knives_in_ 's review for:

The Gender Games: The Problem with Men and Women, from Someone Who Has Been Both by Juno Dawson

3.0

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This book is a lot more of a memoir strewn with sweeping generalisations, assumptions and opinions given out as though they're factual than it is advertised as. And even though it was written in 2017, the book is wildly outdated, and focuses on the current climate to its detriment. It is also very British, and while I appreciate her voice and style, I think it's almost to the point of alienation. Also, I do not appreciate the way she (a trans woman) diagnoses the entirety of the gay community with trauma, but I digress, I've never been a part of said community myself and there's probably better people discussing that issue who are a part of the community. I just wish this was the only time in the book she made a sweeping opinionated generalisation built on assumptions and personal experience that made me say 'yikes'.

However, I enjoyed Dawson's stories and found the overall discussion of gender well thought out and a sorely needed change in the discussion of how society does gender. But this book was not written for me, it was written for middle aged white cis women so they can get a clue. Buy this for your mum, I suppose.