Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity

Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity by college professor Arlene Stein is a compassionate primer for those new to or unfamiliar with transgender as an idea and an identity. Stein uses the collected stories of a group of people she encountered on a particular morning in a Florida surgical waiting room to lead the reader through some of what the modern transgender experience can look like. With the assistance of these personal stories, Stein patiently introduces the reader to the concepts of gender versus sex and eventually to more nuanced understandings of gender identity and gender expression. She outlines the key issues currently affecting the transgender and genderqueer — an umbrella term encompassing those who don’t feel clearly aligned with one extreme of gender or another — communities, including the challenges of government and medical definitions and identities, the physical and emotional toll of gender dysphoria, the intimidation of expressing any kind of non-conforming identity including an afterword highlighting the tangible increase in the danger of violence and assault since Trump’s election, the tensions between the transgender community and first- and second-wave feminism, and our increasingly nuanced understanding of identities.

If you’re curious about what it means to call yourself or to live as transgendered or gender-dysphoric, if you’re interested in the repercussions of medical and institutional resistance to a person’s identity, if you’re looking for personal transgender experiences to relate to or find refuge in, or if you’re simply curious about experiences beyond your own, I strongly and warmly recommend Unbound.