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A review by legs_mcgee
Trans Medicine: The Emergence and Practice of Treating Gender by Stef M. Shuster
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and NYUPress for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
I had the pleasure of hearing stef present some of this work a few years back, and I jumped at the chance to get my hands on this book, even though I tend to struggle with non-fiction reads. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it felt to read this book!
As a grad student, I'm used to slogging through academic texts and cross-referencing dictionaries, google, and other books to figure out what an academic is actually talking about. It was such a relief to NOT have to do this for TRANS MEDICINE. shuster does an excellent job of breaking down complicated ideas around the production of knowledge and expertise to contextualize the history and present of trans medicine– their use of jargon is intentional and explained in a way that I think non-sociologists and non-academics would find more approachable than they'd expect.
Although I was expecting something more in depth chronologically, one of the biggest strengths of this book for me was how it is positioned in the context of wider medical and sociological practices. shuster has a keen eye for the ways in which evidence based medicine impacts the experience of people of color and disabled people negotiating their way through the medical field.
I was a little disappointed not to have read conversations or interviews with trans and nonbinary medical/therapy providers, but I think shuster does a good job explaining why they interviewed who they did, and the lack of such perspectives is likely more reflective of the current state of trans medicine and how the medical field understands expertise.
Honestly, I would recommend this book widely beyond the medical field! I think this is an excellent example of an strong citational practice, and offers a plethora of delight for readers who think about evidence and how we understand the experiences of gender and sexual minorities within normative systems. For data nerds like me, I would also strongly recommend giving the appendices a thorough read to think about how researchers position themselves within social and institutional groups.
I had the pleasure of hearing stef present some of this work a few years back, and I jumped at the chance to get my hands on this book, even though I tend to struggle with non-fiction reads. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it felt to read this book!
As a grad student, I'm used to slogging through academic texts and cross-referencing dictionaries, google, and other books to figure out what an academic is actually talking about. It was such a relief to NOT have to do this for TRANS MEDICINE. shuster does an excellent job of breaking down complicated ideas around the production of knowledge and expertise to contextualize the history and present of trans medicine– their use of jargon is intentional and explained in a way that I think non-sociologists and non-academics would find more approachable than they'd expect.
Although I was expecting something more in depth chronologically, one of the biggest strengths of this book for me was how it is positioned in the context of wider medical and sociological practices. shuster has a keen eye for the ways in which evidence based medicine impacts the experience of people of color and disabled people negotiating their way through the medical field.
I was a little disappointed not to have read conversations or interviews with trans and nonbinary medical/therapy providers, but I think shuster does a good job explaining why they interviewed who they did, and the lack of such perspectives is likely more reflective of the current state of trans medicine and how the medical field understands expertise.
Honestly, I would recommend this book widely beyond the medical field! I think this is an excellent example of an strong citational practice, and offers a plethora of delight for readers who think about evidence and how we understand the experiences of gender and sexual minorities within normative systems. For data nerds like me, I would also strongly recommend giving the appendices a thorough read to think about how researchers position themselves within social and institutional groups.