"I Need a Man..."
I have been meaning to write this post for months, literally. Last July, Jay Sennett invited bloggers to help him out with the editing of Self-Organizing Men, the book of essays he was publishing, the first book he would publish with the press he created, Homofactus Press. I told him that I'd love to read the whole thing since I teach gender studies and firmly believe that work about transgender experiences has a whole lot to teach us about gender, essentialism, social-constructionism, and all that stuff a lot of us think about all day long.

It's a really great book. I've waited a long time to write this entry because I wanted to reread it and post detailed descriptions of what I like about it, but as you all know, I've haven't had time to do much lately. And Jay deserves some attention for this book, so I should not be waiting.

There's a lot I remember, though. I remember the essay by Scott Turner Schofield, who describes his current performance piece, Debutante Balls, and the reaction to it. I remember the writer who describes asking his father for a photograph of his father's chest so that, upon the completion of surgery to remove his breasts, his nipples would look like his father's. His father, supporting his daughter's decision to have surgery, still could not take that step and expose his own body in that way.

There's some great artwork throughout the book. There are Jay's cartoons like those he normally posts on his blog. There's a photograph of a piece by Jordy Jones of a ball made of needles used for daily injections of testosterone (you can see part of it at the link).

If you care about gender, read this book. Be ready to have your preconceived notions, even if you developed them in women's or gender studies classrooms, challenged. And encourage Jay to publish more like this.

We need it.
- posted by Nels @ 6:20 PM | | | Link |