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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques 🏳️⚧️
🌟🌟🌟✨
feat. my fav t shirt from @starttodaytattoo
🏳️⚧️ The concept: In July 2012, age 30, Juliet Jacques underwent gender affirming surgery. It was, in many ways, the culmination of the long transition process she'd chronicled in an online column for the Guardian newspaper, but it was also the start of a new phase of her life as a trans woman. Trans: A Memoir is her story of growing up in a hostile culture and trying to find herself within art and music, exploring the difficult journey to being recognised as yourself.
This book has been on my shelf for ages and I'm so glad I finally read it! Coming to it in 2022, it's hard not to see Jacques' account of coming of age as a queer person in early 2000s Britain as a strange counterpoint to the current moment. On the one hand, there are more queer and trans voices making their way into mainstream culture than Jacques saw growing up; on the other, trans rights and the scant resources available for those wanting to transition are under increasing attack.
The memoir is written in matter-of-fact prose that coolly breaks down many common misconceptions around being trans, for instance that it relies on exaggerated gender roles. It also offers an unflinching look into the (already arduous, threatening to become more so) transition process in the UK. While she calmly breaks down ignorance around gender nonconformity, Jacques also offers extraordinary generosity to the people around her, exploring the thorny parts of socially transitioning with empathy for her past self and her friends and family as well as lifting up moments of euphoria.
Some of my favourite moments were Jacques' sharp analysis of the films and music that impacted her, for instance films by Pedro Almodóvar, but what stopped this being a higher-star read for me is simply the style. I like memoirs to be vivid and really conjure the feeling of a person's life, and while this was clear and informative I didn't find it immersive, but that's just my preference speaking I think!
🏳️⚧️ Read it if you don't like flowery memoirs, and if you want some insight into what it means to medically transition in the UK, trans history, film criticism, and gender exploration.
🚫 Avoid it if you are avoiding medical content right now, or if you want memoirs to have a more vivid writing style.
🌟🌟🌟✨
feat. my fav t shirt from @starttodaytattoo
🏳️⚧️ The concept: In July 2012, age 30, Juliet Jacques underwent gender affirming surgery. It was, in many ways, the culmination of the long transition process she'd chronicled in an online column for the Guardian newspaper, but it was also the start of a new phase of her life as a trans woman. Trans: A Memoir is her story of growing up in a hostile culture and trying to find herself within art and music, exploring the difficult journey to being recognised as yourself.
This book has been on my shelf for ages and I'm so glad I finally read it! Coming to it in 2022, it's hard not to see Jacques' account of coming of age as a queer person in early 2000s Britain as a strange counterpoint to the current moment. On the one hand, there are more queer and trans voices making their way into mainstream culture than Jacques saw growing up; on the other, trans rights and the scant resources available for those wanting to transition are under increasing attack.
The memoir is written in matter-of-fact prose that coolly breaks down many common misconceptions around being trans, for instance that it relies on exaggerated gender roles. It also offers an unflinching look into the (already arduous, threatening to become more so) transition process in the UK. While she calmly breaks down ignorance around gender nonconformity, Jacques also offers extraordinary generosity to the people around her, exploring the thorny parts of socially transitioning with empathy for her past self and her friends and family as well as lifting up moments of euphoria.
Some of my favourite moments were Jacques' sharp analysis of the films and music that impacted her, for instance films by Pedro Almodóvar, but what stopped this being a higher-star read for me is simply the style. I like memoirs to be vivid and really conjure the feeling of a person's life, and while this was clear and informative I didn't find it immersive, but that's just my preference speaking I think!
🏳️⚧️ Read it if you don't like flowery memoirs, and if you want some insight into what it means to medically transition in the UK, trans history, film criticism, and gender exploration.
🚫 Avoid it if you are avoiding medical content right now, or if you want memoirs to have a more vivid writing style.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Dysphoria
Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, Sexual harassment
Minor: Sexual assault
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
‘Some were proud or called me brave i didn’t feel courageous i was just trying to live.’
‘If you articulate an outsider critique well enough you stop being one.’
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Stalking, Sexual harassment
emotional
informative
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Part of me feels it's unfair to review memoirs with star ratings: memoirs are someone's life experience, so who am I to say "meh, not enough social porn for me to salivate over - 2 stars"? Also, many memoirs are written by folk who may not be writers, and it shows, but the subject matter they need to get out of their system is worth 5 stars to learn about!
This all is to say that my 3 stars is a noncommittal urging: reading about the ups and downs of a person going through sex reassignment surgery should be required reading for young people so that nobody grows up hateful and not understanding why this is important. Jacques doesn't steer clear from unspoken burning questions that cis people may have.
At the same time, the 3 stars are there because I struggled to read through, mostly because Juliet Jacques's writing just wasn't a style I enjoy to read. There's also quite a lot of talk about soccer and although I grew up watching Premier League on Saturdays, my eyes still glazed over.
With that said, I know Juliet Jacques has a long career as a journalist, so I am looking forward to going through the archives of her shorter-form writing on the same subject.
This all is to say that my 3 stars is a noncommittal urging: reading about the ups and downs of a person going through sex reassignment surgery should be required reading for young people so that nobody grows up hateful and not understanding why this is important. Jacques doesn't steer clear from unspoken burning questions that cis people may have.
At the same time, the 3 stars are there because I struggled to read through, mostly because Juliet Jacques's writing just wasn't a style I enjoy to read. There's also quite a lot of talk about soccer and although I grew up watching Premier League on Saturdays, my eyes still glazed over.
With that said, I know Juliet Jacques has a long career as a journalist, so I am looking forward to going through the archives of her shorter-form writing on the same subject.
This book was really frustrating! The trans / feminist theory theory was really interesting. Juliet's journey was interesting too, but it often felt a little flat. She has frustrations with (trying) to be an written in the internet age (2013). She always feels like an outsider. Lots of us feel that way. I don't know... like many memoirs, it feels like something is missing, perhaps to protect her privacy and dignity, or that of others.
In any case, I am glad I read (listened) to this book.
In any case, I am glad I read (listened) to this book.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
I picked this up as part of my drive to read books by different female voices. I've read a couple of reviews by people who were disappointed it didn't focus more on Juliet's physical experience, and one or two saying the writing was detached - but I felt she explained exactly why she took that approach. Those very personal confessional narratives about being trapped in the wrong body didn't apply to her, and she's spent a lot of time trying to move discourse away from that narrative, which seems to me to be a laudable task. As a result I found a lot to identify with in Juliet's frustration with mainstream journalism and the divisiveness of feminist discourse of social media. I thought she handled her reluctance to write about her personal experience on the grounds that she can't speak for everyone well - by talking about her own research into the theory and political history of trans issues she highlighted a lot of other writers I can now go and read, and I thought that was a good way of underlining the fact that all experience is different (and that many voices outside the white middle classes still go unheard). Her discomfort at the prospect of having to advocate only for trans issues, when she can't possibly get it right for everyone, reflected a tendency I've noticed quite a lot in recent years where communities will build up a feminist writer and then tear them down when they say something 'wrong' (Caitlin Moran, Tina Fey and Lena Dunham all seem to have had this). Trans: A Memoir gave me a lot to think about, and context to consider rather than being very inward looking as most memoirs are - definitely worth a read.
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced