No person is an island

September 21, 2024 9:53 PM

Kind of vague question requesting reading about the experience and meaning of being trans through history and in different cultures.

When i was a young queer person, I found it really helpful to read about queerness through history and how its expression and social role varied. Like understanding how I’m queer and that’s a me thing, but it’s also shaped by the culture I live in.

I experienced the same thing as a young feminist trying to come to terms with what i wanted in life versus social expectations for someone of my gender and having to come to terms with how that’s not a totally separable thing.

I want to read *waves vaguely* this sort of thing but for trans people? I don’t oppose at all gender affirming care for trans people, but I’m curious about the ways our culture shapes what gender affirming care trans people need and how that’s been different in the past.

I’m looking for nonfiction mostly, but I’m also open to fiction that grapples with these question through made up cultures with different ideas about gender.

posted by congen to Society & Culture (8 answers total)

In an FPP partly to do with gendered perspectives on Napoleon's invasion of Russia and partly to do with a great talk about Alexander Alexandrov and his memoirs, I linked to a couple of articles on trans historiography fully available at those links if you scroll down. They're not very readable, but they show people trying to work out ways to think about this topic that keep overlapping concerns in mind. They also talk about some nonfiction texts that may be what you are looking for.

You mention being open to fiction, and I wonder if relevant stories by authors from the distant past and/or cultural circumstances that require careful translation are a fit. The Story of the Marquise-Marquis de Banneville (1695) has been attributed to three authors collectively: Charles Perrault (i.e. Mother Goose), Marie-Jeanne L'Héritier (another fairy tale author), and also importantly François-Timoléon de Choisy. It's not a fairy tale but it's a short, charming romance story involving two people who both relate to this topic. There's also Camila Sosa Villada's Bad Girls (2019). Winner of the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize in 2020, it's a novel that actually does have magical realist elements but also plenty to illustrate meaningful cultural issues.
posted by Wobbuffet at 1:25 AM on September 22

I think you’d really appreciate Before We Were Trans by Kit Heyam. It explores the history of trans and gender non-conforming people across time and cultures. You might also enjoy this interview with the author.
posted by ourobouros at 5:14 AM on September 22

I am going to assume you are asking in good faith, but your question is framed in a way that suggests fundamental misunderstandings of the trans experience. To that end, How to Understand Your Gender is probably worth a read.
posted by hoyland at 10:45 AM on September 22

Not exactly what you've asked for, but Nobody Needs to Know by Pidgeon Pagonis addresses some of these themes through an intersex lens. The book considers how the medical community and broader society has needed to ascribe a binary sex to intersex bodies, and the impact of this through the author's own experiences.
posted by goo at 3:14 PM on September 22

Transgender History by Susan Stryker
posted by kokaku at 5:53 AM on September 23

Seconding the Stryker, which is a must-read. Adding: A Short History of Trans Misogyny
posted by dizziest at 11:20 AM on September 23

bad fire [g]
posted by HearHere at 10:07 PM on September 23

Just wanted to say a hearfelt thank you for all the really interesting and thoughtful answers here.
posted by congen at 10:02 AM on October 5