I first read Abigail’s book about 5 months ago which I was able to access through the Berkeley California public library system. My desire to educate myself about this topic became more urgent when my 11 year old daughter began asking questions about gender ideology. Frankly, I was almost as confused as she was. Her questions began after an episode that occurred at a friend’s house. Her friend’s 13 year old sister had a group of school friends over for a backyard picnic. The 8th grade girls all attend a local “very progressive” and very expensive private girls middle school nearby. My daughter came home confused because she said most of the 8th grade girls were dressed like boys and told my daughter that they wanted to be referred to as “they”. She heard some of them talking about wanting to “take medicine that would turn them into a boy”. My daughter simply didn’t know what to make of it all since her understanding was that her friend’s sister attended an all girl’s school. I realized that educating myself about the topic was a project that I needed to undertake immediately. My research led me to Abigail’s book along with “Trans” by the British journalist Helen Joyce. Many of my politically left leaning (actually most of them lean WAY left) friends and co workers who are raising daughters have very quietly confided in me that they are deeply disturbed and worried about the transgender craze moving through their daughters’ friend groups at schools throughout the Bay Area. Many told me that if their daughters don’t start referring to themselves as “bi” or “pan” or “trans” they will be completely socially ostracized. We are talking about girls as young as 9 years old who are being pressured to think and talk about these complex issues. I continue to recommend Abigail’s book to them and loan out my multiple copies. They have expressed gratitude and relief and finally feel like they are armed with straightforward, truthful, and rational information about this complex topic. Prior to reading Abigail’s book several of my friends were seriously considering sending their daughters to this very same nearby private girls middle school. They have now withdrawn their daughter’s application for admission because they are fearful about sending them into this type of environment where they may be pressured to proclaim themselves as something other than just a regular 12 year old girl who is just trying to grow up normally and figure things out in a reasonable sort of way. Through my own research on this topic I have learned so much and and feel so grateful to Abigail for helping me to begin my own journey of discovery. In a roundabout way she helped me find the work of Bari Weiss, Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, Helen Joyce, Coleman Hughes, Bonnie Snyder, and many others . I feel so much more prepared and able to not be silenced and to speak my truth. Most importantly for me, I feel more empowered in my role as a mother who wants to raise a daughter who can live and speak according to her own truth. Thanks to all of you who are bravely leading the fight to protect free speech, the right to a protected childhood, and the promotion of civilized and respectful open discussion of even the most controversial issues.
This is my first contribution online in about a decade. I've had the luxury of lurking beneath the radar of the internet. This essay by Abigail Shrier was a lynchpin to committing to a subscription of this newsletter. It appears that the work in this medium lives up to its namesake. During the past decade, I've been writing. I wrote an essay three years ago titled, 'Reclaiming Common Sense'. I exhumed it recently, brushed off the dust, and edited it, again. I believe Abigail, Bari, and others here might enjoy reading it, and maybe providing feedback. Fair warning: it is a long, serious, dare I say disquisition on the definition of common sense and its relation to gender theory (and especially practice). Bari, Abigail, or anybody else, please advise me as to how I should proceed in presenting it to this readership. Thank you, Ty Kun
Thank you Bari and Abigail. I could not agree more. I have been telling this to my husband and mother for two years now. They beg me to hush up. I am mild mannered but I am convinced it's crucial we fight back when and where we can.
"That is precisely the reason it is so important to stand up and say: no. To say: progress comes only when we have the freedom to disagree. To say: It is outrageous that tech platforms are censoring such debates and that some journalists are cheering them on. To say, in public: enough."
Bari, your intro reminds me of the famous scene from Falling Down, where Michael Douglas' character yells "IN AMERICA, WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO DISAGREE!" at the Nazi.
It's a fundamental concept that even an anti-hero would defend in 1993, but has all but disappeared in a generation. How did this happen? Thanks for answering!
Why is the trans fad thing happening? Anyone ever see Velvet Goldmine? We’ve been here before, but now we’ve got easy access to sex hormones, and its got a more Maoist flavor than glam rock. I’m trans and I refuse to share my pronouns, or wear name tags. Fuck that post modernist hammer and sickle armband bullshit. Why do teenage girls go for fads? If only Beatle mania has bitten the dust, but alas London calling.
I have the utmost respect for Abigail Shrier, especially as I watch my dear friend go through his with her transgender child (now 15). 10 years ago, a psychologist would have worked through the issue of open adoption in which this child's bio mom now has three sons. Do you think your biological mother might have raised you/kept you were born a boy? These questions are absolutely relevant, but now absolutely forbidden. This young person learned about trans through an online gaming friend from another state. He (formerly she) is still cutting. If you are happy as the other gender, why are you still self harming. Thank God for Abigail Shrier for falling on this sword on a daily basis. I see the lawsuits coming and that is what will finally tamp this -- especially for the underage.
I want to sincerely thank Ms Shrier for writing this book. After reading it I sent a copy to my daughter in law and sister-in-law to read. I urged another sister in law to read. I urged all to send it to other mothers and grandmothers so they would read. If this is to be stopped it will have to be by mothers, fathers and grandparents. The associations (education and medical) that should have put the brakes on this have failed us. It is the family who will have to stop it. Again thank you Ms Shrier.
I’m very happy to see this exchange provides a means to support tolerance, honesty, free speech, Bari and Abigail. I shared The Books are Burning article on my LinkedIn page, then signed up & onto Odysee.com (three hours after first hearing about blockchain decentralized social media from Peter Smith on yahoo finance news) - located Abigail on Meghan Murphy -watched for 20 minutes - then paused to comment here. I’m so hooked on smart women who are incredibly skilled communicators - starting with Bari — who opened the back-to-sanity door for me! Really appreciate - all of you.
This sentence is so precise and clear, it needs to be repeated as often as possible by as many as possible: "Summon what faith you can in those things you know to be right and true: a person is not defined by her race; biological sex is real; scientific research requires ideologically unencumbered investigation; activists shouldn’t bully libraries; and books should not be banned."
Simple first step to combat this: Boycott Amazon, post links to Gab or Rumble or any other "free speech" platform away from YouTube and Facebook, support "new media" such as this site and a host of other platforms other than big media and tech.
Abigail, I am also concerned about "woke cancel-culture" and that is why I decided to read Bari. You, unfortunately, weaken your argument from the beginning, by tacitly endorsing ivermectin. I'm a physician, and have researched ivermectin. It is a drug, primarily used in veterinary medicine to eliminate parasites like worms. It is not antiviral. Covid 19 is a virus. In addition, there are many negative side effects of ivermectin and bad reactions with other medications. If I were you, I would not back that horse.
I also wonder why you did not bring up the fact that religious fundamentalists have banned the teaching of evolution in many states and banned publications that do not specifically endorse the Creation story written in the Bible. I agree that libraries should not be bullied to eliminate books, but you were very selective in your example.
Thanks for including the links to Mayo Clinic articles. They proved me to be exactly correct. If you read the links, ivermectin is used only for parasites in humans and in veterinary practice, however it is not FDA approved for viral infections. i.e. Covid. Not one of the Covid treatment recommendations include ivermectin. My point to Abigail was that, if she is to make a case against cancel-culture, the example of ivermectin not being accepted as mainstream treatment, was just not a good example.
An outstanding article. Like the author, I’m displeased by the silence of the professionals that we all expect to act…professional and ethical and moral. I think there’s an assumption that the mob has the numbers as well as the noise. But I don’t think that’s true. They’re just noisy. They aren’t the majority opinion. They’re noisy specially to intimidate the majority. Reasonable people exist in the majority of voices in the United States. Don’t let Twitter fool you. They need you to be afraid in order to keep uncomfortable truths from being revealed. I’m nobody. And I’m more vocal about this nonsense than people with power and frankly it’s frustrating. And as someone that leans “conservative” I can tell you that this has been “our” lives for decades. Thankfully progressives have become so intolerant that they’re eating their own, pushing classic liberals, conservatives and centrists together into an enormous population concerned with preserving the Bill of Rights - the very fabric of this country, the most liberal form of government ever devised. So, welcome to sanity. I started to follow Bari when she wrote that we all need to be brave and stand up, even those of us without power. No truer words were ever spoken. Progressives and their army of scolds have been emboldened by our silence. Listen. If you have friends that can’t tolerate your opinion that it’s bananas - BANANAS I say - for a man to compete in the Olympics as a women, then they aren’t people worthy of your friendship. They’re not friends. They’re people you chill with because you enjoy the false trappings of popularity for the sake of popularity - you’re in high school. So if you’re a doctor, a scientist, or some other pedigreed a-hole that can’t speak up (about the Wuhan lab leak) lest you be associated with Trump, then you’re not ethical, and you’re certainly much closer to Trump then the “reasoned science based super enlightened” person you claim Trump opposes. When I was on Twitter I felt like I was battling millions of intelligent adolescents - all of them as deep and reasoned as, “you’re not the boss of me!!” And I’d receive lots of hate. Then I left Twitter and suddenly…silence. All those trees were falling in some far off woods (or were they?). The people, the real flesh and blood individuals I had contact with, on both sides of the political divide were nothing remotely close to that pack of ass-clowns on Twitter. Which means, again, that they’re the minority. A loud minority. We are self censoring because we are seeing allowing them to convince us that they’re everywhere and everybody. Unclutch those pearls and tell em all to to piss up a rope. Besides. You have a new friend. One that doesn’t care about your well intentioned opinions as long as you’re a genuinely decent person - me. You’re welcome.
Here's an excellent piece by Canadian author Allan Stratton in Quillette on the threat to the LGBT+ movement represented by what the author calls Gender Supremacy (aka Gender Theory): t.ly/TmAC
It's part one of three, some great history on the LGBT movement, and an interesting perspective on the dangers of radical overreach in social movements.
The long and the short of it: radical gender theory foolishly denies everything we've learned about the actual biology behind gendered behavior (as opposed to the magical gender fairy dust nonsense pushed by the gender supremacists), and as the author notes, it gaslights "those who rightly insist on the relevance of sex to their own identity and rights."
"amid the apparent decay of “gender supremacism” (to borrow a phrase from Quillette contributor Allan Stratton), its mantras remain embedded as holy writ in many professional subcultures—largely because gender activists have successfully entrenched themselves amid the various oversight bodies, trade associations, and unions that serve as gatekeepers in these fields. In many professions, these authorities possess the power to end a person’s career."
I just now ordered book. Thank you Shrier. I am anti-censorship and anti-banning and anti-canceling. Those of us who do stand up and speak as adults are initially isolated and vulnerable. At the same time, there is a mental health benefit when demonstrating courage to oneself. Regarding the legitimate fear that silences the majority of free thinkers, one must explore safer options for participation such as sending a postal letter signed by “John Doe”. I was briefly an anonymous John Doe in communication before I summoned the courage to use my real name. Ask family and friends for advice on how to communicate without becoming punished. Ask HR to maintain or implement protections to separate work from non-work.
I first read Abigail’s book about 5 months ago which I was able to access through the Berkeley California public library system. My desire to educate myself about this topic became more urgent when my 11 year old daughter began asking questions about gender ideology. Frankly, I was almost as confused as she was. Her questions began after an episode that occurred at a friend’s house. Her friend’s 13 year old sister had a group of school friends over for a backyard picnic. The 8th grade girls all attend a local “very progressive” and very expensive private girls middle school nearby. My daughter came home confused because she said most of the 8th grade girls were dressed like boys and told my daughter that they wanted to be referred to as “they”. She heard some of them talking about wanting to “take medicine that would turn them into a boy”. My daughter simply didn’t know what to make of it all since her understanding was that her friend’s sister attended an all girl’s school. I realized that educating myself about the topic was a project that I needed to undertake immediately. My research led me to Abigail’s book along with “Trans” by the British journalist Helen Joyce. Many of my politically left leaning (actually most of them lean WAY left) friends and co workers who are raising daughters have very quietly confided in me that they are deeply disturbed and worried about the transgender craze moving through their daughters’ friend groups at schools throughout the Bay Area. Many told me that if their daughters don’t start referring to themselves as “bi” or “pan” or “trans” they will be completely socially ostracized. We are talking about girls as young as 9 years old who are being pressured to think and talk about these complex issues. I continue to recommend Abigail’s book to them and loan out my multiple copies. They have expressed gratitude and relief and finally feel like they are armed with straightforward, truthful, and rational information about this complex topic. Prior to reading Abigail’s book several of my friends were seriously considering sending their daughters to this very same nearby private girls middle school. They have now withdrawn their daughter’s application for admission because they are fearful about sending them into this type of environment where they may be pressured to proclaim themselves as something other than just a regular 12 year old girl who is just trying to grow up normally and figure things out in a reasonable sort of way. Through my own research on this topic I have learned so much and and feel so grateful to Abigail for helping me to begin my own journey of discovery. In a roundabout way she helped me find the work of Bari Weiss, Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, Helen Joyce, Coleman Hughes, Bonnie Snyder, and many others . I feel so much more prepared and able to not be silenced and to speak my truth. Most importantly for me, I feel more empowered in my role as a mother who wants to raise a daughter who can live and speak according to her own truth. Thanks to all of you who are bravely leading the fight to protect free speech, the right to a protected childhood, and the promotion of civilized and respectful open discussion of even the most controversial issues.
Greetings everyone,
This is my first contribution online in about a decade. I've had the luxury of lurking beneath the radar of the internet. This essay by Abigail Shrier was a lynchpin to committing to a subscription of this newsletter. It appears that the work in this medium lives up to its namesake. During the past decade, I've been writing. I wrote an essay three years ago titled, 'Reclaiming Common Sense'. I exhumed it recently, brushed off the dust, and edited it, again. I believe Abigail, Bari, and others here might enjoy reading it, and maybe providing feedback. Fair warning: it is a long, serious, dare I say disquisition on the definition of common sense and its relation to gender theory (and especially practice). Bari, Abigail, or anybody else, please advise me as to how I should proceed in presenting it to this readership. Thank you, Ty Kun
Thank you Bari and Abigail. I could not agree more. I have been telling this to my husband and mother for two years now. They beg me to hush up. I am mild mannered but I am convinced it's crucial we fight back when and where we can.
"That is precisely the reason it is so important to stand up and say: no. To say: progress comes only when we have the freedom to disagree. To say: It is outrageous that tech platforms are censoring such debates and that some journalists are cheering them on. To say, in public: enough."
Sounds eerily, though in a good way, like WFB Jr.
Bari, your intro reminds me of the famous scene from Falling Down, where Michael Douglas' character yells "IN AMERICA, WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO DISAGREE!" at the Nazi.
It's a fundamental concept that even an anti-hero would defend in 1993, but has all but disappeared in a generation. How did this happen? Thanks for answering!
Why is the trans fad thing happening? Anyone ever see Velvet Goldmine? We’ve been here before, but now we’ve got easy access to sex hormones, and its got a more Maoist flavor than glam rock. I’m trans and I refuse to share my pronouns, or wear name tags. Fuck that post modernist hammer and sickle armband bullshit. Why do teenage girls go for fads? If only Beatle mania has bitten the dust, but alas London calling.
I have the utmost respect for Abigail Shrier, especially as I watch my dear friend go through his with her transgender child (now 15). 10 years ago, a psychologist would have worked through the issue of open adoption in which this child's bio mom now has three sons. Do you think your biological mother might have raised you/kept you were born a boy? These questions are absolutely relevant, but now absolutely forbidden. This young person learned about trans through an online gaming friend from another state. He (formerly she) is still cutting. If you are happy as the other gender, why are you still self harming. Thank God for Abigail Shrier for falling on this sword on a daily basis. I see the lawsuits coming and that is what will finally tamp this -- especially for the underage.
Also THANK YOU Ms Weiss. This post was a tremendous and very practical public service. It was worth the entire years cost for your substack
I want to sincerely thank Ms Shrier for writing this book. After reading it I sent a copy to my daughter in law and sister-in-law to read. I urged another sister in law to read. I urged all to send it to other mothers and grandmothers so they would read. If this is to be stopped it will have to be by mothers, fathers and grandparents. The associations (education and medical) that should have put the brakes on this have failed us. It is the family who will have to stop it. Again thank you Ms Shrier.
I’m very happy to see this exchange provides a means to support tolerance, honesty, free speech, Bari and Abigail. I shared The Books are Burning article on my LinkedIn page, then signed up & onto Odysee.com (three hours after first hearing about blockchain decentralized social media from Peter Smith on yahoo finance news) - located Abigail on Meghan Murphy -watched for 20 minutes - then paused to comment here. I’m so hooked on smart women who are incredibly skilled communicators - starting with Bari — who opened the back-to-sanity door for me! Really appreciate - all of you.
I also going to post The Books are Burning article on my tax consulting website this coming Monday - as a pop up supporting tolerance and free speech.
This sentence is so precise and clear, it needs to be repeated as often as possible by as many as possible: "Summon what faith you can in those things you know to be right and true: a person is not defined by her race; biological sex is real; scientific research requires ideologically unencumbered investigation; activists shouldn’t bully libraries; and books should not be banned."
Simple first step to combat this: Boycott Amazon, post links to Gab or Rumble or any other "free speech" platform away from YouTube and Facebook, support "new media" such as this site and a host of other platforms other than big media and tech.
Abigail, I am also concerned about "woke cancel-culture" and that is why I decided to read Bari. You, unfortunately, weaken your argument from the beginning, by tacitly endorsing ivermectin. I'm a physician, and have researched ivermectin. It is a drug, primarily used in veterinary medicine to eliminate parasites like worms. It is not antiviral. Covid 19 is a virus. In addition, there are many negative side effects of ivermectin and bad reactions with other medications. If I were you, I would not back that horse.
I also wonder why you did not bring up the fact that religious fundamentalists have banned the teaching of evolution in many states and banned publications that do not specifically endorse the Creation story written in the Bible. I agree that libraries should not be bullied to eliminate books, but you were very selective in your example.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/ivermectin-oral-route/proper-use/drg-20064397 https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/antiviral-therapy/ivermectin/ It certainly appears to be used in humans, and is being investigated by reputable scientists for other uses including Covid-19.
Leaving your favorite sacred cow's from her examples does not negate Abigail's point. You are being as selective as you suggest she was.
Thanks for including the links to Mayo Clinic articles. They proved me to be exactly correct. If you read the links, ivermectin is used only for parasites in humans and in veterinary practice, however it is not FDA approved for viral infections. i.e. Covid. Not one of the Covid treatment recommendations include ivermectin. My point to Abigail was that, if she is to make a case against cancel-culture, the example of ivermectin not being accepted as mainstream treatment, was just not a good example.
An outstanding article. Like the author, I’m displeased by the silence of the professionals that we all expect to act…professional and ethical and moral. I think there’s an assumption that the mob has the numbers as well as the noise. But I don’t think that’s true. They’re just noisy. They aren’t the majority opinion. They’re noisy specially to intimidate the majority. Reasonable people exist in the majority of voices in the United States. Don’t let Twitter fool you. They need you to be afraid in order to keep uncomfortable truths from being revealed. I’m nobody. And I’m more vocal about this nonsense than people with power and frankly it’s frustrating. And as someone that leans “conservative” I can tell you that this has been “our” lives for decades. Thankfully progressives have become so intolerant that they’re eating their own, pushing classic liberals, conservatives and centrists together into an enormous population concerned with preserving the Bill of Rights - the very fabric of this country, the most liberal form of government ever devised. So, welcome to sanity. I started to follow Bari when she wrote that we all need to be brave and stand up, even those of us without power. No truer words were ever spoken. Progressives and their army of scolds have been emboldened by our silence. Listen. If you have friends that can’t tolerate your opinion that it’s bananas - BANANAS I say - for a man to compete in the Olympics as a women, then they aren’t people worthy of your friendship. They’re not friends. They’re people you chill with because you enjoy the false trappings of popularity for the sake of popularity - you’re in high school. So if you’re a doctor, a scientist, or some other pedigreed a-hole that can’t speak up (about the Wuhan lab leak) lest you be associated with Trump, then you’re not ethical, and you’re certainly much closer to Trump then the “reasoned science based super enlightened” person you claim Trump opposes. When I was on Twitter I felt like I was battling millions of intelligent adolescents - all of them as deep and reasoned as, “you’re not the boss of me!!” And I’d receive lots of hate. Then I left Twitter and suddenly…silence. All those trees were falling in some far off woods (or were they?). The people, the real flesh and blood individuals I had contact with, on both sides of the political divide were nothing remotely close to that pack of ass-clowns on Twitter. Which means, again, that they’re the minority. A loud minority. We are self censoring because we are seeing allowing them to convince us that they’re everywhere and everybody. Unclutch those pearls and tell em all to to piss up a rope. Besides. You have a new friend. One that doesn’t care about your well intentioned opinions as long as you’re a genuinely decent person - me. You’re welcome.
Here's an excellent piece by Canadian author Allan Stratton in Quillette on the threat to the LGBT+ movement represented by what the author calls Gender Supremacy (aka Gender Theory): t.ly/TmAC
It's part one of three, some great history on the LGBT movement, and an interesting perspective on the dangers of radical overreach in social movements.
The long and the short of it: radical gender theory foolishly denies everything we've learned about the actual biology behind gendered behavior (as opposed to the magical gender fairy dust nonsense pushed by the gender supremacists), and as the author notes, it gaslights "those who rightly insist on the relevance of sex to their own identity and rights."
Today, Quillette has an editorial, which refers to Stratton, and makes an interesting point about the gender ID politics, at https://quillette.com/2021/06/24/standing-up-to-the-gender-ideologues-a-quillette-editorial/ :
"amid the apparent decay of “gender supremacism” (to borrow a phrase from Quillette contributor Allan Stratton), its mantras remain embedded as holy writ in many professional subcultures—largely because gender activists have successfully entrenched themselves amid the various oversight bodies, trade associations, and unions that serve as gatekeepers in these fields. In many professions, these authorities possess the power to end a person’s career."
I just now ordered book. Thank you Shrier. I am anti-censorship and anti-banning and anti-canceling. Those of us who do stand up and speak as adults are initially isolated and vulnerable. At the same time, there is a mental health benefit when demonstrating courage to oneself. Regarding the legitimate fear that silences the majority of free thinkers, one must explore safer options for participation such as sending a postal letter signed by “John Doe”. I was briefly an anonymous John Doe in communication before I summoned the courage to use my real name. Ask family and friends for advice on how to communicate without becoming punished. Ask HR to maintain or implement protections to separate work from non-work.