Beyond Trans

Does Gender Matter?

De: Heath Fogg Davis

Narrado por: Paul Boehmer

Beyond Trans pushes the conversation on gender identity to its limits: questioning the need for gender categories in the first place. Whether on birth certificates or college admissions applications or on bathroom doors, why do we need to mark people and places with sex categories? Do they serve a real purpose or are these places and forms just mechanisms of exclusion?

Heath Fogg Davis offers an impassioned call to rethink the usefulness of dividing the world into not just Male and Female categories but even additional categories of Transgender and gender fluid. Davis, himself a transgender man, explores the underlying gender-enforcing policies and customs in American life that have led to transgender bathroom bills, college admissions controversies, and more, arguing that it is necessary for our society to take real steps to challenge the assumption that gender matters.

He examines four areas where we need to re-think our sex-classification systems: sex-marked identity documents such as birth certificates, drivers licenses and passports; sex-segregated public restrooms; single-sex colleges; and sex-segregated sports.

©2017 New York University (P)2017 Tantor

Excellent!

I loved this book. The author gave engaging, informational, and convincing arguments about why sex segregation is problematic and should be re-evaluated for the benefit of us all. The arguments were intersectional, addressing issues of gender, sex, race, ability, and age throughout the book. It was also inclusive of a variety of trans and gender non-conforming identities including non-binary, butch, etc.

Raises Questions I Never Even Considered

I'm not saying I agree with everything in this book, but the author does a good job of starting the dialogue around a very important topic: gender. Why do we have separate bathrooms by gender? Why do women wait in line to use the women's room when there is no line in front of the men's room? Why do some colleges not allow men to attend? Is any of this fair?

Reading this book made me question many of the gender issues that I had always taken for granted as a straight white man. Before we can discover the answers, we first need to discover the questions. This book raises many of those questions. Bravo to the author.

Very straightforward argument

The author makes a very straightforward argument with ample case studies that state and institutional recognition of gender is harmful.

Thought provoking

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

My Overall Thoughts/Impressions: In this book, Heath effectively and concisely uses four areas to argue why we should eradicate or at least largely rethink how we use sex classifications and sex-marked identities:

(1) how we use documents such as birth certificates,
(2) how we deal with sex-segregated public areas,
(3) how we view single-sex colleges, and
(4) how we deal with sex-segregated sports.

He offers data and anecdotal evidence to indicate why we should rethink these areas in a concise way. The book is short, so the information provided is short. This is also not neutral (not a bad thing); it's designed to be written to persuade.

Heath left me with a lot to think about. He did a great job of showcasing the thorny issues and how they affect people and why those effects can be harmful.

This is a quick, insightful read for those wanting to learn more.

Note: I don't review books based on whether I agree with the author or not. Nor are my reviews meant to signal I agree with everything an author says/posits. I review based on quality.