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caedocyon's review
2.0
Read in college, for leisure. A lot of other books and blogs I was reading referenced My Gender Workbook, so I was excited to finally get my hands on a copy. Sadly, it's not really what it says on the tin. Rather than presenting different options and asking difficult interesting questions, My Gender Workbook has a strong agenda, all the exercises push you towards that agenda, and there's not a lot of other interesting stuff, especially if you're already familiar with the (101-level) arguments. I ended up skimming it.
tl;dr: Good for people who haven't ever thought about it before; less good for people who already have significant trangst.
tl;dr: Good for people who haven't ever thought about it before; less good for people who already have significant trangst.
auti_e's review
4.0
This is an engaging introduction to / guided reflection on gender. I didn't agree with every argument and model in the book. That being said, I appreciated the panoramic overview of gender and found the exercises to be very helpful in practical terms. I went in as a cis woman with a lot of half-buried discomfort around my gender and came out the other end having found myself to be a transmasculine nonbinary person. It was a healing experience for me.
leilaniann's review
3.0
This would be a rad book if I was just starting to think about gender, but I was a little bored reading it at this stage of my life. Hence, I am going to bring it to work for the kiddies to read. I hope they'll dig it.
choirqueer's review
5.0
This was the first gender-related book I ever read, when I was about 18 and had absolutely no consciousness of anything outside the gender binary. It changed my life forever and it remains one of the most important books in my life. I re-read it every couple of years just to make sure it's still a part of me, and I get something new out of it every time. It's also a COMPLETELY different book from the updated "My New Gender Workbook" by the same author, and I highly recommend seeking out the original as it is full of insight and information that did not get included in the update. Even if you are 100% secure in your gender identity, this book will offer you new ways to think about gender and the world in which genders exist. Easily one of my top 10 books of all time.
jainabee's review
5.0
This is one of the most exciting, helpful, challenging, hilarious, moving, [insert enthusiastic adjective here:] books I've ever read of all time. Golly, I learned so much… about myself, the culture, humanity, and that Kate Bornstein is totally HOTTT. And smart.
Kate is able to wrangle big messy scary ideas, rumors, facts, experiences, gossip, and visions, percolate them in hir magnificent brain, then produce a written interpretation so clear and concise that you can't help but learn, be inspired, feel better.
PS: After glancing at the other reviews, it seems to me there are some serious misconceptions about what this book is for. It is a WORKBOOK. You can only appreciate it to its fullest extent if you do the WORK. I promise, it's worth it!
Kate is able to wrangle big messy scary ideas, rumors, facts, experiences, gossip, and visions, percolate them in hir magnificent brain, then produce a written interpretation so clear and concise that you can't help but learn, be inspired, feel better.
PS: After glancing at the other reviews, it seems to me there are some serious misconceptions about what this book is for. It is a WORKBOOK. You can only appreciate it to its fullest extent if you do the WORK. I promise, it's worth it!
brighteyedathena's review
5.0
There is so much to think about when you first come out to yourself and this book helped me so much! It made the journey to discovering my gender-identity exciting and fun. I think this workbook is helpful for anyone questioning their gender and for anyone who isn't, because you learn a lot about yourself and the way that gender is constructed in the process.
eliwray's review
5.0
This book changed my life... twice. It is indeed a workbook, asking its reader for time, thought, writing, questioning and doing. I didn’t have to agree with Kate’s theory or politics to get something out of the experience. I only had to be willing to consider her many questions, and see where my own answers took me. And I absolutely adore that Kate is a warm, kind and loving guide on the journey.
(The above is my 2013 review, after reading cover to cover. I read the first half in Fall 2010 and wrote the following: "I absolutely adore this book, despite having come across a lot of the content before. Kate's approach and underlying theory is delightful and thought-provoking. I am about halfway through the book, but I will be setting it down for a while, simply to fully absorb what I've read and thought about so far.")
(The above is my 2013 review, after reading cover to cover. I read the first half in Fall 2010 and wrote the following: "I absolutely adore this book, despite having come across a lot of the content before. Kate's approach and underlying theory is delightful and thought-provoking. I am about halfway through the book, but I will be setting it down for a while, simply to fully absorb what I've read and thought about so far.")
bookmaven17's review
4.0
This book will probably always remain on my "currently reading" list. Gender and our expression of our gender is always changing and developing.