Before We Were Trans

Before We Were Trans
Author: Dr. Kit Heyam
Publisher: Seal Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2022-09-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1541603109

A groundbreaking global history of gender nonconformity Today’s narratives about trans people tend to feature individuals with stable gender identities that fit neatly into the categories of male or female. Those stories, while important, fail to account for the complex realities of many trans people’s lives. Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Before We Were Trans transports us from Renaissance Venice to seventeenth-century Angola, from Edo Japan to early America, and looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures.

Transgender History

Transgender History
Author: Susan Stryker
Publisher:
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2008-05-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 158005224X

A chronological account of transgender theory documents major movements, writings, and events, offering insight into the contributions of key historical figures while discussing treatments of transgenderism in pop culture. Original.

Before Trans

Before Trans
Author: Rachel Mesch
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2020-05-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 150361235X

“This thoughtful academic treatise . . . explores the lives of three famous gender nonconformists in fin-de-siècle Paris.” —Publishers Weekly Before the term “transgender” existed, there were those who experienced their gender in complex ways. Before Trans examines the lives and writings of Jane Dieulafoy (1850–1916), Rachilde (1860–1953), and Marc de Montifaud (1845–1912), three French writers whose gender expression did not conform to nineteenth-century notions of femininity. Dieulafoy fought alongside her husband in the Franco-Prussian War; later she wrote novels about girls becoming boys and enjoyed being photographed in her signature men's suits. Rachilde became famous in the 1880s for her controversial gender-bending novel Monsieur Vénus, published around the same time that she started using a calling card that read “Rachilde, Man of Letters.” Montifaud turned to erotic writings, for which she was repeatedly charged with "offense to public decency"; she wore tailored men's suits and a short haircut and went by masculine pronouns among certain friends. Dieulafoy, Rachilde, and Montifaud established themselves as fixtures in the literary world of fin-de-siècle Paris at the same time as French writers, scientists, and doctors were becoming fascinated with sexuality and sexual difference. Even so, the concept of gender identity as separate from sexual identity did not yet exist. Before Trans explores these three figures' efforts to articulate a sense of selfhood that did not align with the conventional gender roles of their day. Their personal stories provide vital historical context for our own efforts to understand the nature of gender identity. “A fresh and original take on trans history.” —Jack Halberstam, author of The Queer Art of Failure

Yes, You Are Trans Enough

Yes, You Are Trans Enough
Author: Mia Violet
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2018-06-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1784506281

LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE 'Honest, raw, moving' CHRISTINE BURNS 'Radical vulnerability at its finest' OWL FISHER 'Highly recommended' SAN FRANCISCO REVIEW OF BOOKS This is the deeply personal and witty account of growing up as the kid who never fitted in. Transgender blogger Mia Violet reflects on her life and how at 26 she came to finally realise she was 'trans enough' to be transgender, after years of knowing she was different but without the language to understand why. From bullying, heartache and a botched coming out attempt, through to counselling, Gender Identity Clinics and acceptance, Mia confronts the ins and outs of transitioning, using her charged personal narrative to explore the inaccuracies of trans representation and confront what the media has gotten wrong. Deeply affecting, and narrated with warmth and honesty, this is an essential read for anyone who has had to fight to be themselves.

This Is How It Always Is

This Is How It Always Is
Author: Laurie Frankel
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2017-01-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250088550

"This is Claude. He's five years old, the youngest of five brothers. He also loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They're just not sure they're ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude's secret. Until one day it explodes."--

Trans Like Me

Trans Like Me
Author: CN Lester
Publisher: Seal Press
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2018-06-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1580057845

A personal and culture-driven exploration of the most pressing questions facing the transgender community today, from a leading activist, musician, and academic In Trans Like Me, CN Lester takes readers on a measured, thoughtful, intelligent yet approachable tour through the most important and high-profile narratives around the trans community, turning them inside out and examining where we really are in terms of progress. From the impact of the media's wording in covering trans people and issues, to the way parenting gender variant children is portrayed, Lester brings their charged personal narrative to every topic and expertly lays out the work left to be done. Trans Like Me explores the ways that we are all defined by ideas of gender -- whether we live as he, she, or they -- and how we can strive for authenticity in a world that forces limiting labels.

The Transgender Child

The Transgender Child
Author: Stephanie Brill
Publisher: Cleis Press
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2022-06-14
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 162778537X

Ever since its initial publication in 2008, The Transgender Child has been lauded as the most trusted source of information for families wanting to understand and affirm their transgender, gender-expansive, or nonbinary child. Utilized around the world and translated into multiple languages, The Transgender Child has won accolades from medical and mental health professionals, teachers, and, most especially, from parents. Authors Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper have now thoroughly revised and updated their ground-breaking classic with expanded coverage of gender development, affirming parenting practices, mental health and wellness, medical decision making, legal advocacy, and how best to ensure school success, from preschool through the high school years. Drawing upon their extensive joint expertise as pioneers in the field of gender affirming care, and enriched with the wisdom of parents who’ve already walked this path, as well as the voices of multiple professional experts, Brill and Pepper once again provide a compassionate and educational guide for anyone who cares about, or works with, a child who falls outside expected gender norms.

All About Yves

All About Yves
Author: Yves Rees
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2021-08-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 176106262X

A timely and thought-provoking memoir about the trans experience. 'Rees provides us with their deep insights into contemporary trans and gender diverse history as it's being made . . . All About Yves is the book I wish I'd been able to give my mother when I was transitioning.' Sam Elkin, Transgender Victoria Board Member Was I always trans, part boy beneath my skin, or was it that I landed in a place where 'girl' was a container so small it could break your bones? I learn that a ready smile and sympathetic ear are the only props required to impersonate a woman. The performance becomes so familiar I almost forget that it's staged. What happens when, aged 30, you understand you're transgender? This was the question that confronted Yves Rees, a historian whose life was upended by gender transition in 2018. Then known as a woman called Anne, Yves was forced to grapple with the sudden knowledge that they were not, in fact, female at all. But when you've lived a lie for so long, how do you discover who you really are? And how do you re-learn to live in the world as a different gender? All About Yves tells their moving journey of re-becoming, at the same time laying bare the messiness of bodies, gender and identity. It shares the challenges and joys of being transgender in Australia today, and reveals how trans experiences like Yves' can teach all of us about what it means to be human. 'A book of great heart and gentle intelligence, and one that will mean a great deal to many people.' Fiona Wright, author of The World Was Whole

Trans Historical

Trans Historical
Author: Greta LaFleur
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1501759523

Trans Historical explores the plurality of gender experiences that flourished before the modern era, from Late Antiquity to the eighteenth century, across a broad geographic range, from Spain to Poland and Byzantium to Boston. Refuting arguments that transgender people, experiences, and identities were non-existent or even impossible prior to the twentieth century, this volume focuses on archives—literary texts, trial transcripts, documents, and artifacts—that denaturalize gender as a category. The volume historicizes the many different social lives of sexual differentiation, exploring what gender might have been before modern medicine, the anatomical sciences, and the sedimentation of gender difference into its putatively binary form. The volume's multidisciplinary group of contributors consider how individuals, communities, and states understood and enacted gender as a social experience distinct from the assignment of sex at birth. Alongside historical questions about the meaning of sexual differentiation, Trans Historical also offers a series of diverse meditations on how scholars of the medieval and early modern periods might approach gender nonconformity before the nineteenth-century emergence of the norm and the normal. Contributors: Abdulhamit Arvas, University of Pennsylvania; Roland Betancourt, University of California, Irvine; M. W. Bychowski, Case Western Reserve University; Emma Campbell, Warwick University; Igor H. de Souza, Yale University; Leah DeVun, Rutgers University; Micah James Goodrich, University of Connecticut; Alexa Alice Joubin, George Washington University; Anna Kłosowska; Greta LaFleur; Scott Larson, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Kathleen Perry Long, Cornell University; Robert Mills, University College London; Masha Raskolnikov; Zrinka Stahuljak, UCLA.

Detransition, Baby

Detransition, Baby
Author: Torrey Peters
Publisher: One World
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2021-01-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593133390

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The lives of three women—transgender and cisgender—collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires in “one of the most celebrated novels of the year” (Time) “Reading this novel is like holding a live wire in your hand.”—Vulture One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Named one of the Best Books of the Year by more than twenty publications, including The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Time, Vogue, Esquire, Vulture, and Autostraddle PEN/Hemingway Award Winner • Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Gotham Book Prize • Longlisted for The Women’s Prize • Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club Pick • New York Times Editors’ Choice Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men. Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby—and that she's not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together? This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can't reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel.