Self-appointed library monitors
Someone is shocked and hurt in Halifax.
“Shocked and hurt” is how Alicia Frederick says she felt when she learned about a new book purchased by Halifax Public Libraries.
Public libraries buy a lot of books. It’s not really a worthwhile project to try to monitor their purchases for what makes you, Random Person, shocked and hurt. Libraries don’t and can’t filter their acquisition process according to what might possibly make someone feel shocked and hurt.
The library currently owns two copies of the book by Abigail Shrier, called Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. As of this writing, 21 people have it on hold. The book’s description on the library website says:
Unsuspecting parents are awakening to find their daughters in thrall to hip trans YouTube stars and “gender-affirming” educators.
We’re supposed to think that’s stupid and wrong. Go take another look at “Elliot” Page to see how stupid and wrong it isn’t.
On March 17, Nicole Nascimento, another mother of a trans child, expressed concern about the book in a Facebook post, and linked to a letter* written by Elm Klemic, who had addressed it to the Ottawa Public Library, asking that library to not include the book in its collection.
…
The letter says that the book “has the potential to cause great harm.” It cites statistics on the high levels of harassment and violence trans youth report, as well as the alarming percentage of those who have made at least one suicide attempt.
The usual nonsense, in short, along with the obligatory threat of suicide which, as mental health professionals keep pointing out, is considered very bad practice because it promotes suicidal ideation. But hey, trans activism trumps all the rules.
Now that the library has put the book into circulation, Nascimento said in a message to the Examiner that she was “concerned.” She wrote, “It surprises me that our library would carry a book that would risk the lives of trans youth simply for the sake of intellectual freedom. It is incredibly irresponsible, especially given the fact that the book in question has little to no scientific ground to stand on.”
The book doesn’t exist “simply for the sake of intellectual freedom.” Shrier wrote it to say something that needs to be said. It’s a substantive book with a substantive argument, and that’s why she wrote it and the publisher published it and Halifax readers are requesting it from the library.
Earlier this week, Mila McKay launched a new online petition calling on the library to remove the book from its collection. The petition says, “Transgender Identity is not a choice, a Craze, or a Fad” and that the inclusion of the book in the library’s collection has “increased ease of access to parents and other adults who work with youth who may believe the hateful messages in the book and subsequently act in ways that endanger trans children.”
But Mila McKay doesn’t know that trans identity is not a choice or a craze or a fad. How could she know that? Does she have infallible insight into the minds of all people who identify as trans? How could anybody know what she claims to know?
McKay, a trans/non-binary anti-poverty activist and sociology student at Mount Saint Vincent University, said in an interview she was “very angry” about the library’s decision. She does not think the book should be censored — but that removal from the library collection does not constitute censorship. It “isn’t stopping [Shrier] from selling her book or publishing her book… There are all kinds of books [Halifax Public Libraries] don’t shelve. They don’t buy just any book. So why this book?”
Who put her him them in charge of what books Halifax library adds to its shelves? Why this trans/non-binary anti-poverty activist and sociology student?
One can go to most city libraries and find copies of the racist, slipshod “The Bell Curve” by Charles Murray. I just checked: My public library has a few hate-spewing works by Ann Coulter.
And, besides, these TRA’s like to pretend that there aren’t legion of female detransitioners from the FTM “journey.”
This is fundamental dishonesty. To deny the reality, to literally deny the existence of detransitioners and what that means. To insist that when your daughter comes to you and says she’s a man that to be a good parent you should support elective masectomies, testosterone injections, removal of the uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries, and mutilation of the forearm to construct something vaguely resembling a penis.
To insist on this when there’s a high likelihood that she’ll later decide she’s made a mistake is nothing short of criminal.
Don’t you mean Craze or Fad? Honestly, random caps gets me so annoyed…
Traditionally, librarians have come down on the side of carrying books people might disagree with. Librarians have been a front guard against censorship, believing that intellectual freedom is the cornerstone of what they do. My husband (a retired librarian) has been in the center of just such a conversation many, many times. He always came down on the side of stocking the book, except one time when it was so incredibly racist, and a children’s book, he didn’t see any need to have it in an academic library.
Now, though, I think library schools are focusing so much on intersectionality and diversity, it may not be the same anymore.
Since when has a reader being ‘shocked and hurt’ been a criterion libraries bother with? Monty Python’s Life of Brian – along with the many other works more directly critical of religion – did that to many a religious person and that didn’t deter libraries. Why does this person think they get to have a personal veto over the purchases of libraries?
If her critics had bothered to read the book, they would have known that Shrier only argues that some transgender identities seem to be the result of social contagion and personal stress — which is, or ought to be, a much more defensible position. It’s just that their own position can’t handle even partial criticism because they’re invested in the entire collection of assertions needing to be true.
If some teenagers who are certain they’re transgender turn out to not be transgender, then self-knowledge is not 100% reliable and it’s okay for others to doubt them. The floodgates are now open. Anything might be swept away.
Of course, it’s censorship, especially for people who might not have the money to buy the book. Some anti-poverty activist!!
Libraries buy books that are of interest to the public. The fact that 21 people have this one on reserve indicates that that is the case with this one. This “Mila McKay” is not the sharpest knife in the kitchen.
If a library wants to stock Mein Kampf, that’s fine. They’re books and all tell us something about humans. Bloody Fahrenheit 451 arseholes.
I used to think the same thing about my public library’s purchases of Sylva Brown books. It used to piss me off to no end, and I thought it was a waste of money. But I recognized there was an interest and a market, however misguided.
Sorry, how does that even work? Don’t trans people “transition” from one to the other? I guess this person is “transing” to Nowhere. Or is their “transness” another merit badge to collect, another axis of oppression to add to their Authority to Speak on this matter? Otherwise, as Ophelia points out, why talk to McKay at all? Here’s a link to his page:
https://allmylinks.com/milapolitical
Help me out; I’m trying to figure out if the blue lipstick is there to announce the transness or the Enbeeness. I can never tell.
Exactly. Another parallel with religious dogma. Questioning and doubt = Blasphemy. Blasphemy must be punished and rooted out, lest it spread. Enforcement upon Unbelievers keeps doubt safely hidden from everyone’s view, particularly the undecided.
But Mila identifies as the sharpest of knives! To point out that he’s actually a spoon is utensilphobic!
Pierre Masson:
Exactly so. Censorship is not only about preventing works from being published, it’s about preventing them from being read. Preventing libraries from stocking books is an excellent way of ensuring poorer people can’t read them.
Well fortunately, Mia is both a trans activist and an anti-poverty activist, and is thus perfectly placed to decide, sight unseen, that Shrier’s book is a) completely wrong, and without merit and therefore b) should not be read by anyone, including poor people. Mia knows what’s right and what’s good for you, and me, and everyone. We can trust Mia’s special, magical knowledge, because They more oppressed than you.* They speak for all trans, Enbee, and poor people. And if you disagree with Them, THEY’LL KILL THEMSELF!
*Please try to forget that Mia is just another white guy, because that might result in the cancellation of an axis of oppression or two, the forfeiture of merit badges, and Unanswerable, Privileged Moral Authority to Speak on Any and All Subjects. Give him a break. After all, he went to the trouble of putting on that gawdawful blue lippy.