria. And her words on detransition were surprisingly touching. Despite the title, "Irreversible Damage", she reminds us that "there is life after detransition" - an important reminder to the parents who are terrified of the path their daughters are going down in case she one day changes her mind, and to readers like myself who have realised that no, transition is not always the solution for dysphoria.
This is by no means a list of all the problems I had with Shrier's book, or all the aspects I thought were well thought out and well explained. It surprised me - I thought, from the title and the cover, that it would be all about lamenting the loss of 'perfect' feminine daughters turning into gender non-conforming transitioned adults. Overall though, I think Shrier begins to accurately unpick several of the various issues at play in the development of ROGD, albeit overly relying on fear-mongering about liberal college campuses and LGBT education. I would invite those interested to read the book with a critical eye, and would remind them that issues here are likely a lot more complex and a lot less black and white than Shrier can explain in 300 pages - she did do a better job than I assumed she would, when I went into it expecting the worst!
I wish it had been written by an author who handled the issue with more consistent sensitivity. For someone who makes the link between rapid onset gender dysphoria and eating disorders in teenage girls (a theory that absolutely has weight behind it, in my experience), I find it inappropriate that she would simultaneously be at times be snarky when talking about those teens. Mostly she is empathetic and sensitive to the hurt these girls are going through, at other times rather derisive and patronising. She justifies using the word "craze" to describe the phenomenon of ROGD by citing its sociological definition, but it just feels unnecessarily inflammatory and appealing to those who would write off ROGD teens and transgender people as 'crazy', while turning off those who would perhaps most benefit from hearing this side of the story.
The last part of the book I found particularly frustrating: how to "inoculate" your daughter from the social contagion of gender dysphoria - with the first solution being the removal of the smartphone. Yes, there is a huge social aspect in ROGD, but the depth of the issue is a lot more complex. ROGD isn't an indiscriminate virus attacking your children that you can inoculate them against. Throughout the book Shrier touches on the issues of gender roles, sexuality confusion, mental illness, pornography, autism. But when it comes to her final advice to parents, she surprisingly doesn't seem to take into account these issues (bar the gender roles) and instead focuses more on the social aspect and the assertion of parental authority. It was disappointingly simplistic after she began discussing the complexities of rapid onset gender dysphoria - she instead just returns to the environments of the US college campus and Tumblr as the causes for this phenomenon.
Notwithstanding the problems I have with Shrier's account, and the one-sidedness of the book (I am not in any way the target audience of Irreversible Damage, being its subject instead, and I felt this acutely at times), I really felt like she hit the nail on the head at certain points. The description of the particular demographic of teenage girls that tend to get swept up in ROGD was alarmingly spot on, and I do feel grateful that people are at least discussing this when so many health professionals seem to be reluctant to admit that there is a glaringly obvious issue going on here. Her honesty in discussing the risks of HRT and surgery was refreshing in a time where so many seem to hail transition as a perfect cure for dysphoria. And her words on detransition were surprisingly touching. Despite the title, "Irreversible Damage", she reminds us that "there is life after detransition" - an important reminder to the parents who are terrified of the path their daughters are going down in case she one day changes her mind, and to readers like myself who have realised that no, transition is not always the solution for dysphoria.
This is by no means a list of all the problems I had with Shrier's book, or all the aspects I thought were well thought out and well explained. It surprised me - I thought, from the title and the cover, that it would be all about lamenting the loss of 'perfect' feminine daughters turning into gender non-conforming transitioned adults. Overall though, I think Shrier begins to accurately unpick several of the various issues at play in the development of ROGD, albeit overly relying on fear-mongering about liberal college campuses and LGBT education. I would invite those interested to read the book with a critical eye, and would remind them that issues here are likely a lot more complex and a lot less black and white than Shrier can explain in 300 pages - she did do a better job than I assumed she would, when I went into it expecting the worst!
Shocking, but I'm not surprised. Lots to think about
medium-paced
Do you believe that White people are the most discriminated class of people on college campuses? Do you believe that genetics plays no part in gender stereotypes while also believing that the gender pay gap is the result of women's biological predisposition to choose jobs that make less? Do you believe that 2000 art sharing site Deviantart's forumns are a mas "spreader" for the trans "infection"? If these questions sound ridiculous these are just some of the outlandish claims posited in "irreversible damage", one of the more bizarre "investigative" deep dives I have read.
When she isnt arguing with medical professionals she advocates for corrective bigotry and uprooting entire families to seperate gender questioning children from any support structure. This book is more a treatise on the authors issues with technology and progress than a serious academic deep dive into trans youths. Its depressing that this miserable transphobic opinion piece is being seen as academic in any light.
When she isnt arguing with medical professionals she advocates for corrective bigotry and uprooting entire families to seperate gender questioning children from any support structure. This book is more a treatise on the authors issues with technology and progress than a serious academic deep dive into trans youths. Its depressing that this miserable transphobic opinion piece is being seen as academic in any light.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, Transphobia
Moderate: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
Minor: Body horror, Body shaming, Torture