This was good reading, and a story well told. Aleshia Brevard tells her transexual story. And it is an iconic story indeed. With a good amount of openThis was good reading, and a story well told. Aleshia Brevard tells her transexual story. And it is an iconic story indeed. With a good amount of openness to talking about the tough stuff, which one doesn't always find in earlier transsexual memoirs, like that of (the "faces" of early transsexuality in the US and UK respectively) Christine Jorgensen, or Roberta Cowell. Those authors are fairly openly homophobic in keeping with the mentality prevalent in their time, and clearly wish to present a sanitised vision of their transition.
But Brevard has the benefit of hindsight, as this was written long after the events it portrays. Portraying earlier times in the light of somewhat more modern attitudes. While openly acknowledging how Brevard's rural southern upbringing had positioned her to embrace (or have forced upon her) a feminine role which was in many ways fraught and unfair and cruel.
For its portrayal of bits of the San Francisco scene and Hollywood scene, this also has some good trans/gay history in it. Making it altogether a valuable document which is easily consumed. ...more
This is a really phenomenal portrait of a fascinating person and a remarkable life, told with tonnes of personality by miss Holly Woodlawn herself. MyThis is a really phenomenal portrait of a fascinating person and a remarkable life, told with tonnes of personality by miss Holly Woodlawn herself. My favourite memoir of the month, and one of my favourite trans memoirs of all time.
On the face of it, it would regardless be a fabulous portrait of an incredible time in New York night life history, art history, and gay history. But told with as much character and humour as Holly Woodlawn has to offer, it would endlessly compelling even if it didn't contain a single mention of Candy Darling or Divine or Warhol or what have you.
This work quite surprised me with its insight, compassion, and academic rigour. There are surely few (if any) people as well positioned to comment on This work quite surprised me with its insight, compassion, and academic rigour. There are surely few (if any) people as well positioned to comment on the procedural and medical realities of transgender health care in the 1960s than was Harry Benjamin. He draws not just on his own experiences in American medicine, but an in this case crucial background in German medicine (whose work with transgender patients long predated any American endeavours in this regard).
Benjamin is spoken well of in various transgender memoirs of the 1960s and 1970s and the why of it is evident here. This is a monumentally important work for both its medical insight and its interest in conveying patient experiences honestly (and to a large extent, in their own words)....more
For me, this will surely have been the most important trans memoir I have read in some time. It is well written, it captures an often harrowing story For me, this will surely have been the most important trans memoir I have read in some time. It is well written, it captures an often harrowing story of coming into one's own at the dawn of transition medicine in Canada. And it provides an account of not just the transition but the personal experiences and feelings and journey of the first transwoman to receive vaginoplasty in Canada. Making it particularly poignant as Canadiana, given its portrayal of a transwoman's life as a transwoman in places as far flung as Northwestern Ontario and rural Manitoba (but also in settings such as Winnipeg, Calgary, and Toronto)....more
This fairly short booklet is a fun little time capsule, capturing the ideas of its time on feminine speech. It's an easy read, and is more astute regaThis fairly short booklet is a fun little time capsule, capturing the ideas of its time on feminine speech. It's an easy read, and is more astute regarding the mechanics of speech than I might have expected, while being accessible to lay readers with no knowledge of vocal biomechanics. Not likely to be particularly useful to anyone in the present day, but a lovely little snapshot of the practicalities of feminine presentation in its era....more
This strikes me as a very well-researched portrait of Candy Darling, which does not shy away from her messy, enigmatic qualities, and addresses its suThis strikes me as a very well-researched portrait of Candy Darling, which does not shy away from her messy, enigmatic qualities, and addresses its subject thoughtfully and considerately. It deals responsibly, as well, with the complex problem of describing the gender expression of subjects who fall outside the parameters of mainstream gender expression not just in their own time and place, but also in the likely reader's. An altogether touching portrait of a transgender life. ...more
I've read more trans memoirs and sex worker memoirs than the overwhelming majority of people you'll ever meet, even in trans circles, so I was surely I've read more trans memoirs and sex worker memoirs than the overwhelming majority of people you'll ever meet, even in trans circles, so I was surely approaching this book with vastly different prior expectations from most readers. And it will thus have been greatly less novel to me, than it will be to most. But that having said and admitting that it brought little to me personally that was new or fresh, I think it does well what it seeks to do.
It's probably the ideal work of this nature for general audiences. Just sufficiently sanitised to make it readable for nearly anyone. With a willingness to address social injustices directly, but with a light enough touch that those who are really just reading this as a memoir for its own sake won't be put off by it. It's perhaps the trans memoir I would most readily recommend to my straight, cisgender, relatively conservative family members.
So that all having said, I didn't take a great deal from this work that I haven't encountered in more potent or poignant form elsewhere. But that's not Janet's fault. That's just a consequence of my own reading habits and personal experiences. She's clearly a very thoughtful person, with an experience to share which has the potential to be uniquely well-received by a wide audience, who needs to hear it....more
A problematic work, regarded in any capacity. It's early portions being more or less a somewhat amateurishly written war memoir (in a sea of much bettA problematic work, regarded in any capacity. It's early portions being more or less a somewhat amateurishly written war memoir (in a sea of much better such memoirs). And it's later portions being a combination of transition memoir and general philosophising around the topics of sex, sexuality, and gender.
Unfortunately, Roberta was an extremely opinionated but somewhat poorly informed commentator on these subjects, for her time. And so it is difficult to treat this even as a time capsule of endocrinological and sexological doctrines of its era. It is more so the opinionated musings of an amateur investigator on the subject.
Cowell very much succumbs to misogynist and homophobic views to which she was no doubt exposed. And even more so, she very much innovates a notion of her own transition as an authentic transition of an intersex female to her destined sex, whereas she sees nearly every other transwoman of her era as merely a "transvestite" or "homosexual".
Even for its time, this is a record of the opinions of a somewhat bigoted, not particularly thoughtful individual, on her transition, whose views are couched in a relatively poor understanding of the science involved. And so it is difficult to recommend, save as the flawed time capsule that it is. ...more
This was for me the most utterly joyless, miserable, pointless slog of any book I have read in the past two years. And I have read over 50 books by trThis was for me the most utterly joyless, miserable, pointless slog of any book I have read in the past two years. And I have read over 50 books by trans authors in the past two years, including Felker-Martin's earlier "Manhunt". I was perhaps not in the right, in forcing myself to finish this text.
Structurally, this book has some serious authorial issues which make it just generally a poorly built tale, with too many characters too chaotically juggled to allow for their development to be enjoyable or smoothly conducted. But more generally, it just suffers from its having been written by a seemingly miserable person who seems to want to foist misery and hate and loathing and disgust on all of her characters at all times, in an endless stream of highly repetitive utmost unpleasantness.
I give this work a begrudging one star because I must grant that there are surely others out there as miserable and devoid of joy or hope or love as Felker-Martin herself, who wish to hear their joyless, hateful miserable disgust at humanity and trans lives mirrored back at them. But for me, I do not need the trans experienced given its most hateful and joyless and self-loathing form. That does not enrich my own trans experience, and it is admittedly very difficult to see or understand how it could enrich anyone else's....more
For what this book is, I think it does an excellent job of telling it's tale of the life of a 1960s era trans sex worker, undergoing transition and woFor what this book is, I think it does an excellent job of telling it's tale of the life of a 1960s era trans sex worker, undergoing transition and working the streets the way some did in that era. The insights here are mostly on sex work, rather than on transition as such and for its own sake. And the sensibilities are the author's own, bluntly stated. After all, this is mostly a memoir for memoir-writing's sake, whose tale is fairly particular to Patricia's own experience. But her inclusion of quite a bit of medical detail makes her chronicling of it especially valuable to trans history. And this is one of the most informative early transition memoirs I have read....more
This was a lovely ride all the way through, which really felt like it was written by someone who knows what it was like to hit the gay and lesbian sceThis was a lovely ride all the way through, which really felt like it was written by someone who knows what it was like to hit the gay and lesbian scene in the 90s. Characters and situations were compelling and on point, but made more compelling for me by the high-concept premise of Paul not just being a genderfluid queen who can pass in any context, but a literal shapeshifter.
The sex scenes were interesting and varied enough (given Paul's transformational abilities. And the dialogue was well written and fun. Making this altogether a highly entertaining nostalgic experience of a (literally) genderfluid "youngman" hitting the scene at (perhaps) its historical height....more
This is an analysis of a variety of texts from black and trans history which the author finds instrumental to the exercise of attempting to develop coThis is an analysis of a variety of texts from black and trans history which the author finds instrumental to the exercise of attempting to develop conceptual frameworks for understanding blackness and transness (as well as derivative constructs) in western historiography. It is not, as such, a history of either blackness or transness, but rather, a work of cultural-philosophic textual analysis, for the most part.
It is also very much written for an academic audience, and will likely be frustratingly inaccessible to anyone outside that sphere, or otherwise to any audience uninterested in reading verbose and scholarly academic culture criticism per se.
Probably, this is a book for those who have alread read Butler, and Sedgwick, and Dubois, and Fanon, and Althusser, and so on, and are interested in the evaluation and application of their ideas in specific context. I don't think that it is a book which has a great deal of use to anyone wishing to read on the history of transness or blackness outside the context of that academic culture dialogue. ...more
A remarkable account of Lili Elbe's transition experience, largely as written by the woman herself. Her conception of that experience, as a masculine A remarkable account of Lili Elbe's transition experience, largely as written by the woman herself. Her conception of that experience, as a masculine predecessor's death, and the birth of a new woman, is particularly fascinating, and shapes her entire story. Few are those in transgender history who have ever taken so extreme a position on the definite end of one individual's life, and the beginning of another individual's existence, as the description of their transition process.
The account is emotionally open and honest and heartfelt, and that is the most we can ever ask from such works, it seems to me. Its being written in the style of autofiction (rather than simple diary entries) also helps to make it more accessible and inviting to the average reader. In light of which, this is a surprisingly "easy read" given its origins....more
This is an important work certainly, which captures Christine's insights and experiences and recapitulation of her historical context well, at times. This is an important work certainly, which captures Christine's insights and experiences and recapitulation of her historical context well, at times. But it is, in all honesty, also frequently banal, preoccupied as it is with a very sanitised and sterile portrayal of her life, with only the faintest mentions of romantic or sexual aspirations or dreams (but enough that we know she had them, and simply wished to stay largely silent on the subject).
One cannot blame her for wishing to suppress the controversy which dogged her mercilessly, through no fault of her own. That is completely understandable. But for the modern reader, this very carefully curated portrait constructed with public decency as a priority is less approachable for that fact....more
Small parts of this work possess merit, I think, as a representation of the state of the popular discourse on endocrinology and genetics as they relatSmall parts of this work possess merit, I think, as a representation of the state of the popular discourse on endocrinology and genetics as they relate to anthropology and psychology, in the 1940s (in which decade endocrinology was at last coming of age). However, other large parts of it are, to be blunt, rather aimless and unfocused philosophical meanderings which seek to address essential questions regarding the theory of mind and free will (for example) without ever really managing to develop these questions as well as any number of contemporaries already had. Such that, for me, this is what might have been an adequate medical treatise, but which chooses instead in practice to be a rather unfocused and poorly developed philosophical treatise with scattershot medical observations strewn about within.
I came to it, naturally enough, by way of the author's status as a transman who might have insight on contemporaneous endocrinology and its implications for his nature and his journey. But personal observations were almost entirely absent, and scientific observations were likewise strikingly undeveloped and messily reported (in favour of a lot of bad pop philosophy).
It is also very strikingly and virulently misogynist, for its time. One would think it were written in the mid-18th century, rather than the mid-20th century. And I quote,
the rational part of woman has deteriorated somewhat, or perhaps we should say, has not evolved, so that in matters outside her own home, as in household affairs, she has been so long wont to, she trusts to her "intuition" and ignores cold logic as something quite beside the point with regard to what she knows and what she does not know.
So make of that what one will. For my part, I found the utterly blatant investment of the author in a theory of the inherent intellectual and moral inferiority of women to be one of the more fascinating characteristics of this "time-capsule". Albeit an utterly reprehensible one, which speaks very poorly of the author, whose bigoted attitudes towards women seem to belong more in the mouth of a rather backward Elizabethan, than in the mouth of a mid-20th century scientist....more
This is a work of tremendous importance, for its capturing a portion if not the entirety of the experiences of a 19th-century French intersex individuThis is a work of tremendous importance, for its capturing a portion if not the entirety of the experiences of a 19th-century French intersex individual, Alexina (as known to family and friends), as she navigates love, education, vocational training, and ultimate confrontation with her intersex status. The work is unavoidably tragic in its outcome, but certainly no less moving for that fact.
The text is best known via Foucault's printing of it, and thence the English translation thereof. This also collects various supporting documents. However, Alexina's own account of herself and her experiences is the pearl to be cherished here. By comparison, dated commentaries on the case (by Foucault and physicians who examined Alexina) are of limited present value, save for in their furnishing certain cold biographical details....more
Over the past 100 years, many have been those queer writers who sought to "find" themselves in history. It's an understandable and very human motivatiOver the past 100 years, many have been those queer writers who sought to "find" themselves in history. It's an understandable and very human motivation and need. But it has resulted in some at times very questionable non-specialist readings of cultural and historical contexts which yearn to be understood on their own terms, rather than transposed into an alien cultural context to stand as a symbol of something needful.
Kit Heyam is not one of those writers and Before We Were Trans is not one of those works. This is a respectful and responsible treatment of a broad array of culturally-specific frameworks for gender expression, which is as careful to acknowledge their particularities and uncertainties as a work of this length and breadth could be.
For me, this sits alongside Jules Gill-Peterson's A Short History of Trans Misogyny as a rare example of good history conducted with an interest in gender-non-conforming lives. ...more
This is another pleasant romp from Chuck Tingle, which I would say I enjoyed even more than his first Harriet Porber book. With this one having to speThis is another pleasant romp from Chuck Tingle, which I would say I enjoyed even more than his first Harriet Porber book. With this one having to spend less time laying groundwork, and thus being able to spend more time portraying an adventure. Touching, heartfelt, and silly. Altogether a very pleasant ride. ...more
This is a relatively short, conventional coming out story well told. With not a great deal to set it apart from the pack, but plenty to recommend it wThis is a relatively short, conventional coming out story well told. With not a great deal to set it apart from the pack, but plenty to recommend it within the genre. Every trans experience which gets put to print adds a little more richness to the collection of portrayals out there. And I enjoyed this one fairly well....more
This was a good selection of essays and commentaries and anecdotes from individuals who've found themselves subject to normative (but also sometimes lThis was a good selection of essays and commentaries and anecdotes from individuals who've found themselves subject to normative (but also sometimes liberating) forces within queer culture's own minority communities. Its strength is in its diversity of voices and their straightforward honesty about their frustrations and experiences. This is a strong contribution to queer discourse for those who aren't in pursuit of normalization but rather validation....more
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