MASCULINITIES

Cassell profiles 40 masculine-presenting women, nonbinary folx, and trans men in this illustrated who’s who.

There have always been people whose masculinity has gone against society’s expectations. “From bulldaggers to butches, in the past few years the gender identities of masculine-presenting women have expanded to include a broad spectrum of possibilities,” writes the author in the introduction. “The people featured in this book are all masculine queer activists that have enacted change in unique and powerful ways.” With this compendium, Cassell profiles people from across that spectrum, showing how they have worked to increase the visibility and prominence of masculine-presenting queer people, even when their work does not deal specifically with queer issues. Readers will likely already be familiar with some of these figures, including cartoonist Alison Bechdel, basketball star Brittney Griner, astronaut Sally Ride, and author Fran Lebowitz. But have they heard of Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, the Native Hawaiian academic and spoken-word artist whose work explores the intersections of colonialism, indigeneity, queer theory, and feminism? Or filmmaker Shine Louise Houston, who started a production company to make pornography for a queer audience featuring body types that aren’t generally found in mainstream pornographic material? Cassell also introduces readers to Phranc, “your basic all-American, Jewish, lesbian, folksinger”; Australian senator and climate defender the Honorable Penny Wong; and genderfluid ecologist Sidney Woodruff, who’s working to remove the invasive bullfrog from the American West. Each profile is accompanied by a black-and-white illustration of the subject drawn in a coloring book style, inviting readers to fill them in with colors of their choosing.

The journalistic prose weaves a narrative from the facts of each subject’s life, as here, in the case of writer Heather Hogan: “Heather stayed in Georgia, watched her parents get a divorce, got bullied in high school, kissed a classmate as practice for kissing boys, graduated, worked a dull office job, and shared her first adult kiss with her boss’s daughter, a sophisticated gender studies student who was visiting for the summer and who slipped Heather a copy of Stone Butch Blues on the way out.” Some of the profiles, which generally run three or four pages, are based on original interviews. More often, though, they’re drawn from the writings and research of others, which gives these entries a slight press release–like feel. The frequent quotes from the subjects provide a nice introduction, but there isn’t really enough space to get into their deeper ideas. The highlight is most certainly the illustrations, which are as playful as they are striking. Twenty different artists have contributed, and while each piece is unique, a collective style nevertheless emerges. A significant list of relevant works and resources rounds out the volume, which feels in some ways like a primer for readers starting on their own masculine-presenting journeys or seeking to learn more about that part of the LGBTQ+ community. It may not be a page-turner, but as a reference volume—and coloring book—it works quite well.

A brilliantly illustrated guide to prominent masculine-presenting artists, scientists, and activists.