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Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex
A Lambda Literary Award finalist, Captive Genders is a powerful tool against the prison industrial complex and for queer liberation. This expanded edition contains four new essays, including a foreword by CeCe McDonald and a new essay by Chelsea Manning.
Eric Stanley is a postdoctoral fellow at UCSD. His writings appear in Social Text, American Quarterly, and Women and Performance, as well as various collections.
Nat Smith works with Critical Resistance and the Trans/Variant and Intersex Justice Project.
CeCe McDonald was unjustly incarcerated after fatally stabbing a transphobic attacker in 2011. She was released in 2014 after serving nineteen months for second-degree manslaughter.
418 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
About the author
Eric A. Stanley
6 books104 followersEric A. Stanley works at the intersections of radical trans/queer politics, theories of state violence, and visual culture. Eric is currently finishing a PhD in the History of Consciousness department at the University of California, Santa Cruz and continues to organize with Gay Shame. Along with Chris Vargas, Eric is also a co-director of Homotopia (2006) and Criminal Queers (2011).Eric's other writing can be found in the journal Social Text as well as many anthologies.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
December 30, 2010
yeah, this is my and Eric's book. So, I can't/shouldn't write a review....
October 11, 2013
I really, really want to give this book 4 or 5 stars. It has some amazing contributions that really push the anti-prison field and the LGBTQ movement to think further and more deeply.
But this is one of those situations where i think accessibility is key. The articles in this book are so important that i want everyone to be able to read them, including people in prison*, who are disproportionately likely to have had very poor educational opportunities. Unfortunately, a good half of the pieces in "Captive Genders" would be unintelligible to someone without a college degree.
*Or, more likely, people who are returning to the community from incarceration since i doubt many prisons or jails would allow this book into their captive populations.
I am not opposed to postmodern theory, having used it myself in my own studies and writing; my thinking about gender, social hiearchies, and other things have benefited tremendously from queer theory. What i have an issue with is all the postmodern jargon that "average people" cannot understand. There is often a way of using postmodern theory without the jargon; it just takes more work and thought for those steeped in the field. Otherwise, postmodern theory can become just so much intellectual masturbation between and among people who use the same jargon. Everyone else is left out.
I don't necessarily believe that everything must always be accessible. But in a groundbreaking book like this, i think it is incumbent upon the editors and contributors to make sure that as many people as possible -- especially the people who are the subject of the book -- are able to read and benefit from it. As it is right now, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks remain objects in a good part of the book and most of them will not be able to gain from what many of these essays are trying to convey.
All that being said, if you want to read a great book on the experiences of trans and gender non-conforming people who are incarcerated, especially trans women of color, give this one a try. You can always skip all the impenetrable postmodern stuff in favor of the amazing other gems contained herein.
But this is one of those situations where i think accessibility is key. The articles in this book are so important that i want everyone to be able to read them, including people in prison*, who are disproportionately likely to have had very poor educational opportunities. Unfortunately, a good half of the pieces in "Captive Genders" would be unintelligible to someone without a college degree.
*Or, more likely, people who are returning to the community from incarceration since i doubt many prisons or jails would allow this book into their captive populations.
I am not opposed to postmodern theory, having used it myself in my own studies and writing; my thinking about gender, social hiearchies, and other things have benefited tremendously from queer theory. What i have an issue with is all the postmodern jargon that "average people" cannot understand. There is often a way of using postmodern theory without the jargon; it just takes more work and thought for those steeped in the field. Otherwise, postmodern theory can become just so much intellectual masturbation between and among people who use the same jargon. Everyone else is left out.
I don't necessarily believe that everything must always be accessible. But in a groundbreaking book like this, i think it is incumbent upon the editors and contributors to make sure that as many people as possible -- especially the people who are the subject of the book -- are able to read and benefit from it. As it is right now, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks remain objects in a good part of the book and most of them will not be able to gain from what many of these essays are trying to convey.
All that being said, if you want to read a great book on the experiences of trans and gender non-conforming people who are incarcerated, especially trans women of color, give this one a try. You can always skip all the impenetrable postmodern stuff in favor of the amazing other gems contained herein.
September 15, 2017
I find the way queer abolitionists like Dean Spade continually minimize and denigrate progress that has been made wrt LGBT rights really irritating tbh and maybe a bit moreso given that I started reading this a day after Edie Windsor died. Gay marriage and hate crime legislation are not the enemy, are not distractions and you will not be able to convince me that they are, particularly when the contributor doesn't understand what hate crime legislation means and does. (Hate crime legislation is like HR legislation in that it functions primarily as a signal that discrimination against historically marginalized groups of people will not be tolerated anymore. It does not reduce discrimination against LGBT people to individual actions as its basis is acknowledging existing and historical marginalization... come on.)
I also find the glossing over that prison abolitionists do re violent offenders - that a contributor in his collection does re child sexual offenders - profoundly unconvincing. Stranger danger may be overstated and so may obscure abuse that happens within the home. That doesn't mean it's not a problem and that these people don't deserve punishment. If you refuse to distinguish between "deserving" and "undeserving" victims of the PIC ... what does that mean? And to do this in a book about trans rights, about LGBT issues - defending pedophiles is not an queer~ issue, sorry. My sphere of moral concern simply doesn't extend to segregation imposed on convicted child abusers and convicted perpetrators of gendered violence. If the people who get convicted are disproportionately poc, that doesn't make it unjust. Tbh these arguments sound like the people protesting Peter Liang's conviction to me.
Re the inclusion of a convicted child molester's piece about prison abuse in this collection, I don't think that anyone should undergo abuse, but I do think the book should have acknowledged that they are a convicted child molester because it explains why they were put on so many conditions re the internet, and shows that their explanation for why they couldn't find a job despite their experience as a teacher was misleading. At least in Canada, conditions re the internet are not often imposed - it really isn't something everyone experiences on probation and that context is important for being able to understand why this person was put on them. Also why they had to attend mandatory counselling.
But some good essays in this collection. Particularly the article re HIV/AIDS by Potts, the interviews w masculine female prisoners (trans men and butch women) by Lori Girshick, and the article by Yasmin Nair on the narratives re Shirley Tab, queer immigrants and detention.
I also find the glossing over that prison abolitionists do re violent offenders - that a contributor in his collection does re child sexual offenders - profoundly unconvincing. Stranger danger may be overstated and so may obscure abuse that happens within the home. That doesn't mean it's not a problem and that these people don't deserve punishment. If you refuse to distinguish between "deserving" and "undeserving" victims of the PIC ... what does that mean? And to do this in a book about trans rights, about LGBT issues - defending pedophiles is not an queer~ issue, sorry. My sphere of moral concern simply doesn't extend to segregation imposed on convicted child abusers and convicted perpetrators of gendered violence. If the people who get convicted are disproportionately poc, that doesn't make it unjust. Tbh these arguments sound like the people protesting Peter Liang's conviction to me.
Re the inclusion of a convicted child molester's piece about prison abuse in this collection, I don't think that anyone should undergo abuse, but I do think the book should have acknowledged that they are a convicted child molester because it explains why they were put on so many conditions re the internet, and shows that their explanation for why they couldn't find a job despite their experience as a teacher was misleading. At least in Canada, conditions re the internet are not often imposed - it really isn't something everyone experiences on probation and that context is important for being able to understand why this person was put on them. Also why they had to attend mandatory counselling.
But some good essays in this collection. Particularly the article re HIV/AIDS by Potts, the interviews w masculine female prisoners (trans men and butch women) by Lori Girshick, and the article by Yasmin Nair on the narratives re Shirley Tab, queer immigrants and detention.
June 17, 2025
no understanding of queer liberation can occur without talking about how queer people are literally policed. if you don't understand why we don't want cops at pride, read this.
June 11, 2021
Throughout this anthology, there are works from scholars, activists, and those who are incarcerated. They hit on the history of prisons in US and Canada as well as the current state of people in prisons now. Looking outside of traditional prisons, they also talk about institutions such as ICE as well as foster care and charities that increase surveillance and often bring in police.
The PIC has been used and continues to be used as a means to police queerness. Trans and gender nonconforming people, young and old, face violence from these structures. The writers also illustrate some possibilities of how to help, but also critique some efforts that only serve to expand the PIC and give more money to these institutions.
This is a must-read for anyone interested in activism or working towards liberation of any kind.
The PIC has been used and continues to be used as a means to police queerness. Trans and gender nonconforming people, young and old, face violence from these structures. The writers also illustrate some possibilities of how to help, but also critique some efforts that only serve to expand the PIC and give more money to these institutions.
This is a must-read for anyone interested in activism or working towards liberation of any kind.
August 8, 2015
I finished this in a day because it was so good. Radical perspectives on the prison industrial complex and trans* pocs in the U.S.
March 21, 2021
Some really great, insightful essays. Some less so. Overall it's a great collection but would have benefited from some more discerning editing.
December 6, 2011
Foregrounding the history of gay bar raids, gendered clothing requirements, sodomy laws, and other carceral histories of policing gender and sexuality, Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex challenges the assumption that we can and should reform the prison system to work for us.
Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex is the newest title that deals with issues of gender and sexuality released by the US-based anarchist publishing collective AK Press. This anthology, co-edited by Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith, contains contributions from prison abolitionists in both the United States and Canada focusing on a broad range of issues relating to queer and trans/gender-non-conforming people and incarceration.
By beginning with the history of queer and trans/gender-non-conforming people’s relationship to state violence and incarceration, Captive Genders attempts to reframe the question of how to deal with issues of harm without relying on the prison industrial complex to solve our problems. By foregrounding the history of gay bar raids, gendered clothing requirements, sodomy laws, and other carceral histories of policing gender and sexuality, this collection challenges the assumption that we can and should reform the prison system to work for us.
They convincingly argue that the prison industrial complex isn’t simply the material sites of captivity (ie. jails, immigrant detention centers, juvenile justice facilities, military jails, holding rooms, court rooms, etc.), but an overwhelming set of relations between these carceral sites and capitalism, globalization and corporations (think: prison labor, privatized prisons, prison guard unions, food suppliers, telephone companies, commissary suppliers, etc). By imagining the prison system as a network in this way, we have a much larger and nefarious view of how prisons work. The prison industrial complex is not necessarily designed to deal with harm and provide reconciliation, but to provide the appearance of justice while punishing the unwanted, non-normative (ie. gendered, racialized, sexualized, etc) bodies always already rendered illegal. Not to mention, certain someones are making a killing off the entire process. Could this potential profit be what is fueling the conservative fervor behind the Omnibus Crime Bill C-10 here in Canada one might ask?
This collection also goes on to challenge the logic of hate crimes legislation, amongst other things, as a cornerstone of so-called progressive liberal politics. Again the contributors are asking why we are relying on the very same system that disproportionately affects queer and trans/gender-non-conforming people to deal with issues of violence and harm. Especially when longer prison sentences mean more crowded prisons and inevitably an expansion of the prison system. If the prison industrial complex disproportionately affects queer and trans/gender-non-conforming people, why would we ever want to engage in any sort of activism that expands the size and reach of the prison system?
The academics, activists, and incarcerated folks that have contributed to this volume make a compelling argument for rethinking how we deal with harm in our communities and moreover, how our new found reliance on the PIC to deal with anti-queer and trans violence has actually further entrenched a system that likely does more harm than good. In closing we are asked, “What, then, might a world look like in which harm is met with healing and support, rather than displacement and re-violation produced by the prison industrial complex?” Although not offering any concrete solutions, this book provides a much needed reality check on how we, as queer and trans/gender-non-conforming people engage in politics relating to violence, the prison system, and so-called justice.
(Review for 2B Magazine)
Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex is the newest title that deals with issues of gender and sexuality released by the US-based anarchist publishing collective AK Press. This anthology, co-edited by Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith, contains contributions from prison abolitionists in both the United States and Canada focusing on a broad range of issues relating to queer and trans/gender-non-conforming people and incarceration.
By beginning with the history of queer and trans/gender-non-conforming people’s relationship to state violence and incarceration, Captive Genders attempts to reframe the question of how to deal with issues of harm without relying on the prison industrial complex to solve our problems. By foregrounding the history of gay bar raids, gendered clothing requirements, sodomy laws, and other carceral histories of policing gender and sexuality, this collection challenges the assumption that we can and should reform the prison system to work for us.
They convincingly argue that the prison industrial complex isn’t simply the material sites of captivity (ie. jails, immigrant detention centers, juvenile justice facilities, military jails, holding rooms, court rooms, etc.), but an overwhelming set of relations between these carceral sites and capitalism, globalization and corporations (think: prison labor, privatized prisons, prison guard unions, food suppliers, telephone companies, commissary suppliers, etc). By imagining the prison system as a network in this way, we have a much larger and nefarious view of how prisons work. The prison industrial complex is not necessarily designed to deal with harm and provide reconciliation, but to provide the appearance of justice while punishing the unwanted, non-normative (ie. gendered, racialized, sexualized, etc) bodies always already rendered illegal. Not to mention, certain someones are making a killing off the entire process. Could this potential profit be what is fueling the conservative fervor behind the Omnibus Crime Bill C-10 here in Canada one might ask?
This collection also goes on to challenge the logic of hate crimes legislation, amongst other things, as a cornerstone of so-called progressive liberal politics. Again the contributors are asking why we are relying on the very same system that disproportionately affects queer and trans/gender-non-conforming people to deal with issues of violence and harm. Especially when longer prison sentences mean more crowded prisons and inevitably an expansion of the prison system. If the prison industrial complex disproportionately affects queer and trans/gender-non-conforming people, why would we ever want to engage in any sort of activism that expands the size and reach of the prison system?
The academics, activists, and incarcerated folks that have contributed to this volume make a compelling argument for rethinking how we deal with harm in our communities and moreover, how our new found reliance on the PIC to deal with anti-queer and trans violence has actually further entrenched a system that likely does more harm than good. In closing we are asked, “What, then, might a world look like in which harm is met with healing and support, rather than displacement and re-violation produced by the prison industrial complex?” Although not offering any concrete solutions, this book provides a much needed reality check on how we, as queer and trans/gender-non-conforming people engage in politics relating to violence, the prison system, and so-called justice.
(Review for 2B Magazine)
November 23, 2011
LOVE the Introduction by Eric Stanley and its analysis of gender self-determination; the chapter 'Building an Abolitionist Trans & Queer Movement with Everything We've Got' by Bassichis, Alexander Lee and Dean Spade has amazing tables outlining the "big problems"-"official approaches"-"transformative solutions"; the chapter 'Transforming Carceral Logics: 10 reasons to dismantle the PIC using a queer/trans analysis' by S. Lambel outlines ten really clear and concise arguments that tease out the intersections between the PIC and queer/trans politics and experiences; and Yasmin Nair's chapter 'How to Make Prisons Disappear: Queer Immigrants, the Shackles of Love, and the Invisibility of the PIC' is a really critical and complex take on the discourses surrounding queers and immigration that affirm heteronormative fantasies of romance, conforming models of gay coupledom and law-abiding citizenry and that disappear the violence of the PIC and enforce classed exclusions based on deviance and non-conformity (to nationalist ideals of family units).
This book is an amazing resource for Abolition and Queer and Trans Movement building, it offers theory, accounts of imprisonment, critiques and strategies. The writing is pretty accessible too! YAY all up.
This book is an amazing resource for Abolition and Queer and Trans Movement building, it offers theory, accounts of imprisonment, critiques and strategies. The writing is pretty accessible too! YAY all up.
June 17, 2017
I hesitantly gave this book 5 stars because about 2/3+ of the contributions are heavily academic and not accessible to the vast majority of people including most people in prisons. That said, if you look at it more as a book for folks who need to understand prisons and prison abolition better, it's a great book for that. There were a few more accessible essays in it from people currently or formerly in prison that most folks could get into. There are some great tidbits of queer history that folks don't generally know about. And the very academic ones offered some great elaborations to many abolitionist questions folks get regarding things like hate crimes laws, specialty prisons, and so on. Overall, recommended. But, don't feel bad if it's too academic for you.
August 23, 2024
Cannot recommend this enough.
October 14, 2024
CW: SA
What a breath of fresh air! This is truly a remarkable book. Highly recommend for all leftists. I am learning so much from this book. Definitely changed my perspective and thinking. 4.6 stars
What a breath of fresh air! This is truly a remarkable book. Highly recommend for all leftists. I am learning so much from this book. Definitely changed my perspective and thinking. 4.6 stars
November 18, 2024
“To chart a different course for our movements, we need to understand the road we’ve travelled”
A spectacular collection of essays that emphasise the importance and need for queer politics and activism to re-centre focus upon the interconnections between queer life and the seemingly ever expanding prison industrial complex.
4/5
A spectacular collection of essays that emphasise the importance and need for queer politics and activism to re-centre focus upon the interconnections between queer life and the seemingly ever expanding prison industrial complex.
4/5
Read
August 15, 2020Twenty-five essays comprise the book. If you want a condensed, but still comprehensive overview, you could narrow it down to:
Buidling an Abolitionist Trans & Queer Movement with Everything We've Got by Morgan Bassichis, Alexander Lee, and Dean Spade
Regulatory Sites: Management, Confinement and HIV/AIDS by Michelle C. Velasquez-Potts
"The Only Freedon I Can See:" Imprisoned Queer Writing and the Politics of the Unimaginable by Stephen Dillon
Transforming Carceral Logics: 10 Reasons to Dismantle the Prison Industrial Complex Using a Queer/Trans Analysis by S. Lambel
"Hate crimes enhancements ignore the roots of harm, do not act as deterrents, and reproduce the force of the PIC, which produces more, not less harm."
"Instead of trying to change the system, the official LGBT agenda fought to just be welcomed into it, in exchange for helping to keep other oppressed people at the bottom."
"The popularity of Three Strikes laws have been fueled by a growing cultural obsession with criminality and punishment ... to imprison enormous numbers of low-income people and people of color whose behaviors are the direct results of economic insecurity."
"The HIV disclosure statute and now the bioterrorism law have nothing to do with the prevention of HIV, but instead have everything to do with regulation and the stigmatization of HIV and the bodies that live with it."
"Many imprisoned queer writers understand that civil society relies on carceral unfreedom to render itself intelligible. In addition, they reconceptualize the supposedly abnormal or exceptional violence central to the prison's existence, as a fundamental organizing logic of life in the United States. The prison is thus not outside of social production, but rather, foundational to it, making subjects on all sides of the prison walls."
"Middle-class gay white men argued that 'gay rights' should remain a legislative issue and that 'legally sanctioned gay marriage should be a primary concern for all of us.' Kunzel charts the ways that the forced forgetting of queer and trans prisoners was central to the coalescing of 'new gay norms,' 'gay respectability,' and homonormativity. This disciplining of the queer left was a racialized proect that coalesced around shoring up the privileges afforded by whiteness, gender normativity, and capital."
"[T]he prison regime's collusion with heteronormativity and other disciplinary mechanisms made living in the free world virtually indistinguishable from the subjection of incarceration."
Buidling an Abolitionist Trans & Queer Movement with Everything We've Got by Morgan Bassichis, Alexander Lee, and Dean Spade
Regulatory Sites: Management, Confinement and HIV/AIDS by Michelle C. Velasquez-Potts
"The Only Freedon I Can See:" Imprisoned Queer Writing and the Politics of the Unimaginable by Stephen Dillon
Transforming Carceral Logics: 10 Reasons to Dismantle the Prison Industrial Complex Using a Queer/Trans Analysis by S. Lambel
"Hate crimes enhancements ignore the roots of harm, do not act as deterrents, and reproduce the force of the PIC, which produces more, not less harm."
"Instead of trying to change the system, the official LGBT agenda fought to just be welcomed into it, in exchange for helping to keep other oppressed people at the bottom."
"The popularity of Three Strikes laws have been fueled by a growing cultural obsession with criminality and punishment ... to imprison enormous numbers of low-income people and people of color whose behaviors are the direct results of economic insecurity."
"The HIV disclosure statute and now the bioterrorism law have nothing to do with the prevention of HIV, but instead have everything to do with regulation and the stigmatization of HIV and the bodies that live with it."
"Many imprisoned queer writers understand that civil society relies on carceral unfreedom to render itself intelligible. In addition, they reconceptualize the supposedly abnormal or exceptional violence central to the prison's existence, as a fundamental organizing logic of life in the United States. The prison is thus not outside of social production, but rather, foundational to it, making subjects on all sides of the prison walls."
"Middle-class gay white men argued that 'gay rights' should remain a legislative issue and that 'legally sanctioned gay marriage should be a primary concern for all of us.' Kunzel charts the ways that the forced forgetting of queer and trans prisoners was central to the coalescing of 'new gay norms,' 'gay respectability,' and homonormativity. This disciplining of the queer left was a racialized proect that coalesced around shoring up the privileges afforded by whiteness, gender normativity, and capital."
"[T]he prison regime's collusion with heteronormativity and other disciplinary mechanisms made living in the free world virtually indistinguishable from the subjection of incarceration."
If I have to remain in prison
I will never get released
So please allow me to stay in prison
So I can die in my rightful place ... So how can you force me
To live in the free world now?
Where I have no chance
to survive in any way
Cause parole is set up for failure
If you have no family on your side
So the only freedom I can see
Is death in a prison cell.
June 26, 2016
This book is a flagrant example of how easy it is to write criticizing 'essays'. A few good texts barely justifying my 2 star rating, the rest of the collection being pamphlets full of poor analyses. I would not be surprised to find a paper by one of these authors that proposes total abolition of food as a cure to obesity.
December 7, 2011
epic epic collection !!!!
January 14, 2025
I have put off reading this for years after having it recommended by a Queer Studies professor. I always assumed it would be dry and a struggle to get through. It isn't, though some of the contributions do read easier than others. I read the 2015 edition, which I'm having trouble finding here.
This provided so much food for thought. I'm ashamed to say I have been largely ignorant of abolitionist politics and have had only a cursory notion of the connections between queer folks and the PIC. I learned a lot from this, and I've already had some interesting discussions based on the topics. I still have a difficult time fully conceptualizing a world without prisons, but I will admit that these writers make good cases for the harm the PIC does.
This collection features academic articles, personal narratives, interviews, etc. It's wide-reaching, with topics ranging from surveillance to sex work to sex-offender registries to prison uniforms, etc. I think it's well worth checking out if you are interested in trans rights and/or prison abolition.
This provided so much food for thought. I'm ashamed to say I have been largely ignorant of abolitionist politics and have had only a cursory notion of the connections between queer folks and the PIC. I learned a lot from this, and I've already had some interesting discussions based on the topics. I still have a difficult time fully conceptualizing a world without prisons, but I will admit that these writers make good cases for the harm the PIC does.
This collection features academic articles, personal narratives, interviews, etc. It's wide-reaching, with topics ranging from surveillance to sex work to sex-offender registries to prison uniforms, etc. I think it's well worth checking out if you are interested in trans rights and/or prison abolition.
August 18, 2021
The prison industrial complex is brutally harmful in especially unique ways towards trans/gender non-conforming and queer folks. A heavy read, this book shares haunting insights from incarcerated and formerly incarcerated trans/gender non-conforming and queer folks that not only speak to the need for abolishing the PIC but “building up and recovering institutions and practices and relationships that nurture wholeness, self-determination, and transformation” (M. Bassichis, A. Lee & D. Spade). Can’t recommend this collection enough.
October 9, 2020
A very good mix of academic essays and more informal writing of people's lives experiences which made this more accessible that straight academia (I still struggled a bit with the denser essays) it's a long one but worth the read in terms of getting a better understanding of the shit show of the pic and how it specifically mistreated trans people. Also has a great list of resources and a few exercises at the back!
January 26, 2021
Criminal justice in the US is pretty brutal particularly so for transgender people especially people of color. The justice system as demonstrated by highly different law enforcement responses to the recent storming of the Capitol and BLM (let's face it the cops highly favor Trumpists and right-wingers) they go after people of color, queer communities, left protestors, in other words, cops, lawyers, prisons, legislators protect rich, white, native-born, cis-hetero males who are right-wingers, everyone else is relegated to different levels of the inferno outside the charmed circle depending on which of the aforementioned traits one doesn't share with the blessed circles of the American system. That is The people who in general feel a right to ownership and worthy of entitlement and protection. The rest are in purgatory or outright damned. Trans with their inherent challenge to cis-hetero norms are in a deep circle of Hades and it gets worse if they are people of color or on their immigration status. This is not something that simple patches like the band-aids of hate crime legislation offered by good libs is gonna fix. The whole state is dedicated to pushing trans people away from life in the public square and to the shadows of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, addiction, sex work, prison, and death. The fittest and luckiest in our hellscape of post-1994 crime bill America are spared but many or get put through the wringer in a social Darwinist manner of a highly artificial and fairly capricious selection process that decimates trans people and any nonconforming or hapless group born with the wrong traits. Awful stuff. There are political solutions but the trans community is a tiny minority of a minority of the greater LBGTQIA community and unless you have money or numbers you have to have the resilience and fighting ability for one's rights or you are toast.
March 31, 2025
I've not read many abolitionist texts and I felt that this one was easy enough to follow and understand. Definitely beginner friendly. And, like with most academic collections, you do not necessary need to read it in its entirety to get the point. I didn't find that the essays really built on each other; many of them just hammered on the same points brought up in other essays so after a while, the material stops being new. Overall enjoyed it.
February 28, 2022
This one took me over a year to read but there’s SO much to learn in each chapter and essay. I loved the focus on intersectionality and how the PIC interacts with the multiple identities of queer POC, specifically those who are gnc. I recommend everyone who has an interest in abolition read this
June 2, 2020
Brutal.
Read
February 18, 2024Very great, much recommend
June 26, 2024
Some bad takes
June 26, 2012
Great great great compilation of essays. Though there was quite a bit of issue/people repetition, I learned more in depth about some issues I had superficially heard but never examined. For instance, the reason why LGBTQ’s are anti advocacy for same-sex marriage, DADT removal, and hate crime legislation. The answer is intertwined in the prison industrial complex (which suggests monetary gain is more important than individual gain/rehab) and neoliberalism (the detrimental blend of liberal social justice ideas with conservative economic interests). First, those advocacy issues are conservative: LGBTQ’s want to get married for societal assimilation, join the army to defend the country, and send more people to prison. Second, as a descriptive quote by Queer Kids of Queer Parents Against Gay Marriage within the book states: “It’s hard for us to believe what we’re hearing these days. Thousands are losing their homes, and gays want a day named after Harvey Milk. The U.S. military is continuing its path of destruction, and gays want to be allowed to fight. Cops are still killing unarmed black men and bashing queers, and gays want more policing. More and more Americans are suffering and dying because they can’t get decent health care, and gays want weddings. What happened to us?” In other words, there are too many other life-or-death issues, so why are we focusing on issues that get us incorporated into hetero culture? Well, I still think it’s effective to ‘start somewhere’ with advocacy – though the writers of this book would likely scoff at that and demand major change instantly.
Anyway, the Sex Offender Registry (SOR) policies have been making me increasingly mad, but talking about it seems to put people off, like I’m pro sex assault (I’M NOT..). Megan’s Law, the requirement that sexual offense convicts register for public awareness, have become more stringent/demanding in efforts to rid child sex abuse. HOWEVER, public shaming doesn’t seem to rehab/dissuade coercive pedophilia… AND not all “sex offenders” are child abusers - SORs even mandated those convicted of “lewd vagrancies,” which encompassed homosexuals, before Lawrence v. Texas (2003), when sodomy was still outlawed in most states. It’s just like how homosexuality used to be listed as a disorder in the famous medical bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders…and how Gender Identity Disorder (i.e. transgenderism) is STILL listed as a disorder.
I find that I’m pro prison abolition in theory. The majority of prisoners are oppressed groups; criminal penalties for behaviors associated with poverty (drug use, sleeping outside, graffiti, sex work) have increased in many parts of the U.S., resulting in “Michael Foucault’s concept of ‘circular elimination,’ where the cycle of violence and incarceration experienced by so many people on the edges of heteronormativity, white supremacy, and neoliberal capitalism functions as ‘a machine for elimination…’” So, prison abolitionists argue that instead of individualizing solutions to increase prison #s, like hate crime laws, we should recognize that it’s a systemic problem of ingrained racism, bigotry, homophobia, etc. Fine, but I must emphasize that the whole movement is insanely idealistic – what kind of transition would even be possible to get to a prison-less world? There is too much solution-talk of ‘coalitions,’ ‘commitments,’ ‘initiatives,’ and ‘approaches’ when I need something more tangible. BUT, good for the people trying because really, it’s the thing where if Johannes Gutenberg thought the idea of movable type for a printing machine was too idealistic and unrealistic, would I even be able to transmit this rant to you now??
Anyway, the Sex Offender Registry (SOR) policies have been making me increasingly mad, but talking about it seems to put people off, like I’m pro sex assault (I’M NOT..). Megan’s Law, the requirement that sexual offense convicts register for public awareness, have become more stringent/demanding in efforts to rid child sex abuse. HOWEVER, public shaming doesn’t seem to rehab/dissuade coercive pedophilia… AND not all “sex offenders” are child abusers - SORs even mandated those convicted of “lewd vagrancies,” which encompassed homosexuals, before Lawrence v. Texas (2003), when sodomy was still outlawed in most states. It’s just like how homosexuality used to be listed as a disorder in the famous medical bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders…and how Gender Identity Disorder (i.e. transgenderism) is STILL listed as a disorder.
I find that I’m pro prison abolition in theory. The majority of prisoners are oppressed groups; criminal penalties for behaviors associated with poverty (drug use, sleeping outside, graffiti, sex work) have increased in many parts of the U.S., resulting in “Michael Foucault’s concept of ‘circular elimination,’ where the cycle of violence and incarceration experienced by so many people on the edges of heteronormativity, white supremacy, and neoliberal capitalism functions as ‘a machine for elimination…’” So, prison abolitionists argue that instead of individualizing solutions to increase prison #s, like hate crime laws, we should recognize that it’s a systemic problem of ingrained racism, bigotry, homophobia, etc. Fine, but I must emphasize that the whole movement is insanely idealistic – what kind of transition would even be possible to get to a prison-less world? There is too much solution-talk of ‘coalitions,’ ‘commitments,’ ‘initiatives,’ and ‘approaches’ when I need something more tangible. BUT, good for the people trying because really, it’s the thing where if Johannes Gutenberg thought the idea of movable type for a printing machine was too idealistic and unrealistic, would I even be able to transmit this rant to you now??
July 28, 2022
A collection of powerful essays. Each author provides a unique perspective on gender transgression and the prison industrial complex. Assumptions are challenged. Perspectives are broadened. Specific, actionable guidance is provided. I would recommend to anyone seeking to expand their abolition and/or gender analysis.
The variety of authors means a variety of approaches to writing, some of which resonated better than others. One essay that analyzed a written piece by an incarcerated trans person felt like a missed opportunity to simply print the piece.
I hope this book is updated again, the second edition came out in 2015, and many of the examples feel a little dated.
My shallow critiques aside, this work's strength is in honestly presenting insights of gender queer abolitionists and incarcerated people. Giving deeper understanding of the ways the PIC and mandatory gender binary are connected, destructive forces that feed each other.
The variety of authors means a variety of approaches to writing, some of which resonated better than others. One essay that analyzed a written piece by an incarcerated trans person felt like a missed opportunity to simply print the piece.
I hope this book is updated again, the second edition came out in 2015, and many of the examples feel a little dated.
My shallow critiques aside, this work's strength is in honestly presenting insights of gender queer abolitionists and incarcerated people. Giving deeper understanding of the ways the PIC and mandatory gender binary are connected, destructive forces that feed each other.
December 14, 2020
GOD this collection was just so, so wildly good. So many incredibly thoughtful pieces, so much thoughtful, careful work from folks on the inside and out. The pieces I keep returning to in thinking, that really shifted my thought, were Erica R. Meiner's piece on sex offenders, and Lori Girshick's piece on masculine women and transmascs in prison, both of which raised a huge number of questions for me and which I will keep returning to again and again.
That's not to say they were the only two good pieces in the book; every single essay was full of so much to think about, and experience to hold and be grounded in. The stories that folks on the inside had were of course incredibly brutal, and all pieces hammered home that in fact reform--like housing trans people according to their gender--does not necessarily decrease the violence that incarcerated trans people face, especially if that means that more money gets poured into prisons.
Definitely recommend this for anyone thinking about prison abolition, and for queer folks in general to think about what we owe our queer and trans siblings who are incarcerated.
That's not to say they were the only two good pieces in the book; every single essay was full of so much to think about, and experience to hold and be grounded in. The stories that folks on the inside had were of course incredibly brutal, and all pieces hammered home that in fact reform--like housing trans people according to their gender--does not necessarily decrease the violence that incarcerated trans people face, especially if that means that more money gets poured into prisons.
Definitely recommend this for anyone thinking about prison abolition, and for queer folks in general to think about what we owe our queer and trans siblings who are incarcerated.
March 14, 2020
A wonderful contribution to ongoing carceral abolitionist dialogue. This text is a combination of first person essays from T/GNC people currently incarcerated, academics and thinkers, and on the ground activists. Interviews and dialogues also appear in this text. This collection is not for those who question prison abolition as being necessary, but are instead behind the concept and unsure of what practice looks like. The version of this text I read is the expanded second edition, which includes and additional 100 pages of essays. My personal highlight is the workbook in the back that offers tools for how to facilitate discussions about the Prison Industrial Complex and Mass Incarceration, as well a resource list for organizations doing this work. The interview with Miss Major is an absolute must read. As someone currently engaged in abolitionist work, this text was challenging and affirming.
August 5, 2019
I see some complaints about this book on GoodReads, and I have to say that I don't really understand those complaints. I have no disagreements with the politics advocated in this collection, and the book is rich with cogent analysis of the Prison Industrial Complex and the way that gender analysis can help us rethink the Prison Industrial Complex. This is clearly the thrust of this book, and it accomplishes its goals admirably.
There are some excellent essays in this collection that are perfect for undergraduate readers or beginners attempting to learn about the PIC and trans* issues related to the PIC.
There are some excellent essays in this collection that are perfect for undergraduate readers or beginners attempting to learn about the PIC and trans* issues related to the PIC.
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