The Times - Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier review -Janice Turner

[Melroses]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/irreversible-damage-by-abigail-shrier-review-resisting-the-transgender-craze-8mzrt3gk9

I have just come from reading this and cannot find a thread on it.

As usual, Janice Turner's writing is amazing, jam packed with properly researched fact and compelling.

Not a word is wasted.

"None of this would matter if transition made these girls happy. But while initially testosterone makes them fearless and swaggering, the Tavistock GIDS (gender identity development services) clinic’s own report shows no long-term improvement in psychological wellbeing. This rare piece of research was published reluctantly only a few weeks ago, perhaps because it threatens an entire ethos. In clinics from Finland to Australia red flags are rising. “Detransitioners” are speaking out. Medical negligence class actions will begin."

CrossPurposes - that link now goes to a “No longer available” notice. More censorship or sold out??

www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/irreversible-damage-2

I don't mean to derail from Janice Turner's article or the Irreversible Damage book, but on a related note, this Twitter thread on changing insurance language in California is disturbing.

twitter.com/SwipeWright/status/1345537060958945280?s=20

1/ ALERT: CA moves to change insurance language on double mastectomies for gender dysphoric females from "cosmetic" to "reconstructive" to ensure no age limit for the procedure. Normal breasts are reclassified as "abnormal structures of the body caused by congenital defects."

twitter.com/SwipeWright/status/1345537067141328897?s=20

2/ "As such, in an individual diagnosed with gender dysphoria, who is born with female characteristics and identifies as male, the presence of a female chest is an abnormal body structure caused by gender dysphoria..."

Fantastic front page coverage in the DM. It probably deserves its own thread, but I'm posting it here.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9106895/ABIGAIL-SHRIERS-investigation-exploding-numbers-girls-wanting-change-sex.html

"Many adolescent girls who fall for the transgender craze lead upper-middle-class lives.

They are often top-grade students, notable for their agreeableness, companionability and utter lack of rebellion.

They've never smoked a cigarette, they don't ever drink. They've also never been sexually active. Many have never had a kiss. Their bodies are a mystery to them.

Anxious, depressed, awkward and afraid, they sense a dangerous chasm between the unsteady girls they feel they are, and the glamorous women social media tells them they should be. Bridging that gap feels hopeless.

Pornography also plays a role. Violent porn – readily available to children on platforms such as Pornhub – terrifies young girls about men and the prospect of sex with them."

I have never watched porn. I've heard of what's in it, though, and it disgusts me so much I have no words. And I am 69.
If I had seen porn in my teens I would have been absolutely terrified. I'd have freaked out completely. I was that girl who didn't want sex before marriage; who let a boyfriend dump me for not having sex with me, rather than be persuaded to do so.

I cannot imagine what today's girls must be going through.
We need a new prude revolution.

When will people learn that there's no better advertisement for a book than threatening to have it banned! Lady Chatterley's Lover, anyone?

I think this article is going to peak many, many parents of young girls. It must be terrifying, to have a daughter caught up in this, caught between your daughter begging for T and wanting to "help" her, and knowing you're setting her off on a disastrous path.

It's so, so good to see it in the Mail! Only two comments so far, but this is the top one with already over 2000 upvotes: Excellent article. Best I've read on DM in a long time.

So true.

Wanted to come in to post that the Daily Mail have published an article. It’s brilliant. As PP said, not a word wasted.

Wow, that's quite an article in the Daily Mail!

Great article. I see the Mail are selling copies of the book through their shop too.

There is another review today in the Sunday Times:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d62b26c8-49c9-11eb-81f9-1b786036a268?shareToken=dba4289b3550d3fadb16945cae6cec95

Sunday Times comments are good, though there is one inevitable 'what about the boyz' comment.

Kobo only sells ebooks so cannot sell out of them!

If you search for Abigail Shrier on Kobo website it doesn't bring up anything. However if you google her name along with Kobo it brings up that link which shows that they were selling it but don't anymore (but not because it's sold out).

Obviously there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Coverage in the Mail on Sunday too (taken from two new threads about this):

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9106895/ABIGAIL-SHRIERS-investigation-exploding-numbers-girls-wanting-change-sex.html

This can never be repeated enough:

Indeed, some small proportion of the population will always be transgender.

They describe the relentless chafe of a body that feels all wrong, a feeling that has dogged them for as long as they can remember.

They are kind, thoughtful and decent. For their honesty and courage, they easily won my admiration.

They have very little to do with the current trans epidemic plaguing teenage girls.

Ha, I should have refreshed the thread before posting the MoS link.

Thanks for the Mail article link, shared on my Facebook as it's not pay-walled. Fully expecting some hate but I really don't care, if it means just one person actually reads the whole article and thinks...

@nauticant

Coverage in the Mail on Sunday too (taken from two new threads about this):

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9106895/ABIGAIL-SHRIERS-investigation-exploding-numbers-girls-wanting-change-sex.html

This can never be repeated enough:

Indeed, some small proportion of the population will always be transgender.

They describe the relentless chafe of a body that feels all wrong, a feeling that has dogged them for as long as they can remember.

They are kind, thoughtful and decent. For their honesty and courage, they easily won my admiration.

They have very little to do with the current trans epidemic plaguing teenage girls.

That's the exact part I quoted when I shared it on FB!

Excellent to see all this coverage. The Mail article is particularly welcome as it's written by Shrier herself - a lot of it is an excerpt from the book. I love that she says: "Girls are not defective boys."

The Sunday Times by Christina Patterson is very good too.

I wonder what the Guardian review will be like?*

*Only joking. Obviously the Guardian won't review it.

Sunday Times comments are good, though there is one inevitable 'what about the boyz' comment.

EdgeOfACoin was it this comment below in the Times that prompted your comment?

“not just teenage girls but also boys are victims of this pernicious ideology that has swept the medical/therapist community in the USA and to a lesser extent here”

If so (and apologies if not), I know many parents of adolescent boys who are going through similar “ROGD” experiences with their sons as those of us with adolescent daughters. These boys have typically been subjected to hellish homophobic bullying from their peer group or feel they don’t fit in with what is seen to be how a boy ought to be (laddish, tough, macho, whatever).

The numbers/increase might not be as drastic as those found in teen girls, but their experience is distressingly similar and this cohort is being overlooked, IMO. This isn’t to knock Abigail for focusing on girls, but I think it is important to acknowledge these “ROGD” teen boys as well.

rogdmum Stephanie Davies-Arai mentioned this in her interview with Benjamin Boyce “Challenging the Gender Mythos”:

She said that while ROGD originally contrasted with early-onset gender dysphoria, by ROGD being predominantly female and early onset being predominantly male, that the proportion of ROGD children who are male is growing.

I presume by the way she phrased it that this is not due to a drop in the number of girls presenting with ROGD.

Maybe a reflection of the increased homophobia noted in attitude surveys?

I know some gay men are already worried about what is happening to effeminate boys. If this goes on then more will surely twig on to the fact that the next generation of gay men is being erased?

Ironic that trans activists are always shouting about being “erased” when it is women, especially lesbians, and gay men who are being erased. Straight men not so much

I’ve just finished it and it’s an excellent book. Extremely engaging and very powerful.