by Morty Diamond
This book was too complex and I have too many quotes and feelings to write this as a typical book review. But I'll try to be reasonably...ah, what's the word...it means going from A to C by way of B instead of Kumquat. I can hear the voices of almost everyone I know asking me why I'm going to bother. A few things you'll want to note while you're still up here at the top. There's a lot of quotes in here. They're all formatted by author of piece, page number. They're good quotes. But if you're not interested in quotes, there's still more writing at the bottom!
"I started off my life as a boy with a slight disadvantage,
nothing so big that it could not be overcome with a little ingenuity and spunk,
but a setback, nonetheless. You see, despite being a little boy from the very
start destined to become the handsome and talented man I am today, I happened
to have had the unexpected surprise of being born a girl. I’ve yet to come
across a reasonable explanation for this mix-up, but there’s no sense crying
over spilt milk." ~Eli Wadley, 99
I am calling this book
Inside Out because like a lot of nonfiction, it has a ridiculously long title. It's a fitting one, though. This book is a collection of personal essays, poems, and one entry that included parts of both, all by people on the trans* spectrum about their experience being there. They identified in ways that would be countless if there were infinite chapters, but they all had one thing in common: They were labeled female at birth and have had some form of complaint about that. Some identify as FTM. One complains about that term because he was never female. One wonders how much of his desire to be a boy came from being trans* and how much from the patriarchy, and refrains from giving himself a label at all. Several found themselves most comfortable somewhere between gender extremes.
"I’ve been blessed to have my physical form be an educational
experience for the rest of the world. It’s a truly beautiful existence, riding
the line of gender and seeing everything from both a female and male
perspective." ~Rocco Rinaldi Kayiatos, 74
"My mom and practically the rest of the world assumed I now
identified as FTM female to male) transsexual, but that was a false accusation.
First off, I was not going from F to M. Whatever gender my parents chose to
raise me was their choice but the gender I truly am is not my choice…It’s just
who I am, and who I was meant to be. I never felt I was F because I never was,
and therefore the FTM identity does me no justice. Recognizing this helped me
form my MTM male to male) identity." ~Johnny Giovanni Righini, 78
This book could be Transgender 201. 101 gave you the basics: what does my parent/child/lover/friend mean when they say they're trans? They want to be a boy/girl? Doesn't everyone sometimes? But you're still a girl, you haven't had *that* surgery, right? This book takes you beyond, to answering the questions that can only be asked of indvidual people, rather than the community at large. Do I say 'transgendered'? Many people find that objectifying, but some still use it as self-identification. Best not to use it in larger contexts, but respect people's wishes one-on-one. Is it accurate to say someone 'used to be a woman'? Same answer.
There are people in this book who have had no surgery or hormones, some who have had 'top' surgery, and everything else. There's a person who uses 'he' pronouns as a way to screw with people's expectations even more than as a comfortable fit. Many of the authors never say what pronouns they use. One author writes about black boys, one describes growing up in a traditional Hispanic house, and one blatantly admits to having a life made easier by being white middle-class. The last essay is a neat transition into the beginning of intersectionality and queer of color critique, which has its roots in women of color feminism, queer studies, native studies, and more. I took a course on queer of color critique and it's worth studying, but you'll want a strong background in gender and sexuality first.
Anyway. I think this is a must-have for a trans* person trying to find their identity, or words to describe it.
"One of my MTF friends has spoken of transition as crossing
the fear barrier.” We feel commanded to do this crazy thing, to slash the ropes
of family ties and crush the bones of our previous values. As we start to walk
through the fire, we have the opportunity for a reprieve, as Abraham also
received, we do not have to be murderers and no one has to die. We can
transition safely and usually less catastrophically than we feared. But by our
willingness to have made the worst possible sacrifice, we are reborn and have a
new relationship with the powers that be." ~Tucker Lieberman, 24
"We are diplomats. We are go-betweens for men and women. This
is true whether we embrace or deny it. We are here to make peace with
ourselves, our lovers, other transgendered people, and to carve out a home in
the cliffs that sprang up between the sexes. We belong to the holy order of the
self-sacrificing diplomats." ~Tucker Lieberman, 25
"Whatever gender current or gender vector we have, whether
our birdhouse hollow points toward the rising or the setting sun or the harvest
moon, we are all pursuing the question of how to be at peace with our bodies in
the world and to realize, through that peace, the true meaning of it all. At
that point, gender is no longer about navigating one’s life between two
categories."~Tucker Lieberman, 25
"It isn’t about becoming” another person—I already am who I
am—I just want my body to reflect that. It’s not like I am suddenly changing
from the person you’ve always known—this is more about your willingness to see
who I’ve always been." ~Cooper Lee Bombardier, 28
"I am not sure which is worse, feeling invisible as a tranny
when being perceived as a butch dyke or feeling invisible as a queer when being
perceived as a man." ~Cooper Lee Bombardier, 29
"I don’t want to disappear into the world as a straight man."
~Cooper Lee Bombardier, 29
"For awhile, I was swindled into thinking, as many of us are,
that there is a correct” way to be trans, we have to take hormones, get
surgeries, get a GID diagnosis, change pronouns, pass, feel like a boy in a
girl’s body, and get a preppy haircut. My inclination is to break rules or flee
from them, and if this long list of rigorous requirements was what it took to
be trans, I didn’t want that." ~Boots Potential, 33
"I know what is acceptable once I leave the comfort of my
genderqueer microcosm where self-identification takes precedence over body
parts, voices, and names. I know that there are ways that I can act, ways that
I can present myself when I step outside of my door so that people will not question
who I am. It’s hard not to fall into that." ~Wyatt Swindler, 67
"I think it is sad that even the most enlightened people seem
to think that gender stereotypes are what makes people want to transition. I
used to be guilty of that myself, when hearing about the decisions of my trans
friends. In fact, my belief that only sexists would want to transition was the
main reason why I fought so hard against coming out to myself and anyone else.
In fact, it’s the notion that anyone who transitions is antifeminist and
patriarchal which kept me from dealing with this for so many years."
~Gavriel Alejandro Levi Ansara, 92
"I am transitioning not because I think men and women have
different characteristics, because I am emphatically NOT a gender essentialist.
I am transitioning because I feel most comfortable when people refer to me in
male terms and because I feel most comfortable and liberated in my body as a
man." ~Gavriel Alejandro Levi Ansara, 93
One of my favorites was about a man who was wondering about the fact he attended a women's college, and whether this would continue to haunt him on job applications. He finds it ironic, being a man and being an alum of Bryn Mawr.
Yes, Bryn Mawr! I go to Bryn Mawr! And I have such a lot, statistically speaking, trans* friends there. I want to call them all up and tell them I found a brother of theirs who went before them. This fellow talks about how he learned a lot there, how to be a feminist, what it is like to be a woman in those circumstances, and is he expected to just forget four years of his life in order not to be constantly haunted by his past?
“Will I switch my memories to the coed college a mile
down the road?”~Daniel Ray Soltis, 128
I know exactly which college he's talking about, and have been there several times. No, I want to tell him, you will be a proud queer Mawrtyr, for isn't it just this past Plenary we started rewriting our constitution to include gender-neutral language, isn't it here people have asked me my pronouns, not, I think, because I present very masculine, but because my name is Phoenix and even the slightest hint of gender non-conformation is enough to make people here want to check, isn't it here that despite years of roots as an all-women's college my friend group is the most inclusive place for trans* people that I have ever seen?
Now, I know my trans* friends have their problems with it, with the casual use of 'garden party girls' and 'freshwomen', and I don't want to act like we are some kind of utopia for trans* people. But--and this is why I am not an activist--I want to compare it to the way I grew up and the way most of my high school people live and the blank looks my parents give me when I throw out 'sy' as a pronoun and explain that there is more than one way of being agender or asexual (or anything else, but those are my pet peeves right now), and celebrate how good it actually is at Bryn Mawr. I'm so freaking proud to be here.
Overall rating: 5/5
Project upshot: I think I'll get a lot out of this book for the project!
Transgender 101 does what it says on the tin--it's a simple explanation geared mostly toward family, friends, and significant others of transgender people explaining what being transgender is. It gives the best clear-cut, non-judgmental explanation of 'feeling like' some gender that doesn't match up with your assigned sex is, with a detailed explanation of the differences between assigned sex, gender identity, and gender expression, and their interactions. It gives descriptions of the hormones and surgery trans people can choose to take/undergo and their physical effects while emphasizing that everyone is different and not everyone will want hormones, surgery, or both. It's also useful for newly out (to themselves) transpeople who want a clear-cut explanation of their choices, the limitations surrounding those choices, and what is likely to be going through the heads of family, friends, and coworkers as they start to come out. Finally, it provides a brief history of the understanding of transgenderism and touches on the intersections with class, race, nationality, and sexism.