Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam

28 reviews

rorikae's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

'Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender" by Kit Heyam is a thoughtful look at trans history through sections that focus on specific aspects. From clothing to performance, Heyam looks at how trans people have lived throughout time and in different places throughout the world. They do a good job of breaking down important aspects into bite sized pieces and packaging this history in an easy way to understand. With histories, it can be easy to try and focus on too much or end up feeling like more of a timeline than a cohesive narrative. Heyam does a great job of making the history span a good chunk of time and subjects by focusing on specifics and then extrapolating from there. I think this is an important book for many people to read as they learn more about gender and trans history. I also appreciate that Heyman very clearly addresses that they are a white trans man and how this may impact their work. This book feels very open and informative in the best ways. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Misogyny, Transphobia, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Medical content

Minor: War

hazel_oat's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual assault, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Violence, Slavery, Racism, and Dysphoria

angelfireeast24's review

dark informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Bullying, Colonisation, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Classism, Excrement, Homophobia, Murder, Outing, Rape, Ableism, Hate crime, Police brutality, Torture, and Transphobia

joensign's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, and Xenophobia

sophieprime's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual violence, Racism, Medical trauma, and Xenophobia

uriah's review against another edition

5.0

I felt so grounded and at home in my transness when reading this.

Comfort, desperation, love: this is the emotional register in which I, too, experience trans and queer history. Like Shapland, I came to identification with the queer past before I came to full articulation of my queer present: I knew that I felt deep hurt and anger about past injustices against queer men, and deep emotional identification with them, long before I realised that was one aspect of my trans experience.... But it's through such indecorous emotion that history has provided me with some of the most intensely important experiences of my life.

Heyam reifies the watered down arguments I have in my head when I am met with the transphobic rhetoric of transness being a 'new fad'. My copy is tagged, dogearred, and annotated to the brim. I treasure this reading experience and I thank you, Dr. Heyam, for giving us hope in the form of history.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual violence, Colonisation, and Racism

templetoncecelia's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Colonisation, Confinement, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Genocide, Classism, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

kkpwnall's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Colonisation

Minor: Medical trauma, Transphobia, and Homophobia

rachbake's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Transphobia, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Colonisation

warlocksarecool21's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective

4.5

Before We Were Trans is a brilliant book exploring trans history in an intersectional way. The author shows how the history of trans identities overlaps with history of intersex people, women, lesbians, non-western cultures & spirituality and how they were warped by colonization. Dr. Heyam does a wonderful job of explaining the nuances of how trans history is interconnected with all those things above and directly questions how interpretation of history can harm certain communities even if unintentionally. This book was really thought-provoking and even if you have a good understanding of intersectional theory regarding activism and feminism, I still recommend this book because of how detailed Dr. Heyam is and how well-researched his book is. The audiobook was narrated by the author and I really enjoyed it. Although it might be worth getting your hands on a physical copy or ebook to at least see the names of the historical figures and communities mentioned. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality, Medical content, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Classism, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia