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A review by foxglovefiction
Trans Voices: Becoming Who You Are by Declan Henry
1.0
I received an eARC of this novel from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The author of this book is a gay social worker, not a trans person, so I was hesitant, but I gave it a shot because he had worked & interviewed trans people, including those who identify as non-binary.
"I firmly believe that awareness and knowledge break down ignorance and bigotry and can create a world where everybody can get on with their business without interference or prejudice, thus allowing people to become whoever they want to be. Therefore it is the voices in this book that will reach out to you when descriptions of their experiences are conveyed because they are coming from lived lives, rather than from me as a mere spectator. Ultimately, I hope these voices will draw closer to what it is like to be a trans person in today's world."
I had high hopes after that statement, but the inclusion of research "connecting" being trans to being autistic killed this book for me, as someone on the autism spectrum and as a generally informed human being.
The study quoted [found here] is problematic because for a long time, the only reason that people assigned female at birth were taken to be diagnosed because they weren't presenting as ladylike or as pliable as their parents wanted them to be, which plays into gender identity. It gets ignored in so many of us, or it's misdiagnosed. None of that was discussed within any of the study writings linked above, despite that they mentioned that all of this was self-reported. Not to mention, the study was not able to prove its hypothesis, so it shouldn't have been included except as a theory.
Because I know this about this particular study, I don't trust the author to be accurate throughout the rest of the book, and I won't be continuing. If this book had been just the stories from the trans people that the author interviewed, I would have enjoyed it. I'll stick to books by trans people about their own experiences.
The author of this book is a gay social worker, not a trans person, so I was hesitant, but I gave it a shot because he had worked & interviewed trans people, including those who identify as non-binary.
"I firmly believe that awareness and knowledge break down ignorance and bigotry and can create a world where everybody can get on with their business without interference or prejudice, thus allowing people to become whoever they want to be. Therefore it is the voices in this book that will reach out to you when descriptions of their experiences are conveyed because they are coming from lived lives, rather than from me as a mere spectator. Ultimately, I hope these voices will draw closer to what it is like to be a trans person in today's world."
I had high hopes after that statement, but the inclusion of research "connecting" being trans to being autistic killed this book for me, as someone on the autism spectrum and as a generally informed human being.
The study quoted [found here] is problematic because for a long time, the only reason that people assigned female at birth were taken to be diagnosed because they weren't presenting as ladylike or as pliable as their parents wanted them to be, which plays into gender identity. It gets ignored in so many of us, or it's misdiagnosed. None of that was discussed within any of the study writings linked above, despite that they mentioned that all of this was self-reported. Not to mention, the study was not able to prove its hypothesis, so it shouldn't have been included except as a theory.
Because I know this about this particular study, I don't trust the author to be accurate throughout the rest of the book, and I won't be continuing. If this book had been just the stories from the trans people that the author interviewed, I would have enjoyed it. I'll stick to books by trans people about their own experiences.