by Dianna E. Anderson
3 stars
Overall, an interesting read. Anderson tackles quite a few topics in this book, mostly centering around the language of trans identity and gender-nonconformity, and the issues of a world that seeks binaries.
The book is a bit tricky to pin down because it’s a little bit of everything. Part history, part theory, part memoir, part social critique. It manages to pack in a lot of information in a small package, but by doing so the pacing suffers. At times it dragged, while at others it was quite dense. There were many times I had to keep rereading a section to be sure I understood it, because the language and explanations weren’t exactly accessible. Its theory to personal experience ratio felt unbalanced, making it difficult to read at times.
Good for those looking for a more academic approach. It does center white experience, but I enjoyed the sections that dealt with other intersections such as navigating the body acceptance of the fat positive movement while also not feeling at home in ones gender and sex. I did also find the sections on religion interesting.
Despite its issues, there were quite a few interesting topics touched upon. A nice addition overall to the growing work on non-binary identities.