A review by krussek
Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality by Helen Joyce

1.0

Caveat that I only made it 3/4 through this one, but by god it is insultingly bad. By the time she shoehorned in a discussion of Rachel Dolezal I was physically laughing. It is abundantly clear that she has a limited understanding of the history of race and racism in America, as her tone deaf comparisons of the oppression of women by predatory trans women to racism prove. There exists also in this work a refusal to engage with what social constructionism actually means, paradigmatic shifts in the cultural coding of dysphoria and gender nonconformity, and anthropological research. Her only admission of violence towards female-presenting AMABs is in the case of Brazilian transvestis. The middle section is also an untidy retrodding of tired gender critical talking points that could’ve used another draft and some fact-checking.

the suggestion of an evil cabal of Jewish billionaires funding gender self-ID legislation is… well, you do the math.

I am a detransitioned woman, and I do believe that there does need to be some rehauling of the way we frame biological sex, the Western transgender paradigm, and trans healthcare. A work of this nature though is best left in the hands of a cultural historian with vested sympathy for trans wellbeing. Joyce is not that person.