Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Appendix: Transmasculine Joy in a Transphobic Culture

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The Appendix: Transmasculine Joy in a Transphobic Culture by Liam Konemann

10 reviews

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

4.5

The Appendix is a short series of interconnected personal essays that meditate on transphobia and how trans people (with a specific focus on transmasculine individuals) can find joy despite the hatred against us in the media and in society at large. I will admit, I was hoping for more time spent on the joy aspect than the transphobia aspect, which is not what The Appendix provides. But it does provide important context - the awful state of transphobia in the UK today - and it creates pearls of self-loving out of an experience that is historically seen as self-loathing. All in all, a deeply relevant and necessary book, even if it wasn't exactly what I had hoped for.

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mariebrunelm's review

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challenging informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

In 2019, Liam Konemann set out to record all instances of transphobia he encountered online without looking for them. Unsurprisingly enough, there were many. He had intended to conduct this experiment over 3 months and publish the results as The Appendix, but for various reasons he abandoned before that. He did publish this book entitled The Appendix as a reflexion on what led him to this experiment, how he felt while conducting it, and why he decided to focus on trans joy rather than transphobia.
This very short, very accessible book is my first venture into the 404 Inkling series and it won’t be the last. The author is both very open about his process, and always makes sure to quote his sources so that there can be no doubt about the amount of hate trans people are subjected to on a daily basis. He is also very aware of his status as a white, privileged, male-passing person. In that regard, I'd say The Appendix may be better geared towards cis people, given that reading again and again about various instances of transphobia can obviously be triggering. It is very valuable as it addresses common misconceptions and candid questions people unfamiliar with trans rights may ask, but it does assume readers have a basic knowledge of the topic. It would feel strange to say I enjoyed this book, but there were very enjoyable parts about trans joy, after the very informative parts about transphobia. I highly recommandations it anyway.
CW as listed at the beginning: homophobic slurs, murder, rape, sexual assault, transphobic slurs.

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