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bookichor 's review for:
Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters
by Abigail Shrier
medium-paced
A very irritating read. I only read this because I know it's a controversial book and I wanted to know exactly what "gender critical" people are reading and saying. I didn't pay for this book.
The book opens with one sided interviews with parents insisting that they know their adult children better than they know themselves, and continuing to misgender them. I'm not surprised that most left as soon as they were able, transitioned, and cut ties after their parents refused to treat them with empathy and compassionate. We do not hear the child's side.
Shrier also does not appear to challenge these parents or ask them to explain themselves or these events. Shrier does not interrogate her own points or those of the people she quotes. Conjecture is presented as fact, and it's all so easily disproved.
There are very basic facts that are incorrect and a fundamental misunderstanding of not just trans issues but the Internet, online cultures, and Shrier seems to conflate anime with furry art? Which is laughably inaccurate and also worrying.
There were also many sections that simply made me uneasy as she insists that tomboys no longer exists (they do) and no one is a lesbian anymore (they are). Again, a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be trans and an insistence on stating opinions as facts.
The danger with this book is that it preys on people's fears, particularly parents. Trans people are already a minority that are at risk of abuse and all this book does it compound the issue.
If you genuinely want to understand trans people then there are many other much better books out there. I suggest Shon Faye's book The Trans Issue which is out in September, or The Gender Games by Juno Dawson, Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon, or Gender Explorers by Juno Roche.
The book opens with one sided interviews with parents insisting that they know their adult children better than they know themselves, and continuing to misgender them. I'm not surprised that most left as soon as they were able, transitioned, and cut ties after their parents refused to treat them with empathy and compassionate. We do not hear the child's side.
Shrier also does not appear to challenge these parents or ask them to explain themselves or these events. Shrier does not interrogate her own points or those of the people she quotes. Conjecture is presented as fact, and it's all so easily disproved.
There are very basic facts that are incorrect and a fundamental misunderstanding of not just trans issues but the Internet, online cultures, and Shrier seems to conflate anime with furry art? Which is laughably inaccurate and also worrying.
There were also many sections that simply made me uneasy as she insists that tomboys no longer exists (they do) and no one is a lesbian anymore (they are). Again, a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be trans and an insistence on stating opinions as facts.
The danger with this book is that it preys on people's fears, particularly parents. Trans people are already a minority that are at risk of abuse and all this book does it compound the issue.
If you genuinely want to understand trans people then there are many other much better books out there. I suggest Shon Faye's book The Trans Issue which is out in September, or The Gender Games by Juno Dawson, Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon, or Gender Explorers by Juno Roche.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Medical content
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny