It's Here! My Second Book is in Print!
It's Here! My Second Book is in Print!
publisher, sunstone press, writing, guy in ws (book 2), promotion, exhibit a
That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class
is now in print and available for ordering (amazon link; other purchase links listed farther downscreen)
In this nonfiction memoir, Derek, a genderqueer sissy male, decides that a women's studies class in college would be a good place to engage people in discussions about gender. Derek has reason to worry that he's invading women's space by attending women’s studies classes. At the same time, he's a minority within that space, and, as a gender-nonconforming sissy in the 1980s, a person with a gender identity that wasn't acknowledged and recognized yet, he’s been somewhat marginalized by gender himself. This narrative tale illustrates the complexities of intersectionality, the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender and so forth. The main character is male, the privileged sex in the patriarchal context. The story follows Derek down Oklahoma highways and into heroin dens in Harlem and then into the homeless shelters of 1980s New York City, as the determined but not always practical Derek pursues his dream. Along the way, the story delves into the complexities of privilege and social identity in ways that challenge assumptions about power and marginalization--not in primary-color simplicity but by exploring privilege and deprivation along a number of different dimensions and showing it in all of its native complexity, all while still respecting a concern for empowering the voice of those left out.
Guy in WS is a somewhat rare thing in autobiographical nonfiction: a sequel! It picks up where GenderQueer left off: Derek (me) has just come out as a self-described sissy and seeks to be an activist in 1980, an era long before modern LGBTQ identity politics, and decides academic women's studies is the place to discuss such matters and meet other people wanting to do the same.
As a women's studies student, I arrive as a male, a guy -- regardless of how I identify, that's how I am perceived and treated, with both misgendering and privileges included. And women's studies in the 1980s is a space that's intrinsically critical of male hegemony and male behavioral patterns. As part of the "Q" in LGBTQ, I'm an outlier in this tale, an identity not yet spoken for, a sissy in a world rife with sissyphobia. The new discourse of women's studies was not designed with people like that in mind. Meanwhile, I'm not only perceived as male, but also recognized and viewed as while, educated, and imbued with the privileges of the professional middle class, invoked by how I speak and how I behave.
It is first and foremost my own tale, but it's also a good Exhibit A for discussions of intersectionality and the complexities of privilege and marginalization.
It's my fondest hope that people who read it will say of it that it's that book that "will make you think".
Well, I guess at this point that's a subset of the main hope, which is that people will read it and review it!
Additional relevant links:
Barnes & Noble, alternative purchase for people averse to Amazon
(It can also be acquired from various small independent booksellers).
Library of Congress listing
Goodreads listing
A pair of color ads I'm going to be running:
Step One: Coming Out
Step Two: Going Forth
-----
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page
-------
This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts
publisher, sunstone press, writing, guy in ws (book 2), promotion, exhibit a
That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class
is now in print and available for ordering (amazon link; other purchase links listed farther downscreen)
In this nonfiction memoir, Derek, a genderqueer sissy male, decides that a women's studies class in college would be a good place to engage people in discussions about gender. Derek has reason to worry that he's invading women's space by attending women’s studies classes. At the same time, he's a minority within that space, and, as a gender-nonconforming sissy in the 1980s, a person with a gender identity that wasn't acknowledged and recognized yet, he’s been somewhat marginalized by gender himself. This narrative tale illustrates the complexities of intersectionality, the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender and so forth. The main character is male, the privileged sex in the patriarchal context. The story follows Derek down Oklahoma highways and into heroin dens in Harlem and then into the homeless shelters of 1980s New York City, as the determined but not always practical Derek pursues his dream. Along the way, the story delves into the complexities of privilege and social identity in ways that challenge assumptions about power and marginalization--not in primary-color simplicity but by exploring privilege and deprivation along a number of different dimensions and showing it in all of its native complexity, all while still respecting a concern for empowering the voice of those left out.
Guy in WS is a somewhat rare thing in autobiographical nonfiction: a sequel! It picks up where GenderQueer left off: Derek (me) has just come out as a self-described sissy and seeks to be an activist in 1980, an era long before modern LGBTQ identity politics, and decides academic women's studies is the place to discuss such matters and meet other people wanting to do the same.
As a women's studies student, I arrive as a male, a guy -- regardless of how I identify, that's how I am perceived and treated, with both misgendering and privileges included. And women's studies in the 1980s is a space that's intrinsically critical of male hegemony and male behavioral patterns. As part of the "Q" in LGBTQ, I'm an outlier in this tale, an identity not yet spoken for, a sissy in a world rife with sissyphobia. The new discourse of women's studies was not designed with people like that in mind. Meanwhile, I'm not only perceived as male, but also recognized and viewed as while, educated, and imbued with the privileges of the professional middle class, invoked by how I speak and how I behave.
It is first and foremost my own tale, but it's also a good Exhibit A for discussions of intersectionality and the complexities of privilege and marginalization.
It's my fondest hope that people who read it will say of it that it's that book that "will make you think".
Well, I guess at this point that's a subset of the main hope, which is that people will read it and review it!
Additional relevant links:
Barnes & Noble, alternative purchase for people averse to Amazon
(It can also be acquired from various small independent booksellers).
Library of Congress listing
Goodreads listing
A pair of color ads I'm going to be running:
Step One: Coming Out
Step Two: Going Forth
-----
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page
-------
This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts