A considered and compassionate manual about transgender identity.
Sherkin blends personal experience with practical advice in this guide to transgender allyship.
When the author’s adult child came out as trans, Sherkin was initially filled with apprehension because she didn’t know very much about transgender identity. However, through her experience with her son, co-author Hagen, she came to learn—and grow—a great deal. This book is her attempt to share what she discovered and demystify the transition process for cisgender readers. “If you respond to difference with judgment, fear, or anger, the energy of that will impact the cultures around you,” writes Sherkin. “Respond with acceptance and respect, and that will be the tone of your impact.” The author starts readers at square one, explaining nuances of sexual identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and what it means to transition. She also goes into the challenges that transitioners can face in the home, the workplace, and in society at large. Hagen contributes memoiristic sections while psychotherapist co-author Seidl provides psychological perspectives. Short testimonials from other trans people are scattered throughout the text, which serves to illustrate the diversity of experience that exists in the trans community. The prose throughout is straightforward, with a professional, reassuring tone. The authors keep the focus on the fact that transition is a process to be celebrated while acknowledging that initial steps can be confusing both for the trans person and their family. “Regarding my own transition,” writes Hagen, “there is no real clear beginning, and I really don’t see any clear end. I’m not sure if that’s a trans thing as much as it seems to be a human thing. How do you know when you’re done growing?” The thoughts of a loving parent, a candid child, and a passionate psychotherapist combine in these pages to provide a comprehensive picture, answering most of the questions that people who are new to trans concepts might have. The authors are all Canadian, so the resource section at the back of the book may be of limited value to American readers, but the work is otherwise applicable to a wide audience.
A considered and compassionate manual about transgender identity.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5255-7414-6
Page Count: 152
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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