Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

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

20 reviews

the_reading_wren's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Fascinating, challenging and most of all comforting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Deadnaming, Genocide, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Cultural appropriation, Dysphoria, War, and Classism

Minor: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

arrr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

Thoughtful as historiography, interesting as trans and gender expansive history. Solid attempt at decolonial history accounting. Read the trigger warnings, it gets difficult at times. But the book is mostly affirming. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Transphobia, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault

noomzoom's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Confinement, Infertility, Infidelity, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Dysphoria

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Biphobia, Cursing, Pedophilia, Lesbophobia, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Eugenics, Intersexism, Incarceration

frog_appreciator's review against another edition

3.75

While jarring to see AGAB language used so often in a historical context, the author is extremely self aware which is important when talking about other cultures, even if it bordered on excessive at times (repeating themself in footnotes) I definitely learned a lot while reading so it was worthwhile. I’m excited to dive into other texts mentioned in the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Transphobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual assault and Torture

lettuce_read's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

Moderate: Ableism and Hate crime

kat_ml's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Transphobia

booksjessreads's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

I really really enjoyed this book and I think this is an essential read. 

Kit Heyam really brought trans history to life through this book. It was thoroughly researched and the most enlightening and significant part of the book, is that is focusses on a global perspective of trans history. I really liked their approach to this book since it was more holistic and offered a very intricate, nuanced and thorough analysis of trans history. 

I literally have no words that could do this justice. I think the writing flowed well and was written in a respectful and reflective way. I listened to Kit read the audio and this made it an even better experience. However, the downside to this was there were so many facts that I wanted to write down and research, but as I often listen to my audio whilst travelling, I couldn't do that. I am going to get my hands on a physical copy so that when I re-read, I can go back through and take my time with their work.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

nadia's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

3.25

While I was generally intrigued by the individual stories shared in this book — ranging from the 16th Century to the present day and spanning a wide variety of cultures — and I appreciated the new perspective that Heyam was trying to bring to how we look at trans people and gender nonconformity throughout history, I really struggled to stay focused while listening to this.

I was hoping for much more of a structured argument that introduced the case studies as a means to support points made, as opposed to them being used as a range of examples of the experiences of trans people throughout history. Because of the way the book jumped around in history, having finished it a couple days ago, I'm left with rough memories of snatches of stories, but the details and timeline are all jumbled up in my head. I'm also left with a few high-level points of how we might want to think about trans history going forward, but was hoping to have taken away a more solid thesis.

Still, if you're interested in learning more about trans history, I'd class this as a must-read! My rating mainly reflects how my personal enjoyment was hampered by mismatched expectations!

(I also skipped a few minutes towards the end [around the 97% mark] after Heyam says: "At the climax of [Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness]..." — a book I've wanted to read for a long time. I don't know how spoiler-y this comment ended up being but I'm not a fan of fictional novel plot points being referenced in nonfiction/academic work in general and will do my best to avoid them in case!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Transphobia

caseythereader's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Outing, Colonisation, and Dysphoria