Juno Dawson book for teenagers - review

[Xanthangum]

The Lies They Tell have reviewed Dawson's book What’s the T?: The no-nonsense guide to all things trans and/or non-binary for teens.

the-lies-they-tell.org/2021/03/21/review-of-whats-the-t-by-juno-dawson/

Much to take in.

Unsurprisingly it seems to be full of errors and dodgy advice.

The scientific analysis of what might be at the heart of transitioning is introduced with this: To be honest, a lot of this stuff is SUPER-SCIENCY and SUPER-COMPLICATED.

Here is the conclusion of the review:

Well obviously it’s a terrible book with an over reliance on celebrity plugs to patch over the lack of factual information and balanced opinion about life changing treatments and surgeries. It also occasional lapses into very bad advice – sort of suggesting that children should sign up to adult dating apps being a particular low point. Incorrect information is given out about UK law. So yet again it seems like no one bothered proofreading the book.

My bold refers to this quote:

Back to online dating. First things first: pretty much all the dating apps I know of insist on users being over eighteen, but that doesn’t stop younger people from naughtily signing up.

WTAF? This book should be withdrawn from sale, surely.

”Dawson tells us that the world treats [they] just like ‘any old woman’ in terms of ‘street and online sexual harassment’ but it is so much worse for [them] because sometimes [they] gets a side order of transphobia too.”

Bit of a contradiction in terms. If transphobia is elicited, then the person clearly is not treating Dawson as a woman. Indeed any non-passing person will inevitably be treated as someone of their own sex, even if a few choose to pretend otherwise. It’s not possible to go against your ingrained reactions.

Precisely what I thought @AnyOldPrion.

Good old sexism and misogyny aren't enough for Dawson, they also need the extra bit of trans victimhood too, for that extra bit of oppression

The sex of some people just ooze from every written word.

“Super sciency and super complicated”? I hope JD isn’t appropriating super identities!

Books aimed specifically at teens must be legally accurate and robust when it comes to safeguarding but somehow when a trans author is writing, those things seem to be how can one say it - less rigorously applied

@Xanthangum

“Back to online dating. First things first: pretty much all the dating apps I know of insist on users being over eighteen, but that doesn’t stop younger people from naughtily signing up.”

That’s grooming surely? Its nothing short of telling kids to line up to be exploited by adults. Shocking

I’m reminded of when EL James, infamous author of Fifty Shades of Grey, did a Twitter Q and A, and the best question was “which do you hate more, women or the English language?”

@AnyOldPrion

”Dawson tells us that the world treats [they] just like ‘any old woman’ in terms of ‘street and online sexual harassment’ but it is so much worse for [them] because sometimes [they] gets a side order of transphobia too.”

Bit of a contradiction in terms. If transphobia is elicited, then the person clearly is not treating Dawson as a woman. Indeed any non-passing person will inevitably be treated as someone of their own sex, even if a few choose to pretend otherwise. It’s not possible to go against your ingrained reactions.

I remember reading something by Juno which talked about not passing and embracing transness, which would be a far healthier and more thoughtful attitude to pass on to kids.

I remember reading something by Juno which talked about not passing and embracing transness, which would be a far healthier and more thoughtful attitude to pass on to kids

Yes.

It's so odd that there is quite clearly a need for thoughtful, respectful, honest and accurate resources for everyone - teachers, parents, kids, school boards, local councils and so on.... but that the resources being pushed by trans activitists themselves are so often nonsensical, dishonest and dangerous.

They are the ones doing damage to their own movement.

This is the book JD has been offering free copies of to school libraries.

@Xanthangum

I remember reading something by Juno which talked about not passing and embracing transness, which would be a far healthier and more thoughtful attitude to pass on to kids

Yes.

It's so odd that there is quite clearly a need for thoughtful, respectful, honest and accurate resources for everyone - teachers, parents, kids, school boards, local councils and so on.... but that the resources being pushed by trans activitists themselves are so often nonsensical, dishonest and dangerous.

They are the ones doing damage to their own movement.

I agree

I follow quite a few transwomen and transmen on Twitter who are GC. I’d be really interested to hear both their take on the kind of advice being discussed here but also a book along these lines written by a transgender person who doesn’t believe TWAW.

@Erkrie

This is the book JD has been offering free copies of to school libraries.

Gosh do we need to check our school libraries?

Gosh do we need to check our school libraries

Yes. I've already instructed DD to 'borrow' it 🤣

If you check JD twitter page you can see the references of the lucky giveaways into our children's schools. It's somewhat relentless really isn't it. It's like the Fortnite stuff with mermaids ads popping up in the middle of it, as a way to get directly to kiddies.

My bold refers to this quote:

Back to online dating. First things first: pretty much all the dating apps I know of insist on users being over eighteen, but that doesn’t stop younger people from naughtily signing up.

Eeeeeeeekkkkk!!!

This is a book for teenagers?

So what Juno is basically saying to impressionable young people about something that is age restricted for safeguarding reasons is 'everyone is doing it'.

WTAF?

Won't be buying it for my teenager
What indeed

WTAF flippin autocorrect

For the past few weeks a children's author has been Retweeting tweets related to this book.

The RTs are mainly from schools who have requested free copies of Juno's book, as part of the book's promotion.

There are so many school librarians requesting copies (including my child's school) and I get the impression that schools are grabbed by the freebie, without really looking into the subject matter.

Which children’s author, the one who did a book with JD ?

Sophie Anderson.

I don't know very much about Juno, in all honesty, but having read this today I went and googled and wanted to feedback 2 things I found.

The first was a post on Juno's IG. It's a post of Juno in a bikini with a caption about how great HRT is as it gave Juno 'tiddies.' I think people will have their own thoughts about that - maybe breast cancer survivors in particular.

The second is that I realised Juno is the person who wrote a book on mental health (which also looks aimed at teenagers?) with Dr Olivia Hewitt, who I know very little about other than I believe she teaches clinical psychology at Oxford University. I know the BPS has been captured but I suppose I feel a bit dismayed that someone with a degree of influence and who has been successful has joined forces with this person. But there we go, lots of very clever people get sucked in by this ideology, don't they?

Lots of street harassment at 37?

Online sexual harassment- their profile pic is in a bikini? Erm.

The bit about naughtily signing up to dating apps under age is dodgy as is the advice to talk to other trans people (online presumably).

I'd be interested in reading some other reviews.

There’s a link in that excellent review to a Glamour blog Juno wrote about transition. It’s presumably the same style as the book, and I found it unbearable. The worst bits for me were:

I've lived as a man and a woman, and let me tell you, women (far more than men) are told constantly how they're getting it wrong. We're inundated with conflicting messages: drink this, eat that, always wear this, never wear that. This noise builds and builds until you're left feeling like you're somehow failing at being a woman. Well, now imagine all that and also being born with a winky. Double fail.

And

Already, it's abundantly clear that living as a woman is hard work. I need your tips. Like, if there's some way I can stop my legs feeling like a cactus about five minutes after I've shaved them, I'm all ears.

This is the book that other woke children's authors have been lining up to buy for schools in a "look how kind I am" twitter contest.

I'm guessing most of them haven't read it, but even if they did they'd probably have that weird safeguarding bypass that seems to apply to anything trans.

However, the line about dating apps is actually advocating underage online dating and encouraging minors to make themselves available to groomers. That's worthy of being reported to the publisher and maybe also the police.