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A review by atuin
In Transit: Being Non-Binary in a World of Dichotomies by Dianna E. Anderson
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