Author accuses Target of caving to 'woke activists' by briefly pulling book deemed 'transphobic' on Twitter

'Irreversible Damange' by Abigail Shrier explores diagnoses of gender dysphoria in young girls

Target caved to "woke activists" last week by briefly pulling a book deemed "transphobic" by one Twitter user from its shelves before reversing its decision amid backlash, the book's author told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Monday.

Wall Street Journal contributor Abigail Shrier, the author of "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” told host Tucker Carlson that "woke activists have taken the position that we're never allowed to question anyone’s transition, no matter their age, circumstance, or the incredible lack of adequate medical oversight.

"I fully support medical transition for mature adults," Shrier added. "My book specifically looked at a sudden and alarming spike among teenage girls and I took a hard look at why."

The book delves into the subject of gender dysphoria and the purported societal pressure to push the diagnosis onto children, particularly young girls.

Shrier's book was pulled after a Twitter user who identifies as a trans woman called out Target for selling the book on its website.

"I think the trans community deserves a response from @AskTarget @Target as to why they are selling this book about the 'transgender epidemic sweeping the country' Trigger Warning: Transphobia," the Twitter user wrote to her roughly 1400 followers last week.

The next day, Target's customer service account AskTarget appeared to meet the Twitter user's demand.

"Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. We have removed this book from our assortment," AskTarget responded to the tweet. 

Shrier's book focuses on "individuals who claim to be gender dysphoric," a condition in which someone is intensely uncomfortable with their biological gender and strongly identifies with the opposite gender. 

In recent years, teenage girls have been "self-diagnosing" themselves claiming to have "gender dysphoria ... and doctors are just told to rubber-stamp this," Shrier claimed "A lot of them really don’t have gender dysphoria, so they’re unlikely to be helped by medical transition." 

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Shrier attributed the shift to societal pressures that push the diagnosis onto children, particularly young girls. 

"We’re seeing a spike in teenage girls who claim to have this and they have no childhood history at all, so we know that this is very strange," she said.

"And even stranger, it’s clustered in friend groups. teenage girls are coming out with their friends. So we know this is socially driven."

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Shrier's book explores the long-term effects of misdiagnosed gender dysphoria and the purported societal pressure. 

"The age of medical consent varies by state," Shrier told Carlson. " In Oregon, it is 15. So, a 15-year-old without her parents' permission and without so much as a therapist's note can walk into a gender clinic and walk out that day with a course of testosterone."

The retail chain eventually reversed its decision to pull Shrier's book after facing harsh backlash, tweeting Friday that "We want to offer a broad assortment for our guests and are adding this book back to Target.com. We apologize for any confusion."

Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.