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Book Review: Irreversible Damage – The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters
This book is controversial -for a sex-crazed culture. Shrier's meticulous research and compelling writing exposes the craze and the players behind a movement that is literally destroying a generation of adolescent girls, rendering them sterile, and leaving them more mentally unhealthy than they were to begin with.
How do you get your book banned in Israel?
Abigail Shrier is no stranger to criticism. As a writer/author/reporter, her writing is compellingly readable, and her research is meticulously done. Like ants on a Milk Dud, when she writes, she devours the subject and leaves nothing for the imagination. She is clear, concise, homespun at times, and she’s dogged.
She has written for the Wall Street Journal. As an independent journalist, her Substack is called The Truth Fairy. 1 She holds an A.B. from Columbia College, where she received the Euretta J. Kellett Fellowship; a B.Phil. from the University of Oxford; and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Shrier received the Barbara Olson Award for Excellence and Independence in Journalism in 2021.
She’s also the author of the best-selling book Irreversible Damage:The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. It was this book’s recent publication in Israel that prompted the book ban there when she was scheduled to show up for book signings.
It didn’t work well.
HOW LEFTIST MEDIA LIES:
My book was published this week in Israel, a country 1/50th the population of the US, where Amazon has little presence. Bowing to LGBTQ+ activist pressure, the two largest book chains refused to carry the book, which made it hard to buy in Israel.
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) May 30, 2023
When you read her tweet thread above, you’ll see that in spite of the attempted book ban, Israelis lined up to buy copies and hear her speak.
What is the book about?
Eleven page-turning chapters paint a horrific picture of a movement that has more to do with social media, adolescent girls’ insecurities, smart phones, influencers and the horrid advice and guidance of authoritative adults who should be protectors but have devolved into promoters.
Shrier’s research (and her end notes are a chapter in themselves of documentation) reveals this transgender epidemic as a literal “craze.”
“Craze” is a technical term in sociology, not a pejorative… Early twentieth century psychiatrist Lionel Penrose, who introduced the term, explained that an idea that quickly spreads through a community “is not necessarily harmful or unreasonable because it is infectious.” What distinguishes a craze – what makes it a “crowd mental illness” – is that during its reign “an abnormal amount of energy is discharged in one direction and that, as a result, matters more vital to the welfare of the group may be neglected.” 2
The book leads you through the transgender movement from logically, beginning with thorough interviews with girls who have transitioned then moving (almost in relational chronology) to the influencers, schools, parents, and “shrinks” who seek to encourage and enable transitioning. Beginning with a chapter called “The Dissidents,” you learn about those pushing back, those pulling back, and the burgeoning detransitioning movement that is full of anger, pain, and regret.
Who should read this book?
It’s not a book for the faint of heart. However, we don’t live in times where parents and adults can bury their heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich. I recommend this book to be read by all – especially parents and those working with adolescents – whether in schools, sports, or church environments.
A few (and a very few) sobering notes from the book:
- Mental health worsens after coming out as a transgender rather than improving.
- The majority of those identifying as transgender come from upper-middle class white families.
- Adolescents wanting to identify as trans are coached to lie to doctors, parents, counselors, and other adult figures in order to take what are promoted as urgent, necessary next steps to transition.
- Parents are told/scared into believing that if they don’t support or enable their child to transition, they will commit suicide.
- No other mental condition/illness is treated as the transitioning movement is treated. It can be compared to anorexia and how we know not to encourage those gripped by its fallacies to continue pursuing behavior and thinking that contributes to its perpetuation.
- Around 70% of kids who experience some gender confusion – and are not affirmed or socially transitioned – eventually outgrow it.
Thoughts on Shrier’s book from a pastor’s perspective
As deeply as I appreciate this excellent resource, I need to make my Christian readers aware that Irreversible Damage isn’t a religious book. It does expose the transgender movement as a bone fide religious cult. It’s thoroughly documented. In her Substack post Little Miss Trouble, Shrier clearly states:
Gender Ideology is not a pendulum, and it will not swing back with a little help from inertia. Gender Ideology is a fundamentalist religion—intolerant, demanding strict adherence to doctrine, hell-bent on gathering proselytes. I do not here use the term “religion” metaphorically or lightly. 3
As clear as she is, Shrier and I would not agree on the end game, nor the nature of what’s happening. Shrier says that there are a very few who experience gender dysphoria (clinical) who should transition. She is affirming of the LGBTQ alphabet movement.
On the other hand, I see it all as indicative of our inherent rejection of God’s righteous creation of humanity as distinctly male and female. I hold to an orthodox interpretation of scripture that identifies sexual desires for another sex, desires to be another gender, and even sexual desires for the opposite sex outside of marriage to be sinful desires. We taught through scripture that we must continue struggling with our desires to subdue them and seek mental and spiritual health rather than identifying with our desires and claiming them as more powerful than God’s intended design for them and us.
In this Nuff Said post from July 2021, I said:
I want to go on record in the strongest possible opposition to transgenderism as I can. Particularly when involving children or minors, it is brutal, deluded, abusive, evil and morally wrong. From a biblical perspective, it is horribly sinful. Those who encourage or even remain indifferent to it are like those Jesus described as deserving a millstone hung on their neck and tossed into the sea. (Luke 17:1-2) 4
In this Roundup post, from July 2022, I wrote:
It’s not just about transgenderism. It’s about who we are as humans created in the image of God. It’s about design, emotions, peer pressure and mental health. Ultimately, it’s about our souls.
Are we as humans most healthy when we follow our feelings or when we live within boundaries?
It’s about relationships. We live in a world where it’s easy to yell at and blame others. How can we demonstrate love and understanding, empathy and truth in the middle of deeply hard topics with intensely felt beliefs? 5
It’s how we relate to those who are being influenced that reveals our commitment to truth, to Jesus and to people’s souls. Rather than condemning, we must offer truth in love. Rather than condoning through silence, we must graciously but firmly push back on this evil strategy of destroying the beautiful distinctions of our created sexuality. Rather than being angry, we must treat people with compassion who are held captive to the cultural gender cults and seek their freedom.
It won’t be easy. While Shrier rightly points out that going too far in transgenderism results in irreversible damage, we’ve consistently seen that healing and wholeness and new life is available for the God who rescues and reverses. There is hope.
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 6
- I encourage you to visit and subscribe to her Substack.[↩]
- Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, by Abigail Shrier (Regnery Publishing: Washington D.C., 2021), 27.[↩]
- Little Miss Trouble, by Abigail Shrier, The Tooth Fairy, June 2, 2023.[↩]
- Nuff Said: Is “peer review” peerless / standing against transgenderism / Harry Potter in comics / a 2014 VT flyover / and Adam Ford, July 3, 2021[↩]
- The Roundup: Transgenderism, an agenda, and Are they coming for the kids? July 11, 2022[↩]
- Matthew 19:26[↩]
[…] Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier This book was uncomfortably stunning. But it’s a must-read to understand and truly fight back against the transgender ideology assaulting our youth. (See my full review here.) […]