It was a good read. Not at all what I expected. There really wasn’t any gender theory at all and no attempt justifying gender identity. It was just full throated support for all gender identities, which was nice.

I also found it really interesting how antiquated a lot of the language is after only two decades, but the message itself is at least as progressive as the conversations people are having now. There’s such an emphasis on transness outside of binary trans people.

I feel like this understanding of gender would really cut out a lot of the bullshit gatekeeping truscum arguments out. A lot of truscum look at enby or GNC people and say, “you’re just a man in a dress” to which I think Feinberg would reply, “Yes, and?” Men in dresses also have an outlawed gender expression which deserves defending. Considering how armed fascists keep showing up to drag events, I think this view has been vindicated.

I also find it interesting how s/he changes hir pronouns depending on the social context. To me, this level of fluidity acknowledges gender as a social manifestation as opposed to anything essential.

Anyway, I’d like to read more. I was turned to Marxism through history, so I’d like to read up on pre-modern queer history. When I’m arguing with people about gender, I always bring up the fact that gender expression has varied throughout history and there are lots of examples of gender outside of the binary; however, I don’t actually have specific examples that I am really familiar with.

Could anyone recommend a book that goes over non-cis gender identities throughout history and the roles they played? I’d really prefer a central source that covers a lot of cases as opposed to a deep discussion of a single one.

Thanks, comrades

  • ReadFanon [any, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    Could anyone recommend a book that goes over non-cis gender identities throughout history and the roles they played?

    No, but I’d strongly encourage you to send an email to Michaela Appletova because she’s an academic who is interested in history and gender identities.
    Your question isn’t squarely in her wheelhouse but academics know academics and they move in the same circles where they share overlapping areas of interest so she would probably have some good names of authors or books to point you towards.

    Academics, especially historians, are generally massive nerds and when someone is polite and shares their interest they tend to be extremely enthusiastic about the whole thing particularly when it’s someone from the general public. (It can feel a little bit claustrophobic and insular being stuck in a university office toiling away for years or decades at your subjects of interest and wondering whether you’re just shouting/typing into a void or—worse yet—to some little self-congratulatory academic circlejerk.)

    Here’s her info including her email:

    https://history.wfu.edu/people/appeltm

    I guess I’d encourage you to keep the email pretty brief and don’t feel discouraged if it takes a few weeks or longer to get a reply. Often academics are overloaded with stuff like deadlines for marking work or submitting things for conferences and stuff. Or they’ll be reaching out to their contacts to get the best info to you.