Editor’s note: This article has been updated following Target’s response to a request for comment from the Daily Caller.
Target allegedly removed a book that details an investigation into transgenderism trends after a Twitter user complained that the book was “transphobic,” the Daily Wire reported.
“Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” by Abigail Shrier was allegedly removed from Target’s assortment after the book was decried on Twitter, but then later added back to the company’s website, per a statement from a Target spokesperson to the Daily Caller.
The tweet allegedly called Shrier’s book “transphobic,” according to the Daily Wire. The tweet has since been limited and was not available to see. A Target customer service account responded to the tweet by saying that the book was removed from the company’s assortment. (RELATED: ‘Harry Potter’ Star Robbie Coltrane Defends J.K. Rowling Trans Comments, Slams ‘Twitter Generation’ Waiting ‘To Be Offended’)
“Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention,” the response from Target said. We have removed this book from our assortment.”
Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. We have removed this book from our assortment.
— AskTarget (@AskTarget) November 12, 2020
Afterwards, Shrier tweeted “Target.com just made my book disappear. Does it bother anyone that Woke activists and spineless corporations now determine what Americans are allowed to read?”
https://t.co/NRY9T9nAfA just made my book disappear.
Does it bother anyone that Woke activists and spineless corporations now determine what Americans are allowed to read? https://t.co/dbIbjm96Ll
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) November 13, 2020
Shrier’s book does not appear on Target’s website, however, a Target spokesperson told the Daily Caller that the book had been added to the website after being removed.
“Yesterday, we removed a book from Target.com based on feedback we received. We want to offer a broad assortment for our guests and are adding this book back to Target.com. We apologize for any confusion,” the statement said.
“A generation of girls is at risk,” the Amazon description of Shrier’s book says. “Abigail Shrier’s essential book will help you understand what the trans craze is and how you can inoculate your child against it — or how to retrieve her from this dangerous path.”
Many people flocked to Twitter to support Shrier’s work and to decry Target’s alleged attempt to stifle it.
To my horror, I’ve learned that @AbigailShrier‘s book has been removed from @Target. I’ve read it. Every grown-up who is in a position of looking after teenage girls (parents, teachers, therapists, religious leaders, coaches, etc) should read this book.
— Ayaan Hirsi Ali (@Ayaan) November 13, 2020
The efforts to smear my friend @AbigailShrier and to disappear her book (hi, @Target) is despicable—and a sign of what’s to come. I regret that I didn’t speak up earlier on her behalf, that I also thought to myself: is this the hill I want to die on? https://t.co/eetpmpsYGp
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) November 13, 2020
So @AskTarget @Target took down @AbigailShrier book about how trans culture is affecting young women. ONE activist complained about it and Target caved. This is NOT ok. pic.twitter.com/NsJFUxEW3w
— Arielle Scarcella (@ArielleScarcell) November 13, 2020
Other Twitter users criticized Target for selling the book, and Shrier for writing it.
In 2016, @Target, you released a statement affirming your support for transgender customers. @AskTarget why you’re selling a book notorious for its harmful rhetoric against us? Historically, harmful products have been pulled from the shelf, and this should be, too.
<Thread> pic.twitter.com/ZlmD7av2eb
— ????Alexa???? (@_Alexa_Bee) November 12, 2020
your friend wrote a book called “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.”
What’s her follow up? “Black People Are Moving Into Your Neighborhood: Hide Your White Women” https://t.co/rsD9hSAfKY
— ????Imani Gandied Yams???? (@AngryBlackLady) November 13, 2020
Shrier has not responded to the Daily Caller’s requests for comment in time for publication.
Shrier has written about alleged efforts to suppress her reporting on the subject, and legacy media’s apprehension about directing any attention to her book. She has investigated what she calls a “sudden wave of transitioning among teens,” specifically teen girls across the Western world who are self-diagnosing with gender dysphoria.
“… every major newspaper and legacy magazine summarily turned interested journalists down. Whether they would have reviewed my book favorably or unfavorably, I have no idea—and it doesn’t matter. Kirkus, which reviews 10,000 titles per year, including self-published and obscure works—pretended my book didn’t exist,” Shrier wrote in Quillette earlier this month.
“Its editors, too busy heaping praise on the Trans Teen Survival Guide, When Aiden Became a Brother, Jack (Not Jackie), Rethinking Normal, and of course, Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out,” she continued.
After Target’s decision to remove the book, Shrier’s book reportedly rose to the top 100 books on Amazon after being previously ranked lower, roughly at the top of 3,200 books, according to Chad Felix Greene.
Yesterday @AbigailShrier‘s book, Irreversible Damage was at around 3,200 in all books on Amazon.
Impressive on its own.
But YOU made it a top 100 book in a few hours.
We can influence these businesses.
We have power together.
The conservative movement can change culture. pic.twitter.com/SWN50PI8Ed— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) November 13, 2020
“Yesterday @Abigail Shrier’s book, Irreversible Damage was at around 3,200 in all books on Amazon. Impressive on its own,” Greene said on Twitter. “But YOU made it a top 100 book in a few hours. We can influence these businesses. We have power together. The conservative movement can change culture.”