Let's begin by stating for anyone who is a regular reader of the Reformed Repute that this book is not in the category of "Christian book." The author would certainly never have intended it to be. This book is intended to serve the purpose of standing as a lone harbinger of danger in a cacophony of affirmations. The reason it has made it to our page is that the book is so important for those with a Christian worldview, that even being written by a non-Christian, the message is so clearly true that it must be considered of estimable worth. Let's dig into it.
This book focuses on the latest "craze" (a sociological term rather than a cultural term) taking hold of adolescent girls. The merit for the book is made clear early on, as Dr. Shrier explains that the data about "gender dysphoria" (severe and persistent discomfort in one's biological sex) is lengthy and historically well-developed.
Historically, it afflicted a tiny sliver of the population (roughly 0.1 percent) and almost exclusively boys. Before 2012, in fact, there was no scientific literature on girls ages eleven to twenty-one ever having developed gender dysphoria at all.
With this historical precedent, that one in every thousand people would have discomfort with their biological sex, with nearly all of those being male, and never having had an adolescent girl of this predicament, it is shocking to learn that as of 2018 adolescent girls constitute the majority of cases of gender dysphoria. How could it be, that in a 6 year span, the entire history of gender dysphora (or transgenderism if you prefer) could flip on its head?
Dr. Shrier (J.D. from Yale Law School if you're wondering), conducted nearly 200 interviews with trans-identifying individuals, along with a few dozen of their families to develop a lengthier background on their gender-identity. Between these interviews and a careful study of the statistics regarding the mental health of teen girls, Shrier concludes that the cultural reaction to the trans-craze is not only irresponsible, it is terribly dangerous. "Between 2009 and 2017, the number of high schoolers who contemplated suicide increased 25 percent. The number of teens diagnosed with clinical depression grew 37 percent between 2005 and 2014. The worst hit - experiencing depression at a rate three times that of boys - were teenage girls." She goes on to explain that teenage girls also saw their rate of self-harm go up 62 percent since 2009, with the rate of self harm among preteen girls rising 189 percent since 2010.
They're anxious. They're depressed. They're harming themselves at alarming rates. They're contemplating and attempting suicide at alarming rates. What is wrong? How do we help them? The cultural answer is to let them lead and stop trying to be so controlling. If an answer presents itself, and the girls claim that it will stop them from harming themselves, then let that be the answer.
It is important to note that Shrier is not anti-transgenderism, nor is she transphobic. In fact, she is often far too left-leaning for most Conservative sensibilities. What makes her unwelcome in this debate is that she does not believe that true gender dysphoria (transgenderism) is what is causing the problem. She posits that, just like every generation prior, girls experience difficulties in digesting the changes that occur through adolescence, and the culture around them is always willing to produce an easy answer for them to grasp to. This answer is often quite rare when initially introduced as a possible solution, but when promoted, it takes off like what Shrier calls a "contagion."
For instance, in the 17th Century, the city of Salem found itself hanging several people for witchcraft. In the 18th Century nervous disorders became a common occurrence, and the 19th Century saw a neurastenia epidemic follow suit. In the 20th Century (the 1900's), anorexia nervosa came out of the blue, opposite bulimia, and the new trend of cutting. All of these were spread notoriously through the portion of society known as "adolescent girls."
What would we say is the cure for these problems? Was exorcism the cure for the Salem Witch trials? Shock therapy or lobotomy for nervous disorders? Liposuction or gastric bypass for anorexia and bulimia? Blood thickeners for cutting? These answers seem stupid to our hindsight, but how far will we have to go before we realize that hormones and surgeries are a stupid answer for the latest craze - transgenderism - in our teen girls?
The clear majority (65 percent) of the adolescent girls who had discovered transgender identity in adolescence - "out of the blue" - had done so after a period of prolonged social media immersion.
My secular background is in Progressive-Era History, specifically relating to Anglo-German relations. I have a book called The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, that describes in detail the long road of subtle things - then overlooked as inconsequential or necessary - that led to World War I, the worst war the world had ever seen, and undeniably the cause of the Second World War - the worst war the world has yet seen to date. Reading Shrier's Irreversible Damage somehow reminds me of that book, as we read all of the small, subtle steps that our culture has taken to produce these results. For example, she notes how that in 2018 Dr. Lisa Littman (an ob-gyn who consulted for Planned Parenthood) did research on the transgender movement in teen girls, only to find that the most likely reason that so many teen girls were coming out as trans was because of "peer contagion" (AKA, "everybody else is doing it"). The original inclination towards it was reasoned to be a "maladaptive coping mechanism", meaning that these girls are dealing with real mental struggles, and transgenderism seems to be the explanation that they are choosing to be the source of their mental strain. Popularity of the explanation leads others to claim it is their explanation as well, and so on the trend is perpetuated.
Dr. Littman was "cancelled", labelled a right-wing extremist (what a joke - imagine a right-wing extremist who works with Planned Parenthood), and lost her job at the Rhode Island Department of Health. Her published results were redacted and put under further review (naturally they believed that they could find the error in her logic). The problem was, all of her findings were validated and her conclusion was correct. After 7 months of further examination, "none of her results had changed." But did that caution anyone in the trans or medical community? Not at all.
Without going into detail of everything elaborated in the book, I want to briefly describe what I take away as the core theme. There are certainly mental problems running rampant through the adolescent world - particularly in and amongst our girls. Our culture is pushing hard, "if you're uncomfortable with your body, or you dislike the image of femininity, or you don't want to deal with the downsides of being a woman in a patriarchal world like ours - you are probably trans!" Of course, that describes nearly every teenage girl in one way or another.
The danger is not that these girls will be what my generation called "Tomboys." It is far worse than that. The medical community has come so far in support of the "affirmative method" regarding transgenderism, that they are outright and unapologetically letting the patients diagnose themselves and demand that the doctors prescribe medical treatments according to their diagnoses.
Shrier tells an interesting story of a mother who takes her 8-year-old son to a therapist because he is convinced he is a chicken. "Doctor, please help, my son thinks he is a chicken!" The boy responds, "I am a chicken, Mom!" The mother comes back, "Son, you don't have any feathers." To which the boy retorts, "Of course I don't! I went through the wrong puberty." The mother exhaustedly looks to the therapist. "See? Will you please help him?" To which the doctor responds, "Help him? You're the one talking to a chicken."
This absurd example is the experience that many parents are having when their children "come out" as trans. Rather than extending the slightest criticism into this newfound identity, our medical community is so quick to affirm, prescribe hormones, and refer for surgery, that the girls that "desist" (that is, they later realize they are not truly trans) have a common cry, "I was just a kid! Why didn't anybody stop me?!"
After all this risk and untold sacrifice, at least her dysphoria is gone, right? In fact, there are no good long-term studies indicating that either gender dysphoria or suicidality diminishes after medical transition.
This is perhaps the most tragic part. We are not even operating under flawed science. The advocates of eugenics had a flawed method of examining the data they collected, but our data is clear and we choose to ignore it. The girls who undergo their chosen treatment, whether it be hormone therapy or "top surgery" or "bottom surgery", or all of it together - none of these corrective treatments actually make a difference in the mental health of the girls. They are just as mentally unstable, just as miserable, just as prone to self-harm and suicide, after all the affirmations and transitory efforts as they were before. Nothing changes, except for the fact that they are now rendered by testosterone hairier, with a lower voice, male-pattern baldness; or that they have no ability to ever breastfeed a child because of top-surgery; or that they are permanently infertile and have deformed genitals because of bottom surgery. This would seem to prove that the mental issue is not in their gender, but something else.
So many of these girls who are drawn into the transgender world are already battling anorexia, anxiety, and depression. They are lonely. They are fragile. And more than anything, they want to belong. Adults in their lives should realize this, but instead, the moment these girls voice the shibboleth "I'm trans," nearly every adult, even medical professionals, regard them with the awe owed to a prophet, not the skepticism usually applied to a suffering teen.
Comments