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domestikwoof's review against another edition
3.5
A decent book on gender theory presented in a way that wains to not offend anyone (regardless of how successful it actually is at achieving this goal)
eternallytouchstarved's review against another edition
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
5.0
sidewriter's review against another edition
3.0
I love it when writers mess with form, and Kate Bornstein definitely does that. Gender Outlaw is a rag-tag collage of vignettes, marginalia, poetry, and academic-ish analysis; not so much a narrative thread as a narrative array. She calls it a trans style of writing and most of the time it works well, a clever trick that nudges the mind a little off balance and more open to ideas it may not have encountered before. She doesn’t always anticipate the readers’ counterarguments so her own sometimes fall apart, and the book has a dated feel now (thankfully we’ve made some progress since 1992), but her voice is strong, relatable, funny, and definitely deserving of more attention.
frannyd's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
chelseytennis52's review against another edition
3.0
3/5 | I think this is a hit-or-miss book, so might as well take a swing if you are curious. Every time I thought Kate made an insightful look into identity, it was ruined with 2-3 other things I couldn't gloss over, like concerning use of or appropriation of language or blaming other marginalized communities for systemic issues. I had to remind myself this was a memoir several times because there are sections that (try to?) read as gender/identity theory, which explains some of the hiccups that I faced reading this book.
audaciaray's review against another edition
5.0
Here's the thing: when I was in college, I read Judith Butler's Gender Trouble, and it made me feel crazy. That book was my first intro to gender deconstruction, and it left my head spinning and heart hurting. I felt like I was trapped in the gender system, and that was a miserable miserable place to be.
Then I read Gender Outlaw.
Gender Trouble is the problem, Gender Outlaw is the solution.
Re-reading this book after 10 years, it was just as fun and fabulous as the first time I read it all those years ago in college. Kate Bornstein gives readers a sense of hope, encouragement, and plain old fun when thinking about and experimenting with gender. And it doesn't hurt that I've gotten to know Kate a bit since reading this book for the first time, so now I smile and picture her gestures and hear her voice as I read.
Then I read Gender Outlaw.
Gender Trouble is the problem, Gender Outlaw is the solution.
Re-reading this book after 10 years, it was just as fun and fabulous as the first time I read it all those years ago in college. Kate Bornstein gives readers a sense of hope, encouragement, and plain old fun when thinking about and experimenting with gender. And it doesn't hurt that I've gotten to know Kate a bit since reading this book for the first time, so now I smile and picture her gestures and hear her voice as I read.
mrbluesky's review against another edition
4.0
“I’m supposed to be writing about how to be a girl. I don’t know how to be a girl. And I sure don’t know how to be a boy. And after thirty-seven years of trying to be male and over eight years of trying to be female, I’ve come to the conclusion that neither is really worth all the trouble.”
kinda wish i’d read this earlier, even a few years ago. excellent view of gender-as-performance in a really accessible form !
kinda wish i’d read this earlier, even a few years ago. excellent view of gender-as-performance in a really accessible form !
realmagicfakereality's review against another edition
5.0
I listened to the revised edition of this book, which definitely improved my experience. Not only is Bornstein an incredibly expressive narrator, but considering that a significant portion of this book is the retelling of a stage play, I would say that listening to the audiobook is almost essential. In terms of content, this book does an extraordinary job of balancing being an "on-ramp" for people who may not know a lot about gender studies, without shying away from more "radical" topics such as BDSM and graphic descriptions of gender reassignment surgery. Bornstein also manages to make the tone of the book playful and fun overall, despite explicitly discussing transphobia, misogyny, homophobia, and other difficult to swallow topics. I highly recommend this book as a first read for anyone who wants to further examine their own ideas about gender.