Welcome to Litsy!

Full of a wide array of histories that weave a tapestry of humanity through the lens of gender, sexuality,
and the inseparable influence of society on both.

But while the distinction between 'gender identity' and 'gender expression' is a useful teaching tool, helping to underscore the point that we can't tell anyone's gender just from looking at them - I use it myself every time I deliver trans awareness training - the reality of our experience is often more complex.

If what it means to be a man, a woman or a non-binary person is different for everyone and varies between contexts, how can we straightforwardly talk about 'people who don't identify as the gender they were assigned at birth', in either the past or the present?

There have always been trans and gender nonconforming people, even before we had the word trans. Heyam looks back through history to reveal those who fell into these categories as well as those who most likely did. This is completely fascinating and thoroughly readable.

This is a fascinating exploration of gender identities throughout history and across various cultures, challenging the idea that trans and gender-nonconforming identities are a modern ‘trend‘ or ‘fad‘. You may not agree with everything that Kit Hayem argues, but it‘s thought provoking and incredibly well researched.

Next up #lgbtqhistorymonth

Soft pick. Discusses trans history while acknowledging the blurry divides between gender roles, gay history, intersex people &religious practices. the sections on precolonial societies & spirituality were particularly interesting &cohesive.

1 section I disagreed with Heyam‘s conclusion (the internment camp) & Heyam devotes the bulk of a chapter to include an intersex person who clearly did not consider themself trans which I have issue with.

I‘m hoping to get a couple chapters in to All The Sinners Bleed tonight, but I am exhausted, so who knows if that will happen, other than that, this was a very successful #20in4 I screwed up my clock but got close on the 20 hours. I started the tagged book today, it‘s a very informative & entertaining look at gender norms globally & historically.

So glad I read this book! Highly recommend. Quite dense and academic, but not at all dry. Was a great book club choice. Made for a wonderful discussion.

#bookmail My IRL book club chose both of these for our June meeting. Should be a great discussion!

School‘s almost done so the brain doesn‘t want to do ANYTHING school related 🙃

A great accessible academic book that focuses on a history of gender nonconformity that emphasizes genders that are culturally specific and/or inextricable from social roles, spirituality, economic opportunities, theatre, sexuality. Gender all over the world has historically been fluid, malleable, and much more than binary. I learned a lot of cool stuff but was disappointed by a weird implication that policing can be redeemed like history?

“The discipline of history is set up to erase queer lives, and particularly trans lives.” Historians are expected to assume everyone they study is cis. Dr Kit Heyam, a trans nonbinary British historian, has chosen a different approach, one that treats people in the past AND in the present with respect, care and love. The result is fascinating. #queer #trans

“A note about Freshwater—it is NOT about nonbinary/trans identity through an Igbo lens ffs. It is not about gender whatsoever and framing it as that is trying to force it over to a human/Western center. It is about embodiment as an ogbanje.”
—Akwaeke Emezi, 2021

I have never read a better, truer account of the experience of being a queer person writing queer history than Jenn Shapland‘s My Autobiography of Carson McCullers.

The visibility of nonbinary people in contemporary culture is already threatening to eclipse intersex history even further: in August 2021 the discovery of the 1,000-year-old body of a person with Klinefelter syndrome, an intersex trait involving XXY chromosomes, was widely reported as being a “nonbinary Iron Age leader.”

History is a space that‘s often fiercely contested between butch and trans people. Academic Jules Gill-Peterson calls it “the trans-masculine-butch-lesbian border wars.”

Recent Reads February 14: Past, Present & Future in Fiction & Nonfiction #queer #CanLit #Indigenous

https://youtu.be/UdKmlhex4E0