Trans women writers for a high school women's lit class?
June 22, 2015 8:19 AM Subscribe
I am looking for suggestions for works by trans women (or non-binary) writers for a high school English class entitled "Social Issues in Women's Literature." I am especially interested in shorter pieces (poems, short stories, essays), although excerpts from longer things would be all right too. I am trying to take as intersectional an approach as possible, so I would really value a diversity of voices (trans women of color, non-American, both contemporary and older, etc.).
I am co-teaching a new women's literature class in the fall for juniors and seniors in high school (ages 15-18). We have many, many works we are already planning on including, but one area where my knowledge is weak is definitely writers who are trans women or non-binary people. (I am less interested in trans men as authors, because I am trying to have a syllabus that does not include male writers as part of the point of the course.) It is very important to me to make sure that everyone we read is not a cis woman, but I need help in this area.
We are shaping the course around themes: Women as Writers/Artists; Women's Relationships (incl. families and sexualities); Women and Politics; Women and Economics; Women as/and Bodies (The Beauty Myth); Gender and Identities. To give you an idea of what the readings will be like, some of the works we are definitely including are Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Ursula LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, as well as a lot of shorter works by authors like Gayle Rubin, Adrienne Rich, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Maxine Hong Kingston, Nikki Giovanni, Anne Sexton, Susan Brownmiller, Audre Lord, May Sarton, Hélène Cixous, and others.
I am especially looking for suggestions for specific works, poems, short stories, essays (including well-written blog/online posts), or for excerpts from longer works like memoirs. I have Googled (and I do have some ideas), but I'm hoping that the well-read people of MetaFilter will have some great suggestions, especially for things that would fit into the themes above. This is an elective English class, and the kids' reading levels may vary a little, but again, things appropriate for ages 15-18 or so.
I am co-teaching a new women's literature class in the fall for juniors and seniors in high school (ages 15-18). We have many, many works we are already planning on including, but one area where my knowledge is weak is definitely writers who are trans women or non-binary people. (I am less interested in trans men as authors, because I am trying to have a syllabus that does not include male writers as part of the point of the course.) It is very important to me to make sure that everyone we read is not a cis woman, but I need help in this area.
We are shaping the course around themes: Women as Writers/Artists; Women's Relationships (incl. families and sexualities); Women and Politics; Women and Economics; Women as/and Bodies (The Beauty Myth); Gender and Identities. To give you an idea of what the readings will be like, some of the works we are definitely including are Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Ursula LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, as well as a lot of shorter works by authors like Gayle Rubin, Adrienne Rich, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Maxine Hong Kingston, Nikki Giovanni, Anne Sexton, Susan Brownmiller, Audre Lord, May Sarton, Hélène Cixous, and others.
I am especially looking for suggestions for specific works, poems, short stories, essays (including well-written blog/online posts), or for excerpts from longer works like memoirs. I have Googled (and I do have some ideas), but I'm hoping that the well-read people of MetaFilter will have some great suggestions, especially for things that would fit into the themes above. This is an elective English class, and the kids' reading levels may vary a little, but again, things appropriate for ages 15-18 or so.
Best answer: I always chime in with Cait Kiernan as my go-to trans author, but I am struggling to think of more of her stories that would be appropriate for the reading levels the OP suggested. She did a young adult story, "The Dead and the Moonstruck," for an anthology called Gothic!: Ten Original Dark Tales that would be a pretty decent fit, I think.
posted by Kitteh at 8:50 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitteh at 8:50 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: If you're open to comics, non-binary cartoonist Melanie Gilman might be someone to investigate. Their ongoing webcomic "As The Crow Flies" is about a young woman of color on a feminist mountain retreat, and deals with issues of race, sexuality and gender with deftness and humor. They also made a really fantastic minicomic memoir, "Nonbinary", which talks about their own relationship with gender and with transitioning.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:58 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:58 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Roz Kaveney maybe? British author and critic, with SF / fantasy interests.
posted by crocomancer at 9:00 AM on June 22, 2015
posted by crocomancer at 9:00 AM on June 22, 2015
My stepdaughter read an excerpt from Jennifer Finney Boylan's She's Not There in a section about identity in her high school Human Behavior class. I don't know specifically what pages were selected offhand, but could find out (memail me). I've read the whole book and would certainly recommend it.
(I should say that some responses from other students in this class were less than kind--the ability to "believe" in gender dysphoria and/or the ability to successfully transition can be an issue for more conservative students. That was upsetting, but our girl acquitted herself admirably when she decided to invite her recently transitioned parent to speak to the class. If you can get someone who is trans or non-binary to speak to your class at the time you read something trans-related, I would certainly advocate for that.)
posted by dlugoczaj at 10:50 AM on June 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
(I should say that some responses from other students in this class were less than kind--the ability to "believe" in gender dysphoria and/or the ability to successfully transition can be an issue for more conservative students. That was upsetting, but our girl acquitted herself admirably when she decided to invite her recently transitioned parent to speak to the class. If you can get someone who is trans or non-binary to speak to your class at the time you read something trans-related, I would certainly advocate for that.)
posted by dlugoczaj at 10:50 AM on June 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Casey Plett's A Safe Girl to Love is a very good, very recent collection of short stories by a trans woman, including a few that I think would go over really well for this sort of class. I feel like this is a situation where it might be better to have something recent, just because trans people's situation is changing very quickly — assigning something by Jennifer Finney Boylan or Jan Morris would be a little like assigning pre-Stonewall gay fiction in the 70s or 80s.
The thing that's going to be tricky is that many of Plett's stories are pretty sexually explicit — not pornographic, but definitely frank and uncensored. I could see that going badly in two ways. The obvious one is that you might not be able to get away with assigning stories with sex in them. The one that might be less obvious is that you really, really want to avoid giving your students the impression that being a trans woman is something inherently sordid or raunchy, because there's already enough of that sort of transmisogyny floating around.
I think your best bet might be "Portland, Oregon." If I remember right, there's no sex scenes onstage, though there is a character who works as a driver for an escort agency. It's a story about disappointment and settling, it's told from the point of view of a cat whose human owner is falling apart and becoming neglectful of him, and it's way less gimmicky than the talking-cat thing makes it sound.
If you can get away with sex scenes, "Winning" might be even better. It's about a mother and daughter who are both trans, and the trouble they have understanding each other since they came out and transitioned in very different eras. But it does have one pretty graphic hookup scene.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:21 PM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
The thing that's going to be tricky is that many of Plett's stories are pretty sexually explicit — not pornographic, but definitely frank and uncensored. I could see that going badly in two ways. The obvious one is that you might not be able to get away with assigning stories with sex in them. The one that might be less obvious is that you really, really want to avoid giving your students the impression that being a trans woman is something inherently sordid or raunchy, because there's already enough of that sort of transmisogyny floating around.
I think your best bet might be "Portland, Oregon." If I remember right, there's no sex scenes onstage, though there is a character who works as a driver for an escort agency. It's a story about disappointment and settling, it's told from the point of view of a cat whose human owner is falling apart and becoming neglectful of him, and it's way less gimmicky than the talking-cat thing makes it sound.
If you can get away with sex scenes, "Winning" might be even better. It's about a mother and daughter who are both trans, and the trouble they have understanding each other since they came out and transitioned in very different eras. But it does have one pretty graphic hookup scene.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:21 PM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Oh! And! I just noticed you mentioned poetry too! Ryka Aoki has a collection of poetry out called "Why Dust Shall Settle Upon This Soul"— I've only read exerpts, but the ones I've read look really good.
Also, would you consider interactive fiction? Porpentine's With Those We Love Alive is stunningly good, works as literature (in a way that, in my opinion, a lot of interactive fiction doesn't), and connects really strongly to stuff about autonomy, control, embodiment and shame that a lot of the poets you're assigning are interested in.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:31 PM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, would you consider interactive fiction? Porpentine's With Those We Love Alive is stunningly good, works as literature (in a way that, in my opinion, a lot of interactive fiction doesn't), and connects really strongly to stuff about autonomy, control, embodiment and shame that a lot of the poets you're assigning are interested in.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:31 PM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
From a tumblr user who doesn't have an account:
"If I had a Metafilter account I would recommend Janet Mock’s book Redefining Realness"
posted by cobain_angel at 6:08 PM on June 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
"If I had a Metafilter account I would recommend Janet Mock’s book Redefining Realness"
posted by cobain_angel at 6:08 PM on June 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Take a look through the anthology Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation (eds. Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman). It has many short pieces by trans women and non-binary authors; there might be something suitable for your course.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:21 PM on June 22, 2015
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:21 PM on June 22, 2015
Response by poster: Thank you, everyone, for the help! Many interesting ideas, definitely some writers I hadn't previously heard of. I'm especially intrigued at the idea of including some non-traditional forms like comics or interactive fiction, though I will have to see how that would work in practice (we don't have 1-1 devices for the kids unless I reserve a laptop cart, but that's doable). Metafilter is always the best!
posted by jfaulkner at 9:28 AM on June 29, 2015
posted by jfaulkner at 9:28 AM on June 29, 2015
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posted by pretentious illiterate at 8:34 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]