Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels

by Justin Vivian Bond

Justin Vivian Bond's memoir, set before V's discovery of words like transgender, genderqueer, or agender, chronicles a young child's discoveries of lipstick, sex, transphobia, bullying, femininity, religion and friendship.

There's an endorsement on the back that says this book should be in the hands of every child and every adult that cares about that child. (I knew I should have written this review before I gave it back to the library. I can't properly quote. Please don't sue.) I'm not sure I'd go that far--I think I'm conservative enough to think that giving a book that describes having sex--lots of sex--as an eleven-year-old to children everywhere isn't the best of decisions. Adults that care about children, yes--Bond's desire to simply be accepted, struggles with the gender binary, and harassment are universal themes that adults who care for children need to understand. It's a good read, fast, gripping, and a little shocking--don't give this one to Grandma. It shows the reader how Bond's gender identity was present from early childhood, and not compromised by the fact that all Bond knew of queer culture was that boys who had sex with boys were faggots. As Real Man Adventures describes post-transition life, Tango describes pre-transition life, a welcome diversion from the many peri-transition narratives, if that is a word.
This is an open apology to Bond if I have used the wrong pronoun above--there are no pronouns in the book itself, except for the he/him ascribed to Bond by society, and I am getting my pronoun knowledge from the introduction, which confusingly uses V's, Mx's, and his somewhat interchangeably as the possessive pronoun, and left me extremely confused. Not that Bond owes me pronouns, but let it stand that it's hard to give a review of a book without the pronouns of the main character, and I'm sorry if I'm wrong!

Overall rating: 3/5

Project upshot: I appreciate the look at childhood life and also how dysphoria for a non-binary person can be similar and different from dysphoria for a binary person.