Trans Like Me
Conversations for All of Us
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A personal and culture-driven exploration of the most pressing questions facing the transgender community today, from a leading activist, musician, and academic
In Trans Like Me, CN Lester takes readers on a measured, thoughtful, intelligent yet approachable tour through the most important and high-profile narratives around the trans community, turning them inside out and examining where we really are in terms of progress. From the impact of the media's wording in covering trans people and issues, to the way parenting gender variant children is portrayed, Lester brings their charged personal narrative to every topic and expertly lays out the work left to be done.
Trans Like Me explores the ways that we are all defined by ideas of gender -- whether we live as he, she, or they -- and how we can strive for authenticity in a world that forces limiting labels.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Musician, scholar, and trans rights activist Lester tours the history, activism, and common experiences of people whose sense of gender falls outside of the binary of "male" and "female" in this winning collection of essays. The author offers perspective and clarity on issues that, time and again, are stumbling blocks to trans acceptance and celebration of human gender diversity, such as the conflation of sex and gender in everyday forms of speech or, more pointedly, when people use arguments about XX/XY chromosomes to invalidate trans people. Lester addresses the caricatures of trans people in mainstream media, the disproportionate harassment and violence trans people face, and the pressure to conform to gendered expectations. Lester, who identifies as nonbinary, draws on personal history including more than a decade "experiencing life at the margins of sex and gender," as well as pop culture. In one essay, Lester recounts reading the 1928 novel The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall and recognizing a shared experience in the novel's "murky and complex" descriptions of gender. While the work is clearly written with a nontrans audience in mind, this book will likely also be an affirming read for many trans people, especially young ones, who may find in its pages recognition from a fellow traveler.
Customer Reviews
A must read
I loved every page of this book, reading someone else’s personal journey really helped me to understand my own.