Before We Were Trans
A New History of Gender

Two things that I love: niche history and accessible academic writing. You will find both of these things in this phenomenal book. Heyam’s writing in thought provoking and conversational but at the same time, extremely well researched. I find Queer theory (and academic writing in general) to be near......more

In their book, Kit Heyam looks at history through a lens outside the gender binary, delving into aspects of various non-Western cultures that have historically been gender nonconforming as well as histories that have been assumed to have explanations that fit into the gender binary. This was an inte......more

4.5 stars rounded up This is a very accessible book tracing the history of transness and its intersection with the history of other identities such as intersex, bisexual, non-binary, and two-spirit. It's academically grounded, but thoughtful and clear in how it explores the nuances this quite complex......more

I haven’t read anything related to trans history before and don’t know much about the topic, so this was both an interesting and eye opening read for me. The author discusses a new kind of methodology to look at the various kinds of gender expression in the past, when there was no language to descri......more

what a NEAT book. that's honestly the best descriptor i can think of, it's just neat. the author takes history, shakes it, and Gender™ falls out. what's not to like?? the central premise of Before We Were Trans goes something like: "we know that people across history (and across cultures) didn't conc......more