Nevada

Imogen Binnie official site. Binnie's older, more punk rock site. Her Twitter feed. An interview with Binnie. Another interview.

Universalizing as against minoritizing identity.Individualizing identity. In the first scene, Maria can't speak.

Is gender something you are, or something you do? Is it all performance? Judith Butler only sort of thought so. This is a costume. So is this. So is this. One more social construction.

Realist novels give practical advice. About sparkles, for example. What to expect when you're trans. Want more advice in that line? Here are good YA novels.

It would be cool-- but it's not actually possible-- to see ourselves as others see us. Maria would rather not take them off. What is junk? Good luck being present in your body.

The real Star City, NV is a ghost town. The real Strand Bookstore might or might not be a terrible place to work. Other work from Topside Press.

Most trans women are not seen here. Most trans women are not Jenny Boylan. Boylan's best-known book. Most trans women are also not Julia Serano, who blogs a lot. Reinventing queer narrative with Robert Glück.

Most life stories aren't that simple, let alone that simple. Some can feel like Nevada Route 80.

Nevada also includes, in effect, a short trans (mostly transfeminine) reading list. Here's a very long one. Here's a heavily annotated one from the very helpful Helen Boyd. Here's one for transmasculine people.

A trans man whose memoir refuses the classic narrative. A lot more Gender Outlaws.

James thinks about something called "autogynephilia," a memorable but pretty much discredited psychological (and pathologizing) model of what transfeminine people want.

The stories that James likes to read are out there. A lot.

Kinks are arrows. Some writers I trust about kink.

About Kathy Acker: Acker talks about narrative. A long introduction to Acker from Peter Wollen at the LRB. Acker's NYT obituary and Guardian reintroduction.

We may be on the road, but we're definitely not On the Road.

Practical (not necessarily literary) trans groups and resources at Harvard, and in New England, and for young people, and for trans and gender-noncomforming young people's families, teachers, and caregivers, and an important conference in Philadelphia. A Harvard-student-run resource for kink.