This was an interesting read.  Granted, it's posed as a primer, so much what this book discussed I already knew--however, the way it was presented was genious, riveting, and stylistically incredible.  In addition to photographs and paintings that were well-sourced and a glossary on each page for whatever new words were introduced, the text was written in varying font sizes.  If you only had a couple minutes to read, read the biggest text.  If you had a lot of time to read, read the smaller text.  The bigger the text, the bigger the idea.  The smaller the text, the more detailed and supportive it was of the bigger text.  Incredible!  I'd never seen an academic text designed in such an incredible way.  If only journal articles were written like that, right?

And like I said before, since this is a primer, I already knew a lot of the general ideas.  But even if you're as well-versed in this topic as I am, it's still worth the read for the supporting photographs and paragraphs.  Introduced in this book are indeed ideas of which I'm already aware, but supported by examples from communities I'd never heard of.  Additionally, this book does a great job at going into the past of how gender and sex are conflated, and how essentialism became a well-known concept as well as its fall from grace.

My one caveat, surprisingly, is actually its treatment of radical feminists, or as the authors and editors call them via the colloquial way, TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists, if you don't know).  In a book that ponders the question of whether gender is fluid, it takes great care to discuss the ideas that are prevalent today from trans ideology, the rejection of essentialism, and gender affirming surgery.  But in the question of radical feminists, the authors fail to elaborate, casting them off as morally bad and unworthy of a discussion.  Whether you agree with them or not, in a book that tries to answer such a big question, I was a little disappointed that they didn't get the time of day to have their ideologies explained and questioned, either.  Acknowledging their ideologies, again, whether you agree with them or not, would have brought an interesting conversation to light, and would have provoked really interesting conversations in what would be a safer environment for all of us.

That being said, I definitely think that the authors only looked for the stuff that supported what they wanted their answer to be ("Yes, gender is fluid"), and in doing so denied the opportunity for some very intriguing discussions.  While I do think that gender is more fluid than we think it is--and certainly so, given the amounts of evidence and examples they bring to the table--I also think that there is a little more left to be said on the topic of this very big subject.  But then again, it's a primer, and maybe I'm expecting a little too much.

Overall, it's clearly a thought-provoking book!  I learned a lot, and I appreciated the use of examples that I'd never even seen before.  It's informative, I love the design, and I love the structure.  Definitely worth reading if you're new to this conversation or want a rehash of the basics.  

Review cross-listed here!
hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

Is Gender Fluid? Yes, no doubt about it.
However, I did not like this book. The writing is too academic and but never goes into the depth of the subject its discusses. And the format, not a fan.

Interesting read, but more a book I would recommend to people who just started having interests in gender studies. It explains concept that are used and references to different studies. However, there is not a final reference list which kind of annoys me personally.

A dense but still comprehensive and interesting overview on (the history of) gender. Recommendable to both those new to the field of gender and those already experienced.

Very interesting insight into the topics of gender and sexuality and which part of it is biological or socially constructed. Also some good frameworks to understand and put into words the spectrum of gender and sexuality.
informative medium-paced
informative inspiring reflective fast-paced
informative reflective fast-paced

good overview of gender fluidity looking at both sides using sociology, politics, anthropology and philosophy.
informative medium-paced