Gender Is Really Strange
Teddy G. Goetz
What does it mean to be trans? Non-Binary? Gender Expansive? What parts of gender come from society? What parts come from within? How much is biology, and how much is socialization? Part of the Really Strange series, this science-based graphic medicine comic addresses these questions and more, revealing the inherent messiness of gender identity and sex. A mysterious amalgam of biology and society, inherently sensed, yet societally-defined, the complexity of gender is revealed through examining neuroscience, biology, hormones, mental health, behaviour and how much of gender comes from society. Exploring theories, thinkers, terminology, history and gender cultures around the world and across different religions, this easy-to-understand and engaging book will help you to question perceived norms and engage critically with your own gender identity. Get ready to break down the binary B.S. and celebrate gender in all its messy glory!
Publication Year: 2023
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0With what might be the most perfect book title, ‘Gender is Really Strange’ is an incredibly informative book that should be stocked in every library. Because you know what? Gender is really strange, but it’s also beautiful & fascinating. This is a relatively short book &, being a graphic novel, it’s incredibly accessible in format. It’s very well researched & informed, exploring gender through the lense of history, culture, religion, society, & biology. While some of the biology aspects went a little over my head, it really helped to illustrate just how much is going on inside of us & how that can impact our self-image just as much as what is going on around us. And really illustrated just how much we still don’t understand about human biology because the lense that it is traditionally studied through is cisheteronormative.
In just one sitting & a handful of pages, I’ve learned more about identity, gender, & human biology than I did in all my years in school. And it’s delivered in such a beautiful way - the art style is so fun & unique.
BRB - Going to make sure that my local library is going to order many copies of this book!
Thank you to Jessica Kingsley Publishing & NetGalley for providing an advanced digital copy of this book for review. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
0Short in length but expansive in subject, Gender is Really Strange is a great informative, accessible introduction to a discussion of gender.
This graphic novel tackles various aspects of gender: how it is different from sex, how colonization led to erasing native cultural expressions of gender (or lack of it), how hormones work, and how and why people question their gender, among other topics.
It is a surface introduction to these topics, so don't expect something super in-depth if you already know these topics; the audience for this is people who know little to nothing about how gender really is just a social construct, and provides tools to help people take their first steps in deconstructing the gender binary on a personal level.
Though I was aware of many topics in here, I still found this very informative; I especially enjoyed the section on various native presentations of gender (or lack thereof) that colonization's enforcement of the gender binary eventually eclipsed.
We can always stand to learn something new, and Gender is Really Strange is a fantastic way to do so.
Thanks to NetGalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for the opportunity to read this. Gender is Really Strange will be released on October 19th.
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