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hannscurlock's review
5.0
I love Jack Halberstam's definition of trans* as a systemic and broad category, as opposed to transgender. While the term transgender has been a helpful term for many to understand themselves better, it is also notoriously known to collapse a wide umbrella of gender variant experiences into a single word—reeking of binary, colonial, and pathologizing discourse. Leading queer theory scholar, Jack Halberstam articulates the wide range of trans* experiences while also highlighting the danger of neoliberal identity politics. I will be coming back to this one regularly for my research.
finnthehuman217's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I love jack halberstam. This book however was slow in the storytelling
yanailedit's review
3.75
Ok, but who thought it would be a good idea to name it "Quick and Quirky"? It's an academic text through and through.
Regardless of its density though, this book has been an incredible read; easily one of the most compelling series of arguments which has unfortunately garnered our "Sports Dad of Queer Theory" an absolute pile of disregard from readers who can't put up with his established-academic-and-he-knows-it tone.
Whether you agree or disagree with him though, I strongly recommend reading this title while paying specific attention to the divide and connections between the old trans* theory guard and the new youth/social-media folks growing up under entirely different circumstances with precious little (and heavily white-washed and censored if any) knowledge of queer history.
Also, be warned of typos... Apparently when you hit a certain level of academic success, you don't get points deducted for presentation.
Regardless of its density though, this book has been an incredible read; easily one of the most compelling series of arguments which has unfortunately garnered our "Sports Dad of Queer Theory" an absolute pile of disregard from readers who can't put up with his established-academic-and-he-knows-it tone.
Whether you agree or disagree with him though, I strongly recommend reading this title while paying specific attention to the divide and connections between the old trans* theory guard and the new youth/social-media folks growing up under entirely different circumstances with precious little (and heavily white-washed and censored if any) knowledge of queer history.
Also, be warned of typos... Apparently when you hit a certain level of academic success, you don't get points deducted for presentation.
kstookley's review
2.0
To me, Trans* feels like a primer to a Gender 201 course: touching on media to make the argument that trans identity is different and more complicated than what is presented in current mass media narratives, but never diving into any specifics. It reads more like an outline of an anthology rather than a book in of itself. Of course, it is impossible to argue against Halberstam's premise, and the examples he cites (Halberstam has explicitly said he is pronoun-indifferent) are all relevant to his premise. Halberstam outlines the current liberal construction of transgenderism as an identity-based politic best addressed by surface changes to institutions like bathrooms and then complicates it by re- introducing older transgender scholarship with more radical roots. It is important to note that new understandings of transgenderism are linked to white, thin, androgynous, upper-middle class Gen Z bodies while these older discourses come from groups with much less institutional privilege. In the terms of the very limited scope of his goal, Halberstam is successful. It cannot be denied that transgenderism is more complicated than the current construction. Still, it is a pity he wasn't at least a little more ambitious, applying current counter-narratives to the current Zeitgeist or getting more specific about (de)constructions of gender. I am definitely biased, but I do wish he had at least touched on nonbinary identity. Implying a radical rejection of gender ideology, nonbinary identity often just serves to create a palatable "third gender" of the androgynous female; even as more and more speak out against this definition, mass-media continues to focus on the bodies of people like Asia Dillon over those who are less normatively gendered. This would have been an excellent and very current example of the tension between liberal and radical politics that discourses around trans bodies serve as a vehicle for; as it stands, Halberstam doesn't even mention the word nonbinary. I think of this book-- and much of Halberstam's writing-- as a good source to develop a reading/viewing list of trans media. I walked away from this book primarily curious about the book Testo Junkie and the art piece Ken. To be destroyed. Still, I can't help but be disappointed that Halberstam, who is known for his attempts to bridge high and low media, refuses to acknowledge the current creations and ideas of gender that proliferate amongst the youngest of us all over the internet. In his attempts to bridge the gap between generations of trans people, Halberstam, unfortunately, pits them against each other by refusing much of millennial and gen z radicalism. I hoped for more.
alexture's review against another edition
Acheté à contre-cœur et en fait ça se lit tout seul. Si on m'avait dit que j'y prendrais autant de plaisir !
sushita's review
3.0
It was a dense book for me. Even though it was short, I struggled to find a rhythm with reading this. Overall I appreciated the idea and direction of the book. I just wish the author could have found a less academic/dry way of exploring the nature of being trans*. Anyway, less labels, less definition, more being. Some people need those things and some ppl don’t but everyone should get more comfortable in the unknowing of being.
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