Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Continuing my project of improving my understanding of what it means to be transgender, I finally tackled Julia Serano's foundational text on transgender politics, sexism, and the intersections between all sorts of gender-related biases. The book was first published in 2007, which makes it dated in some areas, and was updated for the 2014 re-release, which is already 10 years out of date. An afterword written in 2023 helps to keep it up to date and puts things in perspective, as we enter a new period of virulent anti-trans hysteria (made concrete by a lot of laws being floated, too many of which are passing).   Title: Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity Author: Julia Serano  Publication Information: Originally published 2007, Seal Press (390 Pages). I read the 2016 Kindle edition, with an afterword from 2023.  Source: Library Publisher's Blurb:   In Whipping Girl, biologist and trans activist Julia Serano shares her exper...

Reading this book was part of my on-going quest to educate myself about all things trans, and was recommended by a reader of this blog, I believe. Title: The Argonauts Author: Maggie Nelson. Read by the author. Publication info: Blackstone Audio, 2015, length 4:40. Original Greywolf Publishing, 2015, 160 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and family. Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. At its center is a romance: the story of the author's relationship with the artist Harry Dodge. This story, which includes Nelson's account of falling in love with Dodge, who is fluidly gendered, as well as her journey to and through a pregnancy, is an intimate portrayal of the complexities and joys of (queer...

It has always been my policy, here on this blog and on social media, to stay out of politics. I'm generally here to talk about books and travel and fun stuff. But at some point in your life you may be hit upside the head with the need to speak up. That time has come. Not just for me--for all of us. Because even aside from my personal stake in what's happening in too much of the US, I also believe that if it becomes the norm to take away the freedoms of some groups, it will eventually bcome the norm to take the freedoms of all, and I feel that our nation is teetering in the balance. For the moment, I'm not talking about the loss of a woman's right to control her body (I should have been talking about that for the last two years), or the rights of people of color to not be beaten and killed by the police (also shame to me for not talking about this). For today, I'm talking about LGBTQ* rights, including the very right to existence. Does that sound extreme to you? Thin...

As I mentioned last week, I have recently learned that I have a transgender daughter. Because I'm an academic at heart, as soon as she told me this, I began hunting up and reading books on the subject. Because I'm cheap, I've been working on what's available at the library, on ebooks because I'm lazy and didn't want to walk up to the library in the rain. One thing jumped out at me: the library really needs to update the collection in this area. I was able to find virtually nothing (aside from memoirs, which aren't really what I was looking for at this point) less than 8 years old. Most seemed to date from about 2012. Here's a quick run-down on what I found, and what might or might not be helpful.   Title: My Child is Transgender: 10 Tips for Parents of Adult Trans Children Author: Matt Kailey Publication Info: Tranifesto Publishing, 2012. 28 pages. Publisher's Blurb: Your adult child has come out to you as transgender and is considering, or has alre...

    Title: Found in Transition: A Mother's Evolution During her Child's Gender Change Author: Paria Hassouri, MD Publication Info: New World Library, 2020. 215 pages Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: On Thanksgiving morning, Paria Hassouri finds herself furiously praying and negotiating with the universe as she irons a dress her fourteen-year-old, designated male at birth, has secretly purchased and wants to wear to dinner with the extended family. In this wonderfully frank, loving, and practical account of parenting a transgender teen, Paria chronicles what amounts to a dual transition: as her child transitions from male to female, she navigates through anger, denial, and grief to eventually arrive at acceptance. Despite her experience advising other parents in her work as a pediatrician, she was blindsided by her child's gender identity. Paria is also forced to examine how she still carries insecurities from her past of growing up as an I...