Nonbinary : : Memoirs of Gender and Identity

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	305.3 No	4-week checkout	Due 05-21-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / Gender Studies / Nonbinary	4-week checkout	Due 05-12-2024

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...For a Certain Definition and Presentation of Nonbinary submitted by Meginator on August 27, 2022, 9:26pm CW: These essays address, often in detail, many difficult topics related to gender identity, including (but not limited to) dysphoria and homophobia.

This essay collection purports to represent a diverse range of nonbinary experiences, and while the contributors themselves are diverse along a few different axes of representation (most notably race), their visions of gender are disappointingly similar to one another. The collection relentlessly focuses on a very limited number of ways to express one’s gender, and I was incredibly disappointed to see essay after essay reinforcing relatively strict notions of what being nonbinary looks like in a collection that is supposedly built on a foundation of liberation. However, that is not to say that the essays themselves are all bad, and while this anthology (like every other) is a mixed bag in terms of quality, many of the authors herein draw on deep wells of creativity and emotional honesty to craft moving testaments to their experiences. A few essays are standouts, but Jules De La Cruz’s “Rock a Bye Binary” is absolutely extraordinary, and each one does represent a unique way of experiencing, expressing, and understanding gender. This is a good book for anyone looking to understand more about nonbinary gender identities, but take note: despite some lofty promises in the front matter, the collection does ultimately fall into the trap of assuming that nonbinary people always present in certain ways and/or seek out particular medical treatments. I did not see my experience reflected at all, and felt slightly devalued when I came to the end.