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Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation
In the 15 years since the release of Gender Outlaw, Kate Bornstein's groundbreaking challenge to gender ideology, transgender narratives have made their way from the margins to the mainstream and back again. Today's transgenders and other sex/gender radicals are writing a drastically new world into being. In Gender Outlaws, Bornstein, together with writer, raconteur, and theater artist S. Bear Bergman, collects and contextualizes the work of this generation's trans and genderqueer forward thinkers — new voices from the stage, on the streets, in the workplace, in the bedroom, and on the pages and websites of the world's most respected mainstream news sources. Gender Outlaws includes essays, commentary, comic art, and conversations from a diverse group of trans-spectrum people who live and believe in barrier-breaking lives.
304 pages, Paperback
First published August 24, 2010
233 people are currently reading
9059 people want to read
About the author
Kate Bornstein
25 books560 followersKate Bornstein is a Jewish-American author, playwright, performance artist, and gender theorist.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 207 reviews
November 4, 2017
Thoughts that are not really a review: This book was written in 2010, which was before I was out as trans. When it comes to trans things, seven years simultaneously seems very recent and a long time ago. I find that when I look at trans history, lots of things seems the same (discrimination, struggles with documentation, violence, bathrooms, in-community fighting over terminology) but other things change rapidly... namely, terminology. The 2010 terminology is mostly the same, but there are a few relics that pop up that are not used nowadays. (TG, transgendered, transwoman and transman as one word. Cis actors playing trans get a thanks, which I choose to find hilarious or else I’ll cry).
Considering the fact that this book was written a scant seven years ago, it blows my mind how many people I don’t know. I recognize Bornstein and Serano, of course, but few others—I have a couple of Ryka Aoki’s books. I follow Sassafras Lowry on twitter and they’re in my TBR. Since 2010, Scott Turner Schofield has become one of the few trans men actors on TV.
Most of my favorite trans voices, however, had yet to come out and/or had yet to reach a platform. Can you imagine going back to 2010 and being like JEN RICHARDS AND JANET MOCK AND LAVERNE COX AND YOON HA LEE AND CHARLIE JANE ANDERS AND ALOK VAID-MENON AND JANANI BALASUBRAMANIAN AND ANGELICA ROSS AND LAURA JANE GRACE AND TYLER FORD AND IMOGENE BINNIE AND PEPPERMINT AND FALLON FOX AND KYE ALLUMS AND KAT BLAQUE AND JAZZ JENNINGS AND JACOB TOBIA AND ISIS KING AND LAITH ASHLEY AND MORGAN M PAGE AND BAILEY JAY AND JIZ LEE AND ZACKARY DRUCKER AND RHYS ERNST AND OUR LADY J AND and and...
(Not saying that people from my list weren’t out/had a platform in 2010, I don’t have their Wikipedia pages memorized, lol, but none of them were mentioned in the book that I recall.)
I guess my point is that a trans community has a wealth of history (300 people submitted to this anthology!! 300!!) and simultaneously a huge amount of growth. Can you imagine how my rambling all caps list is going to look seven years from now? The trans community is going to grow and and I’m going to find new favorite voices. This book has simultaneously made me ready to learn more about our past and excited to see our future.
Considering the fact that this book was written a scant seven years ago, it blows my mind how many people I don’t know. I recognize Bornstein and Serano, of course, but few others—I have a couple of Ryka Aoki’s books. I follow Sassafras Lowry on twitter and they’re in my TBR. Since 2010, Scott Turner Schofield has become one of the few trans men actors on TV.
Most of my favorite trans voices, however, had yet to come out and/or had yet to reach a platform. Can you imagine going back to 2010 and being like JEN RICHARDS AND JANET MOCK AND LAVERNE COX AND YOON HA LEE AND CHARLIE JANE ANDERS AND ALOK VAID-MENON AND JANANI BALASUBRAMANIAN AND ANGELICA ROSS AND LAURA JANE GRACE AND TYLER FORD AND IMOGENE BINNIE AND PEPPERMINT AND FALLON FOX AND KYE ALLUMS AND KAT BLAQUE AND JAZZ JENNINGS AND JACOB TOBIA AND ISIS KING AND LAITH ASHLEY AND MORGAN M PAGE AND BAILEY JAY AND JIZ LEE AND ZACKARY DRUCKER AND RHYS ERNST AND OUR LADY J AND and and...
(Not saying that people from my list weren’t out/had a platform in 2010, I don’t have their Wikipedia pages memorized, lol, but none of them were mentioned in the book that I recall.)
I guess my point is that a trans community has a wealth of history (300 people submitted to this anthology!! 300!!) and simultaneously a huge amount of growth. Can you imagine how my rambling all caps list is going to look seven years from now? The trans community is going to grow and and I’m going to find new favorite voices. This book has simultaneously made me ready to learn more about our past and excited to see our future.
March 8, 2023
Gender Outlaw: The Next Generation edited by Kate Bornstein and S Bear Bergman is a collection of essays by gender outlaws of every type. Sad, funny, stirring, factual- it's quite a grab bag but always an enjoyable one.
March 10, 2011
This book is a kind of sequel to Kate Bornstein's Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us, published in 1994. Gender Outlaw, which has become a staple in Queer Studies classrooms, questions the fundamental necessity of dividing the human race into only two genders assumed to be "natural" and mutually exclusive. Gender oppression, in Bornstein's view, is not only a form of inequality imposed on the value-neutral categories of "male" and "female," but is intrinsic to them. As a charismatic speaker and performance artist, Kate Bornstein exemplifies her own argument. She has done a lot to spread the message that every person in every human culture performs a gender role.
S. Bear Bergman, the other editor of the current anthology, complements Bornstein’s voice. While the latter was born in the late 1940s, Bergman belongs to Generation X and identifies as a transman. Bergman's book on gender, Butch Is a Noun (2006) defines a self-respecting masculine identity as chivalrous and fun rather than exploitative. Bergman, like Bornstein, dramatizes his own concepts as a performance artist.
Gender Outlaws resembles a fringe festival, or a series of one-person plays organized into five sections. Most of the pieces are first-person essays on some aspect of transgenderism or gender fluidity. In lieu of a conventional introduction, there is a flirtatious dialogue between the two editors. Bornstein compliments Bergman’s “genderation for its sophistication: “People today are starting from further than I got to when I'd finished writing Gender Outlaw. That's exactly what I hoped to live to see.”
Although most of these pieces describe the disadvantages of being outside the gender binary, the opening article describes the corporate advantages of being fluent in two communication styles. In "Trans-Corporation: A benefit analysis of a transgender man in a corporate setting," CT Whitley says:
"Thanks to my time in the queer spaces and liberal enclaves I've been a part of, I was able to view with fresh eyes the heteronormative world I worked in and its heavily gendered corporate interactions. In a corporate world where the infinite possibilities of sex, gender and sexuality went unnamed and unnoticed, gendered stereotypes about communication quickly proved useful.”
Whitley, who identifies as a female-born masculine-identified person, makes a good case for transgendered employees as mediators in a corporate setting.
Much of this anthology, however, has a more comical and experimental feel. There are several comic strips and poems here, as well as the transcript of a performance piece, Trans as Fuck, by A.P. Andre and Luis Gutierrez Mock(photographs included). "I am Transreal: a reflection on/of Becoming Dragon" is a parallel piece on a “mixed-reality performance” by Micha Cardenas.
The difficulty of finding an appropriate restroom when you’re transgendered is hilariously illustrated in a love letter by StormMiguel Florez, "Dear Austin Special Needs Bathroom." In another comic monologue, "the secret life of my weiner," Cory Schmanke Parrish asks rhetorically: "What does my weiner do on the days i don't wear it?"
There is understated tragedy in this book as well. In "A Slacker and Delinquent in Basketball Shoes," Raquel (Lucas) Platero Mendez addresses a letter to Maria Helena N.G., a 21-year-old who was imprisoned as a "slacker and delinquent" in Spain in 1968 for going to a bar dressed as a man. In "Marsha P. Johnson::Ten Suns the Transformer," Tamiko Beyer commemorates a transwoman who took part in the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 and whose body was found later in the Hudson River. In "Shot, Stabbed, Choked, Strangled, Broken: A Ritual for November 20th," Roz Kaveney explains the need for a Transgender Day of Remembrance: "The ones who died/The ones we know about/Thirty a year--that's more than two a month."
Time will tell whether this book becomes as influential as Bornstein’s earlier work. In the meanwhile, it is guaranteed to entertain while it deconstructs deeply-held assumptions, including those held by some who describe themselves as transgendered.
------------------
S. Bear Bergman, the other editor of the current anthology, complements Bornstein’s voice. While the latter was born in the late 1940s, Bergman belongs to Generation X and identifies as a transman. Bergman's book on gender, Butch Is a Noun (2006) defines a self-respecting masculine identity as chivalrous and fun rather than exploitative. Bergman, like Bornstein, dramatizes his own concepts as a performance artist.
Gender Outlaws resembles a fringe festival, or a series of one-person plays organized into five sections. Most of the pieces are first-person essays on some aspect of transgenderism or gender fluidity. In lieu of a conventional introduction, there is a flirtatious dialogue between the two editors. Bornstein compliments Bergman’s “genderation for its sophistication: “People today are starting from further than I got to when I'd finished writing Gender Outlaw. That's exactly what I hoped to live to see.”
Although most of these pieces describe the disadvantages of being outside the gender binary, the opening article describes the corporate advantages of being fluent in two communication styles. In "Trans-Corporation: A benefit analysis of a transgender man in a corporate setting," CT Whitley says:
"Thanks to my time in the queer spaces and liberal enclaves I've been a part of, I was able to view with fresh eyes the heteronormative world I worked in and its heavily gendered corporate interactions. In a corporate world where the infinite possibilities of sex, gender and sexuality went unnamed and unnoticed, gendered stereotypes about communication quickly proved useful.”
Whitley, who identifies as a female-born masculine-identified person, makes a good case for transgendered employees as mediators in a corporate setting.
Much of this anthology, however, has a more comical and experimental feel. There are several comic strips and poems here, as well as the transcript of a performance piece, Trans as Fuck, by A.P. Andre and Luis Gutierrez Mock(photographs included). "I am Transreal: a reflection on/of Becoming Dragon" is a parallel piece on a “mixed-reality performance” by Micha Cardenas.
The difficulty of finding an appropriate restroom when you’re transgendered is hilariously illustrated in a love letter by StormMiguel Florez, "Dear Austin Special Needs Bathroom." In another comic monologue, "the secret life of my weiner," Cory Schmanke Parrish asks rhetorically: "What does my weiner do on the days i don't wear it?"
There is understated tragedy in this book as well. In "A Slacker and Delinquent in Basketball Shoes," Raquel (Lucas) Platero Mendez addresses a letter to Maria Helena N.G., a 21-year-old who was imprisoned as a "slacker and delinquent" in Spain in 1968 for going to a bar dressed as a man. In "Marsha P. Johnson::Ten Suns the Transformer," Tamiko Beyer commemorates a transwoman who took part in the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 and whose body was found later in the Hudson River. In "Shot, Stabbed, Choked, Strangled, Broken: A Ritual for November 20th," Roz Kaveney explains the need for a Transgender Day of Remembrance: "The ones who died/The ones we know about/Thirty a year--that's more than two a month."
Time will tell whether this book becomes as influential as Bornstein’s earlier work. In the meanwhile, it is guaranteed to entertain while it deconstructs deeply-held assumptions, including those held by some who describe themselves as transgendered.
------------------
June 14, 2023
Very cool! My favorite essays were:
“The Old Folks at Home”
“I am Transreal: a reflection on/of Becoming a Dragon”
“Daddy Gets the Big Piece of Chicken”
“The secret life of my wiener”
“The Manly Art of Pregnancy”
“Why You Don’t Have To Choose A White Boy Name To Be A Man In This World”
“The Voice”
“Pilgrimage”
“The Old Folks at Home”
“I am Transreal: a reflection on/of Becoming a Dragon”
“Daddy Gets the Big Piece of Chicken”
“The secret life of my wiener”
“The Manly Art of Pregnancy”
“Why You Don’t Have To Choose A White Boy Name To Be A Man In This World”
“The Voice”
“Pilgrimage”
December 7, 2010
Gender Outlaws is a series of poems, essays, comic strips, etc. which offers insight into a variety of trans* issues. o many different perspectives are presented in this text; however, intersectionality drove many essays in the book. Focusing on the vast space between in the gender binary, these essays are quite unique despite the commonality. Gwendolyn Ann Smith's essay, "We're All Somebody's Freak", resonated with me as encapsulating the primary theme throughout the text. She writes:
"We live in a world of incredible variations, where there are some 200,000 species of moths and butterflies to be found in this planet, where biodiversity is the very thing that keeps the whole complex system in tune. The notion of classifying things and then claiming that only this or that is a proper version of some being is a distinctly human construct, full of arrogance and hubris."
The insistence of the dominant ideology on prescribing specific and set gender roles does violate a basic law of nature: variation is highly beneficial, too much of the same is bad.
My favorite essay, as of this moment, comes from CT Whitley. "Trans-Corporation: A benefit analysis of a transgender man in a corporate setting" tells the story of Whitley's time as a financial officer in New York. You may expect the rest of the essay to talk about the difficulty of working in (what is widely considered as) a conservative, relatively homogeneous environment. Not so. This article is much more interesting and unique. Whitley has "a female past and a male present" providing him with invaluable insight into gendered communication. His ability to manipulate his own style of communication to address particular audiences not only gave him opportunities for promotion, it also put him in a unique position to act as a sort of translator between the biomales and biofemales in his office. I love this.
I want him to come to my classes and give a presentation. Seriously, if anyone reading this knows him or knows someone who knows him or even has a third cousin twice removed who once dated his mother's old tennis instructor, tell him I need him. Typically my philosophizing on gendered communication takes place with Deborah Tannen, who is absolutely fantastic. Reading this essay gave me a whole new perspective on the issue, however, and now I want more.
Okay so back to the book as a whole... I found this to be a wonderfully informative collection; although I will admit that by the end I was reading pretty dang fast, a wee bit ready for the end. And a few of the entries were a bit too figurative for me - but I completely recognize that that is my own issue. Poetry is not my thing and overly figurative poetry is really really not my thing. As with any collection of works by disparate authors, my enjoyment depended on the piece: I absolutely adored about half the entries, was ambivalent about a few, and didn't enjoy a few. Overall though, I would highly recommend it for those I did love.
"We live in a world of incredible variations, where there are some 200,000 species of moths and butterflies to be found in this planet, where biodiversity is the very thing that keeps the whole complex system in tune. The notion of classifying things and then claiming that only this or that is a proper version of some being is a distinctly human construct, full of arrogance and hubris."
The insistence of the dominant ideology on prescribing specific and set gender roles does violate a basic law of nature: variation is highly beneficial, too much of the same is bad.
My favorite essay, as of this moment, comes from CT Whitley. "Trans-Corporation: A benefit analysis of a transgender man in a corporate setting" tells the story of Whitley's time as a financial officer in New York. You may expect the rest of the essay to talk about the difficulty of working in (what is widely considered as) a conservative, relatively homogeneous environment. Not so. This article is much more interesting and unique. Whitley has "a female past and a male present" providing him with invaluable insight into gendered communication. His ability to manipulate his own style of communication to address particular audiences not only gave him opportunities for promotion, it also put him in a unique position to act as a sort of translator between the biomales and biofemales in his office. I love this.
I want him to come to my classes and give a presentation. Seriously, if anyone reading this knows him or knows someone who knows him or even has a third cousin twice removed who once dated his mother's old tennis instructor, tell him I need him. Typically my philosophizing on gendered communication takes place with Deborah Tannen, who is absolutely fantastic. Reading this essay gave me a whole new perspective on the issue, however, and now I want more.
Okay so back to the book as a whole... I found this to be a wonderfully informative collection; although I will admit that by the end I was reading pretty dang fast, a wee bit ready for the end. And a few of the entries were a bit too figurative for me - but I completely recognize that that is my own issue. Poetry is not my thing and overly figurative poetry is really really not my thing. As with any collection of works by disparate authors, my enjoyment depended on the piece: I absolutely adored about half the entries, was ambivalent about a few, and didn't enjoy a few. Overall though, I would highly recommend it for those I did love.
December 10, 2019
I love anthologies because they're kind of like internet content - wide sample, varied voice and perspective, if you like something you can dig up more by the author, if you don't like something that's okay because it only lasts a few more pages. Kate Bornstein is obviously a saint whomst we stan, but I am growing to understand that her co-editor, S Bear Bergman is not someone with whose work I vibe endlessly. I have not yet read Gender Outlaw (Bornstein) which I imagine would frame this book a little better, but taken on its own I felt that Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation was a little too broad in scope, or perhaps organized in away that felt... like it was not organized. I think curation and organization are really important, and when you have a such a diverse group of people writing about their personal experiences with something as mercurial as gender, in my opinion, there should be some logical progression of essays within an anthology. Ultimately, there wasn't a thesis that resonated with me. I don't know if that's because this book is already a decade old, and conversation has shifted since then? Or maybe I'm part of the next-next generation with different ideas? Either way, there were a couple essays that stood out, and perhaps someone at a different point in their Gender Exploration(tm) would take heart from this anthology, but I was not moved. Don't get me wrong - so glad it exists. So glad there is enough writing on trans/gender identity at this point that I have the luxury of not connecting with everything in print. Maybe you should read it to see what you think.
If this interests you, I would recommend: The Remedy (ed. Zena Sharman) or Persistence: All Ways Butch & Femme (ed. Ivan Coyote & Zena Sharman)
If this interests you, I would recommend: The Remedy (ed. Zena Sharman) or Persistence: All Ways Butch & Femme (ed. Ivan Coyote & Zena Sharman)
November 12, 2015
A collection of a variety of personal stories and experiences about gender. They vary in subject, genre and quality. Some of the texts left me with nothing, but others, especially Kyle Lukoff's "Taking up Space", touched me and made me think about me own experiences. I wasn't too keen on the editing: the sections written by the editors were in text chat from, which I think is both annoying and old fashioned, and the texts were not, in my opinion, arranged very carefully or with ingenuity. All in all an OK read, it would have gotten two stars if Lukoff's piece hadn't touched me so deeply.
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January 27, 2016Title: Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation
Editors: Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman, both of whose work I respect greatly
Genre: Collections, LGBT.
Finished In: I think I read about half of this book when it first came out. I finished it this week. So I'm going with "years."
Pages: 302
Copyright Date: 2010
Cover: Some nice pop art by Kimberly Glyder showing a variety of presumably gender variant people.
First line: "S. Bear Bergman: 'Good morning, cutepants.'"
Favorite quote: "Most people strive to find comfort in the stability of their identities. I am most comfortable wading amongst the instabilities and inconsistencies of my gender. When I leave my house for an evening out (out of face) I often pack a change of clothing, full-well knowing that I may not be comfortable presenting as one linear or traditional gender over the entire course of the night." from "Glitter, Glitter, on the Wall, Who's the Queerest of Them All?" by Esme Rodriguez (aka t. Kupin-Escobar) p 167.
Favorite pieces:"Today's New Name May Be Tomorrow's Old," by Sassafras Lowrey, "Transfag Robot Manifesto" by Sam Orchard, "The Manly Art of Pregnancy" by j wallace, and "Cisgender Privilege: On the Privileges of Performing Normative Gender" by Evin Taylor."
Themes and Triggers: Violence, oppression, gender bending, gender changing, sex, relationships, intersectionality.
Best part: I really enjoyed the diversity of pieces, both in terms of the perspectives of the authors, and the mix of poetry, prose, and comics, manifestos, essays...
Worst part: I'm not sure why, since it was several years ago, but the first time I tried to read this book I had a really hard time getting through it. I guess I'm in a different place now?
Imaginary Theme Song: I'm going with Supermodel by RuPaul because I think that was the first exposure a lot of mainstream folks had to gender variance.
Grade: A. This is a groundbreaking collection for the new century.
Recommended for: If you're curious about gender- and frankly, who isn't? You should read this book.
Related Reads: My Gender Workbook by Kate Bornstein. I've also been hearing great things about The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You by S. Bear Bergman. And what we might call the original edition is Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein published in 1995.
Editors: Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman, both of whose work I respect greatly
Genre: Collections, LGBT.
Finished In: I think I read about half of this book when it first came out. I finished it this week. So I'm going with "years."
Pages: 302
Copyright Date: 2010
Cover: Some nice pop art by Kimberly Glyder showing a variety of presumably gender variant people.
First line: "S. Bear Bergman: 'Good morning, cutepants.'"
Favorite quote: "Most people strive to find comfort in the stability of their identities. I am most comfortable wading amongst the instabilities and inconsistencies of my gender. When I leave my house for an evening out (out of face) I often pack a change of clothing, full-well knowing that I may not be comfortable presenting as one linear or traditional gender over the entire course of the night." from "Glitter, Glitter, on the Wall, Who's the Queerest of Them All?" by Esme Rodriguez (aka t. Kupin-Escobar) p 167.
Favorite pieces:"Today's New Name May Be Tomorrow's Old," by Sassafras Lowrey, "Transfag Robot Manifesto" by Sam Orchard, "The Manly Art of Pregnancy" by j wallace, and "Cisgender Privilege: On the Privileges of Performing Normative Gender" by Evin Taylor."
Themes and Triggers: Violence, oppression, gender bending, gender changing, sex, relationships, intersectionality.
Best part: I really enjoyed the diversity of pieces, both in terms of the perspectives of the authors, and the mix of poetry, prose, and comics, manifestos, essays...
Worst part: I'm not sure why, since it was several years ago, but the first time I tried to read this book I had a really hard time getting through it. I guess I'm in a different place now?
Imaginary Theme Song: I'm going with Supermodel by RuPaul because I think that was the first exposure a lot of mainstream folks had to gender variance.
Grade: A. This is a groundbreaking collection for the new century.
Recommended for: If you're curious about gender- and frankly, who isn't? You should read this book.
Related Reads: My Gender Workbook by Kate Bornstein. I've also been hearing great things about The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You by S. Bear Bergman. And what we might call the original edition is Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein published in 1995.
September 25, 2015
When Kate Bornstein wrote Gender Outlaws: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us, back in 1994, trans* issues were still a thing not many people talked about, unless they were, or knew, people who were trans. Bornstein's writing and advocacy was part of the reason this has changed.
Now she has co-edited, with S. Bear Bergman, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, a collection of essays and personal narratives by people in and around the trans* community today. The editors have made selections representative of the diversity to be found in the global trans* community - those sharing their thoughts and experiences express a range of gender identities - and some decline gender identification all together. While many of the voices come from North America, there are contributors from all around the world - Spain, Singapore, Mexico, Argentina, Kenya among others - and from a multitude of ethnic backgrounds.
The contributions range from the deeply personal to the highly theoretical, from formal essay to autobiographical narrative to poetry to visual art.
Taken together, these works form a kaleidoscope of proudly oppositional images, of all the ways to genderfuck, to trans/scend the rigid boundaries of immutability and binary thinking about sex and gender. They remind us of where we have been, what we still face, and where we are going in the journey to deconstruct the old labels used to control sexual identity and expression, and to create a new world where people can truly become who they know themselves to be.
Now she has co-edited, with S. Bear Bergman, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, a collection of essays and personal narratives by people in and around the trans* community today. The editors have made selections representative of the diversity to be found in the global trans* community - those sharing their thoughts and experiences express a range of gender identities - and some decline gender identification all together. While many of the voices come from North America, there are contributors from all around the world - Spain, Singapore, Mexico, Argentina, Kenya among others - and from a multitude of ethnic backgrounds.
The contributions range from the deeply personal to the highly theoretical, from formal essay to autobiographical narrative to poetry to visual art.
Taken together, these works form a kaleidoscope of proudly oppositional images, of all the ways to genderfuck, to trans/scend the rigid boundaries of immutability and binary thinking about sex and gender. They remind us of where we have been, what we still face, and where we are going in the journey to deconstruct the old labels used to control sexual identity and expression, and to create a new world where people can truly become who they know themselves to be.
July 22, 2013
“Let's stop pretending that we have all the answers, because when it comes to gender, none of us is fucking omniscient.”
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation is a collection of essays, poems, and comics that examine the nature of gender choice, identification, and oppression. It works as a quasi sequel to Burnstien's books released back in 1995, Gender Outlaws. Even though I haven't read the original book I feel that it is almost a necessity to release this, as the world and how people choose to identify and be heard changes in almost every second.
In general this was a thought provoking reading. Some of the essays spoke to me, and I could feel with every molecule the way the author felt. Other's upset me or bored me, and I just skimmed over them a bit and moved on. But overall this collection presents an eye opening and marveling take on the next generation of gender identification. Anyone even remotely interested in gender studies is likely to find this book entertaining and riveting.
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation is a collection of essays, poems, and comics that examine the nature of gender choice, identification, and oppression. It works as a quasi sequel to Burnstien's books released back in 1995, Gender Outlaws. Even though I haven't read the original book I feel that it is almost a necessity to release this, as the world and how people choose to identify and be heard changes in almost every second.
In general this was a thought provoking reading. Some of the essays spoke to me, and I could feel with every molecule the way the author felt. Other's upset me or bored me, and I just skimmed over them a bit and moved on. But overall this collection presents an eye opening and marveling take on the next generation of gender identification. Anyone even remotely interested in gender studies is likely to find this book entertaining and riveting.
July 17, 2018
Actual rating 4.75
This. Was. GREAT. This was a brilliant and fantastic collection of poems, comics, short stories, and q&a's covering the world of trans and queer individuals. The rawness of so many of these stories helped me to better empathize with the struggle of the trans/genderqueer communities. And while these were all well written and thought provoking there were a few that didn't stand out to me so I couldn't give this one a full five stars but I was very close. I highly highly recommend this to anyone and everyone looking to read some fantastic non-fiction about all kinds of individuals in the queer community.
Video review - https://youtu.be/Er7ZXln1Q-M
This. Was. GREAT. This was a brilliant and fantastic collection of poems, comics, short stories, and q&a's covering the world of trans and queer individuals. The rawness of so many of these stories helped me to better empathize with the struggle of the trans/genderqueer communities. And while these were all well written and thought provoking there were a few that didn't stand out to me so I couldn't give this one a full five stars but I was very close. I highly highly recommend this to anyone and everyone looking to read some fantastic non-fiction about all kinds of individuals in the queer community.
Video review - https://youtu.be/Er7ZXln1Q-M
June 25, 2015
This is a genuinely remarkable collection. I don't know how, exactly, they called for submissions, but everyone should use the same technique because the majority of the writing in this book was outstanding. The variety and depth of experience that is captured is beyond impressive - intersections of gender (trans* and otherwise) and religion, class, race, language, country, culture, ability, you name it. Contains poetry, prose, persuasive arguments, eulogies, cartoons: all incredibly effective. I really can't say enough about how much I got out of this book; pick it up!
May 18, 2018
Such an important collection of narratives that disrupts the binary at every turn!
April 22, 2022
While I understand sex and gender as socially constructed labels, I also understand that those labels are made real by their enforcement in dominant culture. Gendered behavior patterns were the key to at least half of miscommunication in my office.
Eye opening
There are plenty of books where I learn new facts. But the ones that are most striking to me are those that present new ways of thinking.
Gender Outlaws is a straightforward collection of essays from talented writers sharing the trans experience(s). The stories are short, yet manage to convey perspectives that I had not given thought to. Their kaleidoscopic nature gives the book a depth greater than its page count. While there are imperfections, they don't really interfere with the book as a whole. It's easy to take what you want from each story and move on.
But the debate doesn’t have to be about who is and is not a woman. These sorts of considerations become irrelevant if we start organizing our events, meetings, and working groups in terms of experience of sexism, rather than identity.
The book was released in 2010, so there have been some good (and bad) developments in acceptance and linguistics since then. However it's still relevant - it is experience after experience, thought process after thought process in digestible form. It's an opportunity to feel empathy, without seeing monolithic groups - while there is no outright conflict between the stories, the writers find different elements interesting to them.
At least one of the stories refers to opening your third eye, so do that and give this book a shot.
We could talk about our sexual orientation in terms of what gender presentations we are attracted to rather than what identities we are attracted to.
Eye opening
There are plenty of books where I learn new facts. But the ones that are most striking to me are those that present new ways of thinking.
Gender Outlaws is a straightforward collection of essays from talented writers sharing the trans experience(s). The stories are short, yet manage to convey perspectives that I had not given thought to. Their kaleidoscopic nature gives the book a depth greater than its page count. While there are imperfections, they don't really interfere with the book as a whole. It's easy to take what you want from each story and move on.
But the debate doesn’t have to be about who is and is not a woman. These sorts of considerations become irrelevant if we start organizing our events, meetings, and working groups in terms of experience of sexism, rather than identity.
The book was released in 2010, so there have been some good (and bad) developments in acceptance and linguistics since then. However it's still relevant - it is experience after experience, thought process after thought process in digestible form. It's an opportunity to feel empathy, without seeing monolithic groups - while there is no outright conflict between the stories, the writers find different elements interesting to them.
At least one of the stories refers to opening your third eye, so do that and give this book a shot.
We could talk about our sexual orientation in terms of what gender presentations we are attracted to rather than what identities we are attracted to.
December 14, 2018
It’s always tough rating anthologies, but this one I can honestly say that I found every entry interesting and engaging. Obviously I enjoyed more than others and I’d totally like to share a couple I thought were just awesome.
Telyn’s Vegan Curry
Made it today and it is awesome!
The Big Reveal
I must of read this one at least 6 times before moving on. Sherilyn Connelly really knows how to tell a story. I’d love to hear an audio telling of this from the author.
She-Male Rising
Another entry that was SO engaging that I read it a few times before moving forward.
Personal story inspired by an entry in this book regarding public restrooms. I think I was 22 when I visited a friend of mine at Western Illinois University who was in his freshman year living in the dorms. I used the bathroom and while I was washing my hands a girl stepped out of the stall behind me and proceeded to wash her hands in the sink next to me. At the moment I was internally freaking out thinking I must have accidentally went in the women’s restroom, but the girl (around my age) just sparked some small talk with me and went about. When returning to my friend’s dorm I mentioned the encounter and he responded with “oh yeah...we have co-ed restrooms” and explained it was a shock at first but you got used to it after a week or so.
Telyn’s Vegan Curry
Made it today and it is awesome!
The Big Reveal
I must of read this one at least 6 times before moving on. Sherilyn Connelly really knows how to tell a story. I’d love to hear an audio telling of this from the author.
She-Male Rising
Another entry that was SO engaging that I read it a few times before moving forward.
Personal story inspired by an entry in this book regarding public restrooms. I think I was 22 when I visited a friend of mine at Western Illinois University who was in his freshman year living in the dorms. I used the bathroom and while I was washing my hands a girl stepped out of the stall behind me and proceeded to wash her hands in the sink next to me. At the moment I was internally freaking out thinking I must have accidentally went in the women’s restroom, but the girl (around my age) just sparked some small talk with me and went about. When returning to my friend’s dorm I mentioned the encounter and he responded with “oh yeah...we have co-ed restrooms” and explained it was a shock at first but you got used to it after a week or so.
June 4, 2023
I really liked the authenticity and reading queer writers. I think I had different expectations going in, that the pieces would align with my understanding of what radical queerness should look like, but the pieces are just as flawed and complex as their respective authors and myself and it's extremely rare to find anyone who has the exact same politics as you anyway even in your close circles.
I think I also hoped to see my story. I didn't, but that's not a failing of the book. I think queer stories that follow my trajectory are common, but queer media likes to focus on certain narratives and timelines when it comes to being trans. The first time I read a queer journey that made me say, "That's me!" came from a book about the very real dangers and harm of militant, patriarchal Evangelicalism because she had the same background I did. Gender Outlaws was offered to me as a queer resource where I might see myself reflected, but I didn't. What I did take away is that gender queerness and folks' journies all look different.
I think I also hoped to see my story. I didn't, but that's not a failing of the book. I think queer stories that follow my trajectory are common, but queer media likes to focus on certain narratives and timelines when it comes to being trans. The first time I read a queer journey that made me say, "That's me!" came from a book about the very real dangers and harm of militant, patriarchal Evangelicalism because she had the same background I did. Gender Outlaws was offered to me as a queer resource where I might see myself reflected, but I didn't. What I did take away is that gender queerness and folks' journies all look different.
December 27, 2018
Enjoyed some pieces (especially "Cisgender Privilege: On the Privileges of Performing Normative Gender" by Evin Taylor and "transcension" by Katie Diamond and Johnny Blazes); others, not as much. Still, I appreciate this work and its place in the trans literary canon.
"While I understand sex and gender as socially constructed labels, I also understand that these labels are made real by their enforcement in dominant culture." p. 33 (from "Trans-Corporation: A benefit analysis of a transgender man in a corporate setting" by CT Whitley)
"While I understand sex and gender as socially constructed labels, I also understand that these labels are made real by their enforcement in dominant culture." p. 33 (from "Trans-Corporation: A benefit analysis of a transgender man in a corporate setting" by CT Whitley)
March 28, 2017
A variety of texts on transgender experience, mainly narrated from a 1st person perspective. Texts are empowering and more or less healing. Some articles are more enjoyable to read. The book is informative for anyone, both within and without the queer community.
March 30, 2018
The sheer diversity of life stories is amazing to me. On top of it, the book is a collection of many different genres, which makes it even more interesting. This is really going push to the reader to expand their horizons.
December 31, 2020
If a book makes me cry five times, it gets five stars
January 11, 2021
Already 10 years old, but I feel still relevant to the mishmash of gender exploration I see in my world. I crave more books like this, especially from intersex voices.
November 21, 2023
felt very seen & understood
December 26, 2025
One of the essays includes a recipe for vegan curry… the woke mind virus is at hand
February 5, 2025
I read this to support my dissertation, and as a whole, it's not QUITE academic enough to be used as evidence. but there are some gems in here that I will definitely be using.
as a non-academic but non-fiction book on gender, it absolutely rips, and I'd suggest it to anyone.
as a non-academic but non-fiction book on gender, it absolutely rips, and I'd suggest it to anyone.
October 29, 2025
Gender Outlaws has a solid chunk of cool pieces in it, but the bad stuff is such a cognitohazard that I can't really recommend it to anybody outside of experienced gender theory sickos, but it's also not likely to crack anyone's mind open the way Gender Outlaw or even the Gender Accelerationist do. You know?
So Gender Outlaw in 1994 was Kate Bornstein giving you the groundwork for a class-based assessment of gender, and it was like 700 pages of magic to like 250 pages of theatre kid bullshit. After that it has the script for a stage play. I still don't know what a "bottom shaman" is, but it was pretty incredible and partially responsible for breaking my brain in half along the question of "if nothing is inherently gendered, how can anything be gendered?" which is neat. Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation is an anthology of various queer theory writeups instead, which was very sad. I ended up mostly looking forward to Bornstein's interjections with her cool new writer-in-crime, S Bear Bergman. This didn't have to be a disappointment but ends up that way due to selection.
First I'll call out some of the really good writeups I bookmarked for being rad. Obviously the bits by Bornstein and Bergman rock; the intro contains the line "Sometimes the ouches come from older transfolk who don't like seeing the binary they invested in get dumped out and turned into a hat by nineteen-year-olds." which goes so incredibly hard. The Perfect Storm by Sam Peterson rules for its musings about a fourth wave of feminism and bad, old, gender essentialist ideas creeping their way back in. Taking Up Space by Kyle Lukoff is well worth the read just for the experience of a trans man getting "treatment" for an eating disorder, Glitter Glitter on the Wall by Esmé Rodríguez rules for its gender abolitionist overtones, particularly from a trans-masculine drag perspective. Today's New Name May Be Tomorrow's Old by Sassafras Lowrey is great for disabusing people of the notion that transmasc identities are privileged somehow, and I think that covers all of the really good ones. Most of the writeups I don't note here are just fine, and the only real age-related issue that I didn't appreciate was the prescribing of certain kinds of bodies to a particular gender/sex. They still hadn't quite defeated that one in 2011, which is how I know this book would not have cured little me of my imageboard brainrot.
What's that about privilege and transmasc identities, though? I was pretty surprised myself to be getting some RARE LORE in a few of the truly atrocious submissions for Gender Outlaws. Line 'em up!
Julia Serano gives us "PERFORMANCE PIECE" which, only having read it now almost reads like parody of the "transandrophobia is fake" crowd, if not for the fact that this is basically what Imogen Binnie copy-pasteed wholesale into the bits of Nevada where Maria Griffiths mouths off online. Basically the overtone is this: various queer and trans people have realised over time that gender is in large part socially constructed, like breasts are only seen as "female" because they say they are, because a doctor looked at an infant's genitalia and said "ayup that's a girl", right? Serano then looks at this and says "nuh-uh", more or less. As if the statement "gender is performative" somehow invalidates her gender identity? But remember the Gender Accelerationist Manifesto: you don't stop baking just because capitalism is over.
It's a weird piece; Serano writes "Because I’m transsexual, I am sometimes accused of impersonation or deception when I am simply being myself. So it seems to me that this strategy of fictionalizing gender will only ever serve to marginalize me further." as if the literal point of acknowledging gender as a social construct is to say that people's gender is individually fake? It's truly wild. "gender doesn't feel like a performance when, for the first time in your life, you feel safe and empowered enough to express yourself in ways that resonate with you, rather than remaining closeted for the benefit of others" and yes! That is completely compatible with everything she allegedly hates! "So don't you dare dismiss my gender as a construct" is absurd, because the point is not to DISMISS anyone's GENDER???? Hello where am I, can I have some help pls???
There is a small sliver in which she sounds like she's going somewhere: "Let’s stop claiming that certain genders and sexualities “reinforce the gender binary.” In the past, that tactic has been used to dismiss butches and femmes, bisexuals, trans folks and our partners, and feminine people of every persuasion." A good thought on its own, and very true, because accusing people of reinforcing a binary just for being a gender or doing something that's stereotypical of gender is bad craic. Patently unfeminist, among other things. However I struggle to read this in good faith because Julia Serano also wrote about "binary-phobia" and how some identities are held higher than others for being more radical, and shit. That's presumably where the Nevada screed about 'college age women with punk rock haircuts' comes from. A deeply unserious idea and the one that made me quit Whipping Girl.
I know that the Gender Accelerationist Manifesto didn't exist in 2011 and that maybe back then, people were doing the "end of gender" thing exactly as Serano describes, (and that she apologised once for being shitty about trans men) but her shitty thoughts have echoed so far that they're still poisoning the discussion of gender at various levels. Also, she refuses to revise her stupid book, so there's that. It's useful to have a little more to the Serano Story, and it fills out the picture about that lovingly hateful book with an orange cover, but Performance Piece was the first in a three-hit combo of psychic damage I was subject to from Gender Outlaw.
The next one is On Living Well and Coming Free by Ryka Aoki! Julia Serano isn’t usually counted as a “Topside Author” by me, because she doesn’t appear in The Collection (2012) or anything like that, she’s more unrelated theory and has impacts less directly on orange book. Ryka Aoki though, I know. I’ve never really got along with her writing; Light From Uncommon Stars killed me with all of the self-hate last time I tried it, and her Collection short To The New World is alright I guess. This is the first time I’m putting her on blast then, I guess, because her submission is bad:
“It does not seem to me, however, that shouting "Down with the police!" makes our lives better. It is tempting to hate police indiscriminately, but if two men have just attacked you with knives and you need to call the police--there had better fucking be police. It's more constructive to work with the police and help them begin to be more compassionate toward us."
It might seem like I’m nitpicking, but because On Living Well is centered around her giving a self-defense course, there’s a substantial amount of time spent... being mad at people who say “down with the police”. Yeah, how fucking dare they... I wonder what Ryka Aoki thinks of Stonewall, or the Cooper Do-nuts Riot. She must know about how the prison system is with trans people, right? We’re in a queer theory anthology here. In the next section of the book, Sassafras Lowrey writes “My friends were beat up in the streets and we all knew better thn to call the cops” which makes for nice contrast. On Living Well also includes the clanger “I find the patriarchy not guilty by reason of insanity” which I really hope is a joke. It’s not exactly quality theory that we’re being presented with here, you see.
The last one is more like a nice little kick as you exit the building; Evin Taylor has written “Cisgender Privilege: On the Privileges of Performing Normative Gender” which seems promising and mostly is; it’s a questionnaire largely inspired by Peggy McIntosh’s 1988 “Unpacking the Invisible White Knapsack”, which is designed to illustrate and provide insight into white privilege, and I thought adapting that for cisgender privilege was actually a pretty good idea. Mostly it is, until question 46:
“46. Can you choose whether or not to think of your gender as a political or social construct?”
This is so wild to me, and it’s the one that has me most convinced that these writers are talking to, like, some kind of evil cabal of end-of-gender college-age punk rock haircuts, that does not exist now. “Believe”? The thing that gets me about it is, my personal experience has shown me that gender is literally just something a guy made up. Society paints the “MALE” and “FEMALE” symbols on people who are provably neither; trans women are never “male-bodied” in the literal sense, and intersex people are often not the gender they are assigned or raised as. Gender is literally a series of labels that humans use. This is not incompatible with acknowledging that the socially constructed use of gender to cause harm both individually and systemically exists; as you see in The Gender Accelerationist Manifesto, quite the contrary. I go through experiences negatively coloured by how society receives my gender on all levels every day; this does not make gender somehow not constructed. It’s ridiculous, the idea that BELIEVING your gender is a social construct is somehow a cisgendered privilege. Am I, then, flexing my cisgendered privilege when I, a nonbinary transfem dyke say “gender is fuckin’ fake shit, I changed my sex last year”? Huh????
This line of questioning is obviously painfully incompatible with reality and shit like that is why I cannot in good conscience recommend Gender Outlaws without like, heavy caveats, or a reading group, or something. It bugs me how both incensed Serano enjoyers and well-meaning allies alike hurl Whipping Girl around with reckless abandon, as if it’s the fucking bible on transphobia, so how can I rate this highly? For all the good that’s within it, I was hoping to get some more gender abolitionist knowledge, and all I got was psychic damage. Much love to Kate Bornstein and S Bear Bergman for their insight and passion; why’d you have to do me like this, though?
So Gender Outlaw in 1994 was Kate Bornstein giving you the groundwork for a class-based assessment of gender, and it was like 700 pages of magic to like 250 pages of theatre kid bullshit. After that it has the script for a stage play. I still don't know what a "bottom shaman" is, but it was pretty incredible and partially responsible for breaking my brain in half along the question of "if nothing is inherently gendered, how can anything be gendered?" which is neat. Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation is an anthology of various queer theory writeups instead, which was very sad. I ended up mostly looking forward to Bornstein's interjections with her cool new writer-in-crime, S Bear Bergman. This didn't have to be a disappointment but ends up that way due to selection.
First I'll call out some of the really good writeups I bookmarked for being rad. Obviously the bits by Bornstein and Bergman rock; the intro contains the line "Sometimes the ouches come from older transfolk who don't like seeing the binary they invested in get dumped out and turned into a hat by nineteen-year-olds." which goes so incredibly hard. The Perfect Storm by Sam Peterson rules for its musings about a fourth wave of feminism and bad, old, gender essentialist ideas creeping their way back in. Taking Up Space by Kyle Lukoff is well worth the read just for the experience of a trans man getting "treatment" for an eating disorder, Glitter Glitter on the Wall by Esmé Rodríguez rules for its gender abolitionist overtones, particularly from a trans-masculine drag perspective. Today's New Name May Be Tomorrow's Old by Sassafras Lowrey is great for disabusing people of the notion that transmasc identities are privileged somehow, and I think that covers all of the really good ones. Most of the writeups I don't note here are just fine, and the only real age-related issue that I didn't appreciate was the prescribing of certain kinds of bodies to a particular gender/sex. They still hadn't quite defeated that one in 2011, which is how I know this book would not have cured little me of my imageboard brainrot.
What's that about privilege and transmasc identities, though? I was pretty surprised myself to be getting some RARE LORE in a few of the truly atrocious submissions for Gender Outlaws. Line 'em up!
Julia Serano gives us "PERFORMANCE PIECE" which, only having read it now almost reads like parody of the "transandrophobia is fake" crowd, if not for the fact that this is basically what Imogen Binnie copy-pasteed wholesale into the bits of Nevada where Maria Griffiths mouths off online. Basically the overtone is this: various queer and trans people have realised over time that gender is in large part socially constructed, like breasts are only seen as "female" because they say they are, because a doctor looked at an infant's genitalia and said "ayup that's a girl", right? Serano then looks at this and says "nuh-uh", more or less. As if the statement "gender is performative" somehow invalidates her gender identity? But remember the Gender Accelerationist Manifesto: you don't stop baking just because capitalism is over.
It's a weird piece; Serano writes "Because I’m transsexual, I am sometimes accused of impersonation or deception when I am simply being myself. So it seems to me that this strategy of fictionalizing gender will only ever serve to marginalize me further." as if the literal point of acknowledging gender as a social construct is to say that people's gender is individually fake? It's truly wild. "gender doesn't feel like a performance when, for the first time in your life, you feel safe and empowered enough to express yourself in ways that resonate with you, rather than remaining closeted for the benefit of others" and yes! That is completely compatible with everything she allegedly hates! "So don't you dare dismiss my gender as a construct" is absurd, because the point is not to DISMISS anyone's GENDER???? Hello where am I, can I have some help pls???
There is a small sliver in which she sounds like she's going somewhere: "Let’s stop claiming that certain genders and sexualities “reinforce the gender binary.” In the past, that tactic has been used to dismiss butches and femmes, bisexuals, trans folks and our partners, and feminine people of every persuasion." A good thought on its own, and very true, because accusing people of reinforcing a binary just for being a gender or doing something that's stereotypical of gender is bad craic. Patently unfeminist, among other things. However I struggle to read this in good faith because Julia Serano also wrote about "binary-phobia" and how some identities are held higher than others for being more radical, and shit. That's presumably where the Nevada screed about 'college age women with punk rock haircuts' comes from. A deeply unserious idea and the one that made me quit Whipping Girl.
I know that the Gender Accelerationist Manifesto didn't exist in 2011 and that maybe back then, people were doing the "end of gender" thing exactly as Serano describes, (and that she apologised once for being shitty about trans men) but her shitty thoughts have echoed so far that they're still poisoning the discussion of gender at various levels. Also, she refuses to revise her stupid book, so there's that. It's useful to have a little more to the Serano Story, and it fills out the picture about that lovingly hateful book with an orange cover, but Performance Piece was the first in a three-hit combo of psychic damage I was subject to from Gender Outlaw.
The next one is On Living Well and Coming Free by Ryka Aoki! Julia Serano isn’t usually counted as a “Topside Author” by me, because she doesn’t appear in The Collection (2012) or anything like that, she’s more unrelated theory and has impacts less directly on orange book. Ryka Aoki though, I know. I’ve never really got along with her writing; Light From Uncommon Stars killed me with all of the self-hate last time I tried it, and her Collection short To The New World is alright I guess. This is the first time I’m putting her on blast then, I guess, because her submission is bad:
“It does not seem to me, however, that shouting "Down with the police!" makes our lives better. It is tempting to hate police indiscriminately, but if two men have just attacked you with knives and you need to call the police--there had better fucking be police. It's more constructive to work with the police and help them begin to be more compassionate toward us."
It might seem like I’m nitpicking, but because On Living Well is centered around her giving a self-defense course, there’s a substantial amount of time spent... being mad at people who say “down with the police”. Yeah, how fucking dare they... I wonder what Ryka Aoki thinks of Stonewall, or the Cooper Do-nuts Riot. She must know about how the prison system is with trans people, right? We’re in a queer theory anthology here. In the next section of the book, Sassafras Lowrey writes “My friends were beat up in the streets and we all knew better thn to call the cops” which makes for nice contrast. On Living Well also includes the clanger “I find the patriarchy not guilty by reason of insanity” which I really hope is a joke. It’s not exactly quality theory that we’re being presented with here, you see.
The last one is more like a nice little kick as you exit the building; Evin Taylor has written “Cisgender Privilege: On the Privileges of Performing Normative Gender” which seems promising and mostly is; it’s a questionnaire largely inspired by Peggy McIntosh’s 1988 “Unpacking the Invisible White Knapsack”, which is designed to illustrate and provide insight into white privilege, and I thought adapting that for cisgender privilege was actually a pretty good idea. Mostly it is, until question 46:
“46. Can you choose whether or not to think of your gender as a political or social construct?”
This is so wild to me, and it’s the one that has me most convinced that these writers are talking to, like, some kind of evil cabal of end-of-gender college-age punk rock haircuts, that does not exist now. “Believe”? The thing that gets me about it is, my personal experience has shown me that gender is literally just something a guy made up. Society paints the “MALE” and “FEMALE” symbols on people who are provably neither; trans women are never “male-bodied” in the literal sense, and intersex people are often not the gender they are assigned or raised as. Gender is literally a series of labels that humans use. This is not incompatible with acknowledging that the socially constructed use of gender to cause harm both individually and systemically exists; as you see in The Gender Accelerationist Manifesto, quite the contrary. I go through experiences negatively coloured by how society receives my gender on all levels every day; this does not make gender somehow not constructed. It’s ridiculous, the idea that BELIEVING your gender is a social construct is somehow a cisgendered privilege. Am I, then, flexing my cisgendered privilege when I, a nonbinary transfem dyke say “gender is fuckin’ fake shit, I changed my sex last year”? Huh????
This line of questioning is obviously painfully incompatible with reality and shit like that is why I cannot in good conscience recommend Gender Outlaws without like, heavy caveats, or a reading group, or something. It bugs me how both incensed Serano enjoyers and well-meaning allies alike hurl Whipping Girl around with reckless abandon, as if it’s the fucking bible on transphobia, so how can I rate this highly? For all the good that’s within it, I was hoping to get some more gender abolitionist knowledge, and all I got was psychic damage. Much love to Kate Bornstein and S Bear Bergman for their insight and passion; why’d you have to do me like this, though?
December 29, 2020
Acabé subrayando algunas ideas interesantes, aunque quizá no contiene nada demasiado rompedor que no hayas oído si estás puesto en el tema género, otros tipos de sexualidad, etc. Hay un poco de todo: experiencias, reflexiones y hasta poesías. Una buena lectura, si bien los interludios en forma de teatro/chat no me han gustado demasiado.
July 26, 2018
This book has so many stories and perspectives while still maintaining the theme. I appreciated the authors taking me into their worlds and I learned so much!
January 17, 2019
9 years made a hell of a difference in regards to trans politics and experiences, but this book was a wonderful snapshot of trans lives in 2010. It was remarkably good at showing depths of conversations and multiple viewpoints, while giving voices to a myriad of identities and experiences. A compelling and very thoughtful read!
May 16, 2023
I think this definitely achieves what it sets out to do. Some pieces I loved, some I vehemently disagreed with, some will be touching me with echoes for decades. I def recommend.
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