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July 1, 2020 - Dennis Prager Show

07:54

Abigail Shrier: Transgenderism's "IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE"

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	The transgender craze seducing our daughter.
	So this is not a book about transgender generally.
	It's specific to young girls.
	Yeah, it's about the epidemic we're seeing right now of transgender identification among teenage girls.
	Adolescent girls who've had no childhood history of gender dysphoria, which is the...
	Discomfort in one's biological sex.
	No childhood history.
	Suddenly deciding in friend groups that they're transgender and pushing for hormones and surgeries.
	It's a phenomenon that's exploded across the West, Scandinavia, England, and America.
	And it really cries out for explanation.
	And that's what I sought to do in this book.
	Of course it cries out for explanation.
	Especially if, and this is a question, This is not nearly as common among adolescent boys.
	Well, so we have a nearly 100-year diagnostic history of gender dysphoria, and it was always little boys who began with it.
	The onset began in early childhood, ages 2 and 4, little boys saying, I don't want to be a boy, I'm a girl, call me by a girl name, you know, I only want to play with girls, that sort of thing.
	So we know what gender dysphoria is.
	We have never seen it like this.
	So all of a sudden now, the dominant demographic is teenage girls in the last decade.
	It came out of nowhere.
	And they really, what they exhibit, even though they call it gender dysphoria, it doesn't look like gender dysphoria.
	These are girls who steepen social media.
	Transgender gurus and influencers on the internet, all kinds of social media, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all of them.
	And they decide with their friends that they are trans.
	And the numbers are astonishing.
	We're talking about thousands of percentage point rise.
	In the last 10 years in America, we've gone from two gender clinics in the country to well over 50. Gender surgeries for natal females quadrupled.
	If my daughter is 15 and says, Dad, Mom, I want you to know I'm really a boy, can I legally take my daughter to a therapist to work it out and stay...
	With a female identity or is that against the law?
	So this is part of the reason we have the problem is that the the co-opting of the medical professional organizations.
	So in I think it's eight we're up to 18 states now in the District of Columbia.
	There are laws banning so-called conversion therapy.
	Now, the conversion therapy that tried to reform or convert homosexuals was a very grisly thing, and it probably should be outlawed.
	But they inserted, you know, very smart activists inserted gender identity language.
	So now therapists are not allowed to help a child get comfortable in their biological sex.
	Wherever these laws apply, they risk losing their licenses.
	Just for the record, while I know the grisly record that you speak of, in a free society, if there is no coercion or deception, people should be allowed.
	I had dinner with a gay man who's a Christian, totally acknowledged that's why I knew he was honest.
	He acknowledged he's attracted to men to this day.
	But he said, I'm a Christian, I want to lead a heterosexual life.
	Married a woman, has children with her.
	She knows exactly where his fantasy world lies.
	He's a loving husband.
	If he wants to work that out with a therapist, I think even that should be legal.
	You know, maybe it should be.
	But I think that the laws were...
	Ostensibly intended to prohibit the really, you know, nasty and...
	I know, electrical shock therapy.
	Yes, exactly.
	But instead, I mean, in the history of gender dysphoria, you know, for decades and decades now, therapists have very successfully helped children, you know, get comfortable in their biological sex.
	By the way, in the DSM 4 or 5, whatever they're up to, the Manual of Psychiatric Diseases or Ailments or whatever the term is, Is gender dysphoria even now listed?
	It is, but it certainly seems to be on the way out.
	They've changed the name, so it's no longer gender identity disorder.
	What is it called?
	Gender dysphoria, and that de-emphasizes the psychopathology.
	So it's certainly on the way out.
	Wait, how does the word dysphoria...
	De-emphasize psychopathology.
	The word disorder is no longer in the term.
	So even though it's in a diagnostic, you know...
	Anytime you have dis, it's a bad sign.
	Dystopia is like the opposite of utopia.
	Okay, anyway, this is happening with more and more girls.
	Yes.
	And one of the reasons you wrote this really important book is to explain this to the best of your ability.
	So take it away.
	Why do you think this is happening?
	So I think it's happening for a bunch of reasons.
	One of the most important reasons is that the girls today are in mental health crisis like we've never seen before.
	Suicidal ideation, self-harm.
	Anxiety, these things are through the roof.
	They are for not only teens, but tweens, you know, young, before they're hit teenagers, so I guess, you know, ages 9 to 12. We've never seen suicide among this population.
	Now we do.
	So we know these girls are in terrible distress, and we know that it's linked to social media, that these girls really torment themselves in the endless comparing that goes on and these horrible feedback loops of feeling bad about themselves.
	Social media really encourages and exacerbates.
	Give me an example.
	I'm really not familiar.
	So, say you're a high school student or a middle school student and you feel bad about your body because it's changing so dramatically and you've put on some weight and you've got all this discomfort and, you know, sort of alienation in your body, which is very normal for a young girl.
	So you might look at another girl when you were my age and say, wow, she's much prettier than I am.
	I think people like her way more than they do me.
	Well now you simply go on to say Instagram and you see just how much they like her more and just how much prettier she is because you see how many likes she gets.
	And in fact, if she goes out with friends and excludes you, it's not just something you're wondering about.
	Gosh, did they go to the mall without me?
	No, you see it on Instagram.
	Everybody knows they excluded you.
	And they may even comment on how you look.
	They'll post pictures of you.
	And they'll say how bad you look in your dress or how much weight you've put on or anything else.
	So we know that social media is incredibly cruel to girls.
	And because of...
	You know, all sorts of things in the culture that have allowed transgender identification to really rise in sort of cultural esteem and value.
	This is one thing that young girls have grabbed onto, they've latched onto as an explanation.
	Of what's wrong with them.
	Oh, it must be gender dysphoria.
	It's sort of in the culture now.
	That doesn't mean they're right.
	Just like they weren't right about any of the past hysteria, demonic possession, all the, you know, multiple personality disorders.
	It doesn't mean they're correct in their self-diagnosis.
	So if you have a bad self-image, that contributes.
	Sure, you think.
	And also the schools are pushing this.
	All right, so tell me that in a moment, because I want to push your book.
	Is that okay with you?
	Thank you.
	Irreversible damage, the transgender craze seducing our daughters.
	It is up at DennisPrager.com.
	If any of you have experienced this, I'd love to hear from you.

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