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Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano
1 review
wimbleimble's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
This is a really good book. Some of the terminology is a bit outdated (in the sense that many people nowadays probably wouldn't use it to describe themselves as Serano does in the book) but what it signifies is very much still relevant and important. As someone who is in the process of trying to intellectualise a whole slew of things, having recently realised that I am transfeminine, this has been invaluable to me in understanding myself.
I've heard others describe parts of the book (in particular the last chapter) as invalidating of non-binary people, but I would disagree with this reading. Her ultimate conclusion, with regards to rejecting gender entitlement, I think rather speaks to the opposite, and to embracing all varieties of gender variant peoples and listening to their perspectives. I feel what she is instead criticising is valuing any gender identity over another, on the basis of it being subversive. This is admittedly something I have never encountered (though I have observed the opposite), and so it feels like a bit of a non-issue, though my experience is quite limited in this regard, due to my limited time in queer/trans spaces, and also due to the fact that the spaces I do have experiences with are probably vastly different to those that Serano wrote about in 2007.
But yeah, it's a really valuable work, and I'm going to be thinking about a lot of it for a while to come. Perhaps forever, considering my circumstances.
I've heard others describe parts of the book (in particular the last chapter) as invalidating of non-binary people, but I would disagree with this reading. Her ultimate conclusion, with regards to rejecting gender entitlement, I think rather speaks to the opposite, and to embracing all varieties of gender variant peoples and listening to their perspectives. I feel what she is instead criticising is valuing any gender identity over another, on the basis of it being subversive. This is admittedly something I have never encountered (though I have observed the opposite), and so it feels like a bit of a non-issue, though my experience is quite limited in this regard, due to my limited time in queer/trans spaces, and also due to the fact that the spaces I do have experiences with are probably vastly different to those that Serano wrote about in 2007.
But yeah, it's a really valuable work, and I'm going to be thinking about a lot of it for a while to come. Perhaps forever, considering my circumstances.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Hate crime, Transphobia, Sexism, Homophobia, and Mental illness
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