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atuin's review against another edition
challenging
informative
3.5
This should definitely be read by anyone interested in the nonbinary identity/experience. The personal anecdotes help make the subject matter easier to understand. I found the discussions on the difficulty of language, the history of gender queer people, and the intersections between being gender queer and orientations/race all to be informative. I did not know how people used to see homosexuality as an "inversion" with transness simply being the end point of the inversion.
I will admit there is a lot of technical discussion on categorization, definition, and language that were sometimes difficult for me to follow, but I got the gist of it. This may be from the audio, but I felt some trains of thought ended rather abruptly only to be picked up again a few minutes later. A better flow could have been helpful in keeping up with everything.
I have read a critisicm that this tends to focus on midwest white experiences, but this was written by a midwest white person. They do try to include black narratives and quote from black writers regarding issues they discuss, but they even said at the begining that each gender expansive (a term they think should be adopted for the gender queer spectrum) person has their own unique experience and can not all be lumped together in a single narrative. The best solution is to seek out writings from people of different backgrounds to compare and contrast, rather than be upset that this one narrative does not encompass every background.
I will admit there is a lot of technical discussion on categorization, definition, and language that were sometimes difficult for me to follow, but I got the gist of it. This may be from the audio, but I felt some trains of thought ended rather abruptly only to be picked up again a few minutes later. A better flow could have been helpful in keeping up with everything.
I have read a critisicm that this tends to focus on midwest white experiences, but this was written by a midwest white person. They do try to include black narratives and quote from black writers regarding issues they discuss, but they even said at the begining that each gender expansive (a term they think should be adopted for the gender queer spectrum) person has their own unique experience and can not all be lumped together in a single narrative. The best solution is to seek out writings from people of different backgrounds to compare and contrast, rather than be upset that this one narrative does not encompass every background.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia and Police brutality
robotswithpersonality's review
I feel like I should own this book just so I can hand it to people whenever I get stuck in certain conversations.
Usually when reading works of this type I take notes, evaluating how I'm feeling about the information presented, how useful I think it is as a resource. This time I honestly got carried away by the writing. So much of this book felt deeply relatable, not always personal or intimate, but I felt a kinship with both the topics the author chose to focus on, how they chose to explore them, as well as the moments the author recounted their personal journey towards their gender identity. The focus on words/terminology/language in reference to gender identity feels like echoes of things I've been thinking about for years now, as well as speaking to my simpler love of etymology, semantics, the history of words and their meanings, how they evolve.
I'll always be happy to see resources pointing out 'hey, we've always been here, even if there weren't news or scientific articles or 21st century terms', and how to be an ally, but it's what this book did that I haven't previously encountered in a book about non-binary (and points for at least one use of agender!) identity that makes me treasure it. Not asking unanswerable questions or setting hard and fast rules, but rather exploring the way to proposing a potentially more helpful framework for the future, with the acknowledged lens of the author's own outlook, experience.
Other reflections:
Didn't realize how much I needed to see a chapter like Fat, Distributed in print. Feels like seeing conclusions I've just barely gotten onto solid ground with, myself, now available for so many who need to have that moment.
Deeply appreciate a discussion of labels involving an analogy about the variance in genre etc shelving in a personal library and how Library of Congress might catalogue. Speaking my language! In more ways than one. ♥️
⚠️ED, suicide, Fatphobia, transphobia
Usually when reading works of this type I take notes, evaluating how I'm feeling about the information presented, how useful I think it is as a resource. This time I honestly got carried away by the writing. So much of this book felt deeply relatable, not always personal or intimate, but I felt a kinship with both the topics the author chose to focus on, how they chose to explore them, as well as the moments the author recounted their personal journey towards their gender identity. The focus on words/terminology/language in reference to gender identity feels like echoes of things I've been thinking about for years now, as well as speaking to my simpler love of etymology, semantics, the history of words and their meanings, how they evolve.
I'll always be happy to see resources pointing out 'hey, we've always been here, even if there weren't news or scientific articles or 21st century terms', and how to be an ally, but it's what this book did that I haven't previously encountered in a book about non-binary (and points for at least one use of agender!) identity that makes me treasure it. Not asking unanswerable questions or setting hard and fast rules, but rather exploring the way to proposing a potentially more helpful framework for the future, with the acknowledged lens of the author's own outlook, experience.
Other reflections:
Didn't realize how much I needed to see a chapter like Fat, Distributed in print. Feels like seeing conclusions I've just barely gotten onto solid ground with, myself, now available for so many who need to have that moment.
Deeply appreciate a discussion of labels involving an analogy about the variance in genre etc shelving in a personal library and how Library of Congress might catalogue. Speaking my language! In more ways than one. ♥️
⚠️ED, suicide, Fatphobia, transphobia
rhiannonhoward's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Biphobia, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia
brogan7's review
Just not sufficient time to even know if I want to read this. Maybe another time.
readingwithsierra's review against another edition
The author (also narrator) has a very monotone and strong voice that made me feel like I was listening to case studies and was just way too direct. I do feel like much of the information and terminology used is outdated and could be revised for future use, however the author makes it a point to say ‘I use these words even though they are outdated because x, y, and z’ but it still feels lazy and redundant. I feel like it’s also important to mention the author is a white, ex-evangelical Christian who was raised in that restricting worldview so it’s hard to say that this book should surpass memoir and be a ‘basis for learning about being non-binary’. This is just one persons experience and while valid, shouldn’t be representative of the nonbinary experience altogether. There was some exclusion and linguistic wordplay that felt icky to me as well. Hopefully the author has learned more about community and the history of queer people and how intersectional our identities are.
chelford's review against another edition
4.5
This is a solid book for someone familiar with gender identity in general but who hasn't yet delved deeply into theory. It's more approachable than dryly academic, offering a blend of the author's own experiences with gender as well as an overview of foundational gender theory. I particularly liked chapter 7 (Fat, Redistributed). I have lived experiences with the overlap of body neutral and body positive circles with trans circles, but it was neat to read about it. It was weird to read a book about being nonbinary that didn't mention neurodiversity at all since that's also a huge overlap, but again, this book seems largely based on the author's own experiences, and that may not be an identity of theirs or one they feel confident writing about. There was a lot on the author's religious background, which didn't do much for me and may turn off some folks with religious trauma, but I'm sure others will find it informative or helpful. I wouldn't call this an end-all, be-all tome, but it definitely lays a good foundation, and one could easily build a further reading list from the texts and sources mentioned within.