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Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton
3 reviews
erebus53's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
This is a dense academic text that.. at times is needlessly ephemeral in its musing on Race and Gender.
It's interesting, but not accessible, though it might be an interesting take for someone who is used to the jargon that this type of writing is steeped in
(can I get a point for every time the author uses the one of the terms - quotidian, temporal, epistemologically, or teleological... no? well the book gets my occasionally awarded accolade for LEGIT LITERATURE - for successfully using the word Palimpsest in a sentence).
It's interesting, but not accessible, though it might be an interesting take for someone who is used to the jargon that this type of writing is steeped in
(can I get a point for every time the author uses the one of the terms - quotidian, temporal, epistemologically, or teleological... no? well the book gets my occasionally awarded accolade for LEGIT LITERATURE - for successfully using the word Palimpsest in a sentence).
This book contains some interesting and sober observations about how cross-dressing is interpreted as disguise, deceit, and (in Antebellum USA) theft.. where self-possession of Black Americans was seen as taking something you shouldn't have, and disruptive to the natural order.
((which actually scares the crap out of me because I know there are still people to this day(!!) who feel that way. °eww°))
I see counterpoint with the idea that in modern trans narratives,
transition is seen as performative gender confirmation.. thus Honesty.
Given that there is often a lot to lose for a person who does not embrace the cis-het binary there is conflict between those who interpret transition as an authentic expression of self, and those who see it as a performative biological lie. (Only one of these value systems hurts anyone... *glare*)
For enslaved persons, disguise was a thing.. it could be used as a physical escape tactic, or as an internal escape in unliveable situations.
In fact I notice in old-timey crime novels, disguise was a thing.. in a way it's just not in modern stories.
Now it's got me thinking about the... anonymity of city life, and digital surveillance...
Also had me thinking about the idea of making powerful people feel safe.. and the act of Drag;
That so long as you are Obviously male _affecting_ Femaleness as an act for the benefit of cis-het audiences then you aren't seen as _as_
{weird, dangerous, subversive, dishonest, tricksy, A Trap, devious}
as someone who is outed while attempting to "pass" as the gender they were not assigned at birth.
I am coming to grips with the vocabulary and jargon of all this.. though.. it seems that they use the term Fungible, in the same way as I would use things like faceless, interchangeable, stereotypical..
seeing a person of a different type as just their race/status/job.
(Now I'm reminded of a quote from an heiress in an Agatha Christie novel who said "nobody looks at a chauffer like they would look at a _person_")
I noticed the use of the the term "Watts Rebellion" which is a powerful reframe of the White narrative of the Race Riots in Los Angeles in 1965 (and if this is new to me I have clearly not been engaging with this sort of academic analysis of systemic oppression as much as I should).
((which actually scares the crap out of me because I know there are still people to this day(!!) who feel that way. °eww°))
I see counterpoint with the idea that in modern trans narratives,
transition is seen as performative gender confirmation.. thus Honesty.
Given that there is often a lot to lose for a person who does not embrace the cis-het binary there is conflict between those who interpret transition as an authentic expression of self, and those who see it as a performative biological lie. (Only one of these value systems hurts anyone... *glare*)
For enslaved persons, disguise was a thing.. it could be used as a physical escape tactic, or as an internal escape in unliveable situations.
In fact I notice in old-timey crime novels, disguise was a thing.. in a way it's just not in modern stories.
Now it's got me thinking about the... anonymity of city life, and digital surveillance...
Also had me thinking about the idea of making powerful people feel safe.. and the act of Drag;
That so long as you are Obviously male _affecting_ Femaleness as an act for the benefit of cis-het audiences then you aren't seen as _as_
{weird, dangerous, subversive, dishonest, tricksy, A Trap, devious}
as someone who is outed while attempting to "pass" as the gender they were not assigned at birth.
I am coming to grips with the vocabulary and jargon of all this.. though.. it seems that they use the term Fungible, in the same way as I would use things like faceless, interchangeable, stereotypical..
seeing a person of a different type as just their race/status/job.
(Now I'm reminded of a quote from an heiress in an Agatha Christie novel who said "nobody looks at a chauffer like they would look at a _person_")
I noticed the use of the the term "Watts Rebellion" which is a powerful reframe of the White narrative of the Race Riots in Los Angeles in 1965 (and if this is new to me I have clearly not been engaging with this sort of academic analysis of systemic oppression as much as I should).
This book also has me thinking about internal personal feelings and beliefs about identity, as opposed to the external perceptions of others about our identity.. and the performative nature of gender.
And the assumptions made about race and gender by those around us.
It's worth mentioning that the CW are a must read is you are likely to be upset by accounts of brutality, injustice and sexual anatomy.
And the assumptions made about race and gender by those around us.
It's worth mentioning that the CW are a must read is you are likely to be upset by accounts of brutality, injustice and sexual anatomy.
• enslaved women used in medical research for the glorification of a surgeon who got statues erected in his memory
• a woman born intersex and assigned male at birth, in USA, who was only allowed gender confirming surgery if it was to her assigned birth gender
• random traffic stop (for driving while Black) outed a trans man as having been "living as a man" for over a decade
This is not a book that most people will want to read without first coming armed with an academic reason for engaging with the discourse, or a mighty fine dictionary/thesaurus. Much of the writing will be difficult to understand for the casual reader. I found it challenging in times to make sense of some things, or to find relevance in things that drew some flimsy links between ideas.
This is not a book that most people will want to read without first coming armed with an academic reason for engaging with the discourse, or a mighty fine dictionary/thesaurus. Much of the writing will be difficult to understand for the casual reader. I found it challenging in times to make sense of some things, or to find relevance in things that drew some flimsy links between ideas.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Racism, Transphobia, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Body shaming, Ableism, Murder, Suicide, Outing, Hate crime, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Classism, Blood, and Alcoholism
therainbowshelf's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.0
I don't feel quite qualified to review this academic text because I don't have a strong theoretical background in queer, gender, and race studies. It seems like the author delves deeply into the historic texts and theory to make compelling points about race, gender, and trans identities.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Sexism, Slavery, Medical trauma, Transphobia, Torture, Misogyny, and Racism
mmcloe's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Very challenging read, but necessarily so given the weight of the topics discussed and the resistance to historical flattening of Black lives, especially Black trans lives. Almost every chapter was a wonderfully deep reservoir of scholarly tools and new lenses on old history that were very helpful for me thinking through how different bodies have been treated as fungible and fluid by force and how others have taken that condition and used it to express novel ways of living that are still future-facing today. For all of the author's many references (the book also served as one of the most robust citation and reading list I've ever encountered), I'm surprised there wasn't more of a reference to Puar, especially in the chapter on Christine Jorgensen. It's incredibly interesting to think how a single white model trans woman can be used to overshadow the lives of Black trans women, and I think this analysis would really complement understandings of homonationalism across the world. Much to think about!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Ableism, Rape, Medical trauma, and Misogyny
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