Lionel Shriver is an American writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Shriver was born on May 18, 1957 in Gastonia, North Carolina. Shriver is a self-described tomboy who grew up with an older and a younger sibling. Shriver took social transition steps as a minor, including a name change at 15. Shriver earned a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and a master’s degree from Columbia University. Shriver has written eight novels and has been a columnist.
Anti-trans activism
Shriver frequently logrolls for other anti-trans activists and appears on conservative media outlets:
“Western media has moved on to an enthrallment with transgenderism bizarrely out of proportion to the statistical rarity of true gender dysphoriaâthough children and people generally being so suggestible, the condition will doubtless grow more common.”
Shriver was signatory on a 2020 Sunday Times open letter defending anti-trans extremist J.K. Rowling.
Shriver praised trans eliminationist Helen Joyce’s book Trans: “Reasonable, methodical, sane, and utterly unintimidated by extremist orthodoxy, Trans is a riveting read.”Â
Via Washington Post:
Writing about transgender people either sends her down slippery-slope thinking â âWe seem to be entering an era in which everything about ourselves that we donât like is subject to revisionâ â or infantile cracks about pronouns and LGBTQ+ culture. (âA three-year-old bashing the keyboard would produce a more functional shorthand.â)
From a Times profile:
Shriver is âmystifiedâ by the way in which the transgender debate has become so fraught, with death threats to writers and MPs. âThe transgender thing just seems to make people completely crazy,â she says. âI just donât think that what sex you are is that important. My sense of myself is not crucially female.â
As a teenager Shriver changed her name from Margaret Ann to Lionel because she was determined not to be eclipsed by her elder brother. âWomen are supposed to be soft and nurturing and pliable and driven to please and looking out for others. Men are strong and determined, and goal driven and powerful. If you look at the stereotypes, anyone with any self-respect would want to be a man. I reject the stereotypes . . . Iâm all for chucking them and one of my biggest problems with the transgender movement is itâs all about nailing them down.â
References
Harvey, Chris (April 3, 2024). Lionel Shriver: âTransgenderism is a social mania.â The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/lionel-shriver-mania-interview-transgenderism/
Wootton, Dan (May 3, 2022). Has it become trendy to be trans? Uncancelled / GBNews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB_jMq8hoUk
Shriver, Lionel (April 27, 2023). Is trans the new anorexia? UnHerd https://unherd.com/2023/04/is-trans-the-new-anorexia/
Athitakis, Markâ(September 20, 2022). Lionel Shriver taunts the âculture policeâ and more in her new book. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/09/20/lionel-shriver-taunts-culture-police-more-her-new-book/
Sylvester, Rachel (September 10 2022) Lionel Shriver: âWhich sex you are isnât that important.â The Times (London) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lionel-shriver-which-sex-you-are-isnt-that-important-8vq8m0cwd
Shriver, Lionel (August 6, 2021). Trans purity test has lost touch with reality. The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-purity-test-has-lost-touch-with-reality-qw5vkzmtp
Shriver, Lionel (September 15, 2018). One discouraging word and youâre a transphobe. The Spectator https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/one-discouraging-word-and-you-re-a-transphobe/
Shriver, Lionel (April 21, 2016). Gender â good for nothing. Prospect https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/features/gender-good-for-nothing https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/48719/gendergood-for-nothing
Resources
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Facebook (facebook.com)
IMDb (imdb.com)
- Lionel Shriver
- imdb.com/name/nm2651543/