Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary

Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary by Travis Alabanza

35 reviews

onlyonebookshelf's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.5

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elleneam's review

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

This book was not something I would have picked myself (I'm not a fan of biographies at all) but it was selected for my book group, and it was better than I expected. There were certainly parts I would disagree with politically (so much use of the word 'whiteness' with zero explanation or analysis of what the author means by the term and where they think the power from 'whiteness' comes from, is just one example). However, taking it on its own terms it is a fairly interesting read looking at the authors life and how gender catagories have impacted that. Although I wasn't sure about it at first, I quite liked the way it was structured, with each chapter named and framed around a phrase that has been said to them. Not something I would necessarily recommend to others, but at the same time not something I regret reading.

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anaheeta's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective

5.0

This was a great read, eye-opening and insightful, and obviously devastating and sad at times.
I seriously recommend everyone read this at least once.

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batbaby's review against another edition

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funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

As a gender non-conforming person this is a must read, as a non-binary person, a trans person, a queer person, an ally or a bigot. Travis put so many words on a page that I thought I was alone in feeling, they also highlighted a perspective and a position privilege I have. The told of their hardships and the beauty and gift in being trans of not fitting into a binary of not wanting to fit into a binary. I don’t know them but I am proud of them for writing this book of knowing their own feelings and also not being afraid to admit they also don’t know them.

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mar's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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camillatd's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

NONE OF THE ABOVE is a book about the radical power of uncertainty and the disruption of binaries. It’s about transness as freedom and exploration. Alabanza doesn’t shy away from the thorny questions about gender: they embrace them, dance with them, untangle them with care and curiosity. I’ve been thinking about this book in conversation with The Transgender Issue (by Shon Faye) a lot. TGI does a great job explaining the politics of trans liberation in an accessible, persuasive, and compelling way. It executes what it sets out to do perfectly: laying out a clear case for trans liberation and its alignment with other struggles of oppressed peoples.

But I want everyone who read TGI to read NOTA, and sit with the uncertainty. TGI is an urgent, well-argued case for trans liberation that stands on firm ground. NOTA is a boat out to sea, shifting with the tides of gender in all its unruly waves, destabilizing all of our conceptions about transness. We have to hold room for both. I want the certainty of fighting for liberation to not be contingent on the certainty of transness as legible to cishet audiences. I loved both of these books, and I’m still wrestling with all of their wisdoms.

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miyothecat's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

I absolutely love this book. It gives important and valuable insight on being nonbinary.

I have to note, though, it really disturbed the in the book how many times “visibly gender non confirming” was used. As a nonbinary person, it made me question what the author meant. What does it mean? Does it make a nonbinary person more valid to be “visibly” gender non confirming? What is “visibly gender non confirming”? A lot of nonbinary people might “pass” as cis and still experience all the things the author mentioned happening to “especially visibly gender non confirming people”. It’s also a very subjective thing, being “visibly” gender non confirming. For example, as a transmasc nonbinary person, I think I am visibly gender non confirming. But I often get clocked by many people as just another tomboy. What is visibly gender non confirming? Since this term is used so many times in this book, I think it would have been great if the author told us what they mean by it. Because sometimes it felt like it could be used for invalidating the experiences and identifies of some nonbinary people. “Visibly gender non confirming” has a very fine line between empowering and invalidating. I would love to hear the author’s take on this. (Genuine)

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ageckocalledachilles's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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sakisreads's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

This is such an important read. I kept meaning to buy it and read it and I’m so grateful I was finally able to 🥹

Travis Alabanza is incredible; they have picked every word in this book to make you think. The phrases they chose for each part of the book were upsetting but necessary. I will put the content warnings below!

‘Ladies, gentlemen and those lucky enough to transcend gender’; such a phenomenal phrase! Alabanza taught me about David Hoyle as well, which was a treat 🥳

The phrase ‘children sacrificed to appease trans lobby’ becoming ‘all of us sacrificed to appease the gender binary’ hit me HARD 😳

I will never forget the bit where the rich white woman Travis meets at a gala asks ‘So, when did you know?’ and Travis answers back with that tale where they get taken to the doctor for a lack of speech and says to the doctor ‘Doctor, I am actually a cross-dressing, gender non-conforming deviant’ 😂 I can only imagine the look on the woman’s face 👏🏼 This part truly made me cackle!

4.5 stars out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨ I’m definitely going to need to come back to this one 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️❤️

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lyg004's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

‘This is for us, baby, not for them.’

travis is a mastermind at articulating deeply personal struggles, as well as the unique position of being trans while existing in the public eye. an honest, anecdotal, depiction of what it’s like to exist as gender non-conforming in the uk, exploring the intersections of race, gender and class.

(so validating as a nb person myself, and i hope this is the start of a surge of similar books written about/ for trans ppl in the mainstream— british publishers i'm looking at you)

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