A review by sadiedumplingreads
The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye


My 2022 New Years resolution was to read more non-fiction, and this was such a strong start to the reading year.

It’s so important to read trans books my trans authors written in this current political climate. The writing was immaculate, being both accessible and far beyond surface level. The chapters were structured in a clear way, separating trans issues into different categories while also showing how they interlinked. The writing also lends itself well to being a good starting place to non-fiction, as it uses anecdotes to interweave story telling into the facts, and the chapters are almost chronological - it begins with the struggles of trans children and moves onto the struggles faced in later life.

It took such a uniquely intersectional approach to highlight that trans problems are everyone’s problems. It compared the oppression fo trans people to the oppressive of women and gay people, to help understand how homophobia, patriarchy, and transphobia go hand in hideous hand. The anti-capitalist approach was so refreshing, especially due to the liberal form that most activism takes. It brought so many new things to my attention, such as the fact that abortions do transphobic ales both act in favour of upholding the gender binary, and the struggles that trans people face in old age, which was particularly enlightening as trans issues are something typically associated with the younger generations.

The only fault I could find was in a few menial grammar and capitalisation issues, that are more the fault of the editor than the author. I will read anything Shon Faye writes in the future, as her work is so nuanced and well researched.
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