Sly's Feminist Book Club: Transgender Body Politics

 https://amzn.to/3wvJlLi

The following is a duplicate of my review on Scribd.

With the lack of rational thought surrounding the current affirmation model for young people with gender dysphoria, books like this one are critically important. The push to accept transgender identities is not merely a matter of social justice or mental health. The movement also involves a push to normalize queer theory. Rather than being a solution for problems like rigid sex stereotypes and homophobia, the current trans rights movement compounds these issues. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what's really going on.

Rating: Five stars

Sly's Feminist Book Club: Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier

 

Click here to read a sample from the book.

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I read this book on the Scribd platform. The following is a copy of the review that I left there.

The review section is a testimony to why this book is necessary. The conversation around gender identity has become dogmatic. Did I agree with everything the author wrote? No, I did not. But scolding and name-calling accomplish nothing. The lack of nuance and the prevalence of ad hominem attacks in many of the reviews of this book is chilling.

The push to medically transition kids reminds me of the push to prescribe psych meds to anyone experiencing any degree of depression beginning in the mid-1980s. I was critical of this trend, stating that we really had no idea what the long-term effects of these medications were. However, to speak unfavorably of these medications was to invite derision. I feel that the main parties benefiting from both blanket prescription of psych medications and fast-tracking young people for medical transition are the pharmaceutical companies.

To be critical of transition without careful consideration such as Buck Angel (a trans man) describes is not hatred of trans people. But any expression of doubt in the current trans dogma immediately leads to accusations of "transphobia." This lack of nuance helps no-one, particularly not the vulnerable young people who are sent down a path of irreversible medicalization with no consideration given at all to whether that is really in their best interest.

Whether or not one is in complete agreement with the author, she provides a necessary voice of reason regarding an issue which even the medical and scientific communities refuse to view or discuss in a nuanced fashion.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Royalty-free image by Julia Henze 

Purchased from 123rf.com

The Icky, Sticky, Nit-Picky Legalese If You Please (Or Don't Please)

 

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Sly's Feminist Book Club: The Emergence of the Movement Lesbian

I intend to review this book myself. However, I have not done so yet. I am currently reading "From Liberty to Magnolia," which is the autobiography of Janice Ellis and details her struggles both as a black girl growing up in the racist Southern United States prior to the Civil Rights Movement and her work within both the Civil Rights and Feminist movements.

In the meantime, please read this well-written review of the featured book. This is my response:

A lot of people don't remember or don't realize just how difficult it was for gay people in times past. The 1990s was when I first started seeing acceptance by the general public and the idea that homosexuality was not deviant or a form of mental illness began to take hold.

As both women and homosexuals, lesbians have faced extreme backlash. There is an unspoken expectation that women will become wives and mothers, the organizers of the husband's household and the producers of the next generation. Like all women, lesbians are objectified in pornographic scenarios. Stereotypes still exist that all lesbian couples consist of a butch "husband" and a femme "wife". Lesbians still struggle with not being seen as people.

I feel very passionate about the subject matter in this book. Although I am not a lesbian myself, I am a feminist and an ally. Lesbians continue to be scapegoated today in many of the same ways they were scapegoated in the past.

Thank you for this well-written review of an important scholarly work which is likely to be overlooked by the general public.

This was my comment on the Book of the Day's Facebook page:
A lot of people don't remember that homosexuality was once widely considered to be "deviant" and a form of mental illness. Lesbians faced double the backlash from both homophobia and sexism.

Women are expected to bear and care for the next generation. Although a lesbian couple is certainly capable of raising a child, the expectation of the general population is that girls will grow up to find and marry their Prince Charming, have 2.5 children with him, and will manage the household. Lesbians receive backlash for disrupting that stereotype.

Further, lesbians are objectified by male pornography, and there continues to be a pervasive idea that all lesbian couples have a butch "husband" and a femme "wife." Books like this are very necessary for breaking down those stereotypes.

Note: some brain trust actually commented that he was "not a fan of lesbians." I refrained from getting into a flame war. I wanted to tell him that I'm not a fan of closed-minded, homophobic bigots.

This was my comment on the book club president's Linked In page:
Although homosexuals overall face less backlash in Western society than they did in times past, lesbians face not only homophobic but sexist backlash.

Lesbians are objectified in pornography which is made for men. They are stereotyped by the belief that a lesbian couple is supposed to have a butch "husband" and a femme "wife." Further, although a lesbian couple is perfectly capable of raising a child, lesbians defy the expectation that little girls are supposed to grow up, find their Prince Charming, have 2.5 children with him, and manage the family's household in the suburbs. "Are you sure you just haven't met the right man yet" is a phrase that many lesbians are still subjected to.

I'm always pleased when books like this one are featured. It has historical value and also addresses a problem which continues to plague society, although it is less prevalent and more covert than it was in the past.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com