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emeraldreverie's review
5.0
I think this definitely achieves what it sets out to do. Some pieces I loved, some I vehemently disagreed with, some will be touching me with echoes for decades. I def recommend.
moranguinhos's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
luvscats1's review against another edition
funny
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia and Body shaming
Minor: Sexual content
proffy's review against another edition
3.0
Gender Outlaws is a series of poems, essays, comic strips, etc. which offers insight into a variety of trans* issues. o many different perspectives are presented in this text; however, intersectionality drove many essays in the book. Focusing on the vast space between in the gender binary, these essays are quite unique despite the commonality. Gwendolyn Ann Smith's essay, "We're All Somebody's Freak", resonated with me as encapsulating the primary theme throughout the text. She writes:
"We live in a world of incredible variations, where there are some 200,000 species of moths and butterflies to be found in this planet, where biodiversity is the very thing that keeps the whole complex system in tune. The notion of classifying things and then claiming that only this or that is a proper version of some being is a distinctly human construct, full of arrogance and hubris."
The insistence of the dominant ideology on prescribing specific and set gender roles does violate a basic law of nature: variation is highly beneficial, too much of the same is bad.
My favorite essay, as of this moment, comes from CT Whitley. "Trans-Corporation: A benefit analysis of a transgender man in a corporate setting" tells the story of Whitley's time as a financial officer in New York. You may expect the rest of the essay to talk about the difficulty of working in (what is widely considered as) a conservative, relatively homogeneous environment. Not so. This article is much more interesting and unique. Whitley has "a female past and a male present" providing him with invaluable insight into gendered communication. His ability to manipulate his own style of communication to address particular audiences not only gave him opportunities for promotion, it also put him in a unique position to act as a sort of translator between the biomales and biofemales in his office. I love this.
I want him to come to my classes and give a presentation. Seriously, if anyone reading this knows him or knows someone who knows him or even has a third cousin twice removed who once dated his mother's old tennis instructor, tell him I need him. Typically my philosophizing on gendered communication takes place with Deborah Tannen, who is absolutely fantastic. Reading this essay gave me a whole new perspective on the issue, however, and now I want more.
Okay so back to the book as a whole... I found this to be a wonderfully informative collection; although I will admit that by the end I was reading pretty dang fast, a wee bit ready for the end. And a few of the entries were a bit too figurative for me - but I completely recognize that that is my own issue. Poetry is not my thing and overly figurative poetry is really really not my thing. As with any collection of works by disparate authors, my enjoyment depended on the piece: I absolutely adored about half the entries, was ambivalent about a few, and didn't enjoy a few. Overall though, I would highly recommend it for those I did love.
"We live in a world of incredible variations, where there are some 200,000 species of moths and butterflies to be found in this planet, where biodiversity is the very thing that keeps the whole complex system in tune. The notion of classifying things and then claiming that only this or that is a proper version of some being is a distinctly human construct, full of arrogance and hubris."
The insistence of the dominant ideology on prescribing specific and set gender roles does violate a basic law of nature: variation is highly beneficial, too much of the same is bad.
My favorite essay, as of this moment, comes from CT Whitley. "Trans-Corporation: A benefit analysis of a transgender man in a corporate setting" tells the story of Whitley's time as a financial officer in New York. You may expect the rest of the essay to talk about the difficulty of working in (what is widely considered as) a conservative, relatively homogeneous environment. Not so. This article is much more interesting and unique. Whitley has "a female past and a male present" providing him with invaluable insight into gendered communication. His ability to manipulate his own style of communication to address particular audiences not only gave him opportunities for promotion, it also put him in a unique position to act as a sort of translator between the biomales and biofemales in his office. I love this.
I want him to come to my classes and give a presentation. Seriously, if anyone reading this knows him or knows someone who knows him or even has a third cousin twice removed who once dated his mother's old tennis instructor, tell him I need him. Typically my philosophizing on gendered communication takes place with Deborah Tannen, who is absolutely fantastic. Reading this essay gave me a whole new perspective on the issue, however, and now I want more.
Okay so back to the book as a whole... I found this to be a wonderfully informative collection; although I will admit that by the end I was reading pretty dang fast, a wee bit ready for the end. And a few of the entries were a bit too figurative for me - but I completely recognize that that is my own issue. Poetry is not my thing and overly figurative poetry is really really not my thing. As with any collection of works by disparate authors, my enjoyment depended on the piece: I absolutely adored about half the entries, was ambivalent about a few, and didn't enjoy a few. Overall though, I would highly recommend it for those I did love.
polyphonic_reads's review against another edition
4.0
It was quite an illuminating book, which made me think about some issues I had not considered before, such as experienced of pregnancy for trans and genderqueer people, the corporate context of transition and the effect it has on power balances, the racialised aspects of choosing new names and experiences and perceptions of transgender drag performers. My favourite segment probably was the proposition that we should focus on people's lived experiences, rather than identities, when it comes to 'identity politics' and safe spaces - so instead of 'women only' spaces we could have 'people who suffered from misogyny' spaces. That would shift the emphasis in both constructing these spaces and in debates surrounding who is and isn't to be admitted and hopefully would make them more inclusive.
My biggest criticism of the book would be that it focuses a bit too much on the Western concepts of transgender/qenderqueer people. Even though it gives some space to people of other backgrounds navigating these frameworks - I especially liked the piece comparing having to use Anglicized vocabulary to linguistic colonialism - the frameworks of 'nonbinary' or 'trans' are still very Western. I would have liked to see more space given to people of a variety of identities from all over the world, be they bissu or hijra or you name it. I would be especially interested in how these people navigate their identities and experiences in relaiton to Western frameworks and where is the line between identity colonialism and individual agency in these cases. In the world where the BBC routinely uses 'transwoman' and 'hijra' uncritically and interchangeably in their coverage of the Pakistani election, for example, we need much more focus on truly global gender diversity.
My biggest criticism of the book would be that it focuses a bit too much on the Western concepts of transgender/qenderqueer people. Even though it gives some space to people of other backgrounds navigating these frameworks - I especially liked the piece comparing having to use Anglicized vocabulary to linguistic colonialism - the frameworks of 'nonbinary' or 'trans' are still very Western. I would have liked to see more space given to people of a variety of identities from all over the world, be they bissu or hijra or you name it. I would be especially interested in how these people navigate their identities and experiences in relaiton to Western frameworks and where is the line between identity colonialism and individual agency in these cases. In the world where the BBC routinely uses 'transwoman' and 'hijra' uncritically and interchangeably in their coverage of the Pakistani election, for example, we need much more focus on truly global gender diversity.
mojostdennis's review against another edition
3.0
read harder challenge 2022: read an anthology featuring diverse voices
popsugar challenge 2022: read a book with a recipe in it
52 book club 2022: read an anthology
popsugar challenge 2022: read a book with a recipe in it
52 book club 2022: read an anthology
mel_tk's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Overwhelmingly gorgeous account of gender across a broad spectrum. Probably a go-to book for anyone looking to understand gender nonconformity and queer identities