So I feel like Lesile Feinberg did an amazing job going over the lost sacred history of transgender people. Of how the current order we live in hasn't always been and that transphobia is a result of rising class division. Also of how trans comrades have been in the front lines battling oppression and for both their own rights but also every oppressed peoples.
It took me like a week to read this but I highly recommend everyone to read it. Lesile Feinberg weaves personal narrative with history and tying together the lives of trans people to make a master piece that is hard to put down.
Here is where I found it and recommend everyone to check it out
I want to thank @futomes for suggesting this discussion thread. It would help maybe if we can get an audio version but I've no idea where to find.
I know it's not my my place to talk about trans issues with me being cis but I hope we can have a discussion here and maybe it will peak everyone's interests. I'll try my best not to dominate any conversations going on here.
Once again to any cis people here I highly recommend reading this book. It is very enlightening and helps to destroy old perceptions of the past and present while giving us direction for the future. It has pictures and stuff so you can get through it, don't be intimidated with it being 244 pages they go by fast.
Yo mods @marxisthayaca @Beatnik @TwilightLoki @Jarad @Gorn @Uncle_Hoe @TransComrade69 , politely requesting a sticky if possible.
Did I mess up the title of the book? Hang on will check. Outside of this book I've no idea who Dennis Rodman is tbh. Should I remove?
Damn, I believe you just had no idea since I don't follow sports. Gonna take your initial comment as... not sure. The book does include a lot of other gender expressions so I think this is why Dennis Rodman was added. Less having to do with him and more with getting word out of different gender expressions possible to the public using a well known athlete. Dennis Rodman is only mentioned towards the end most likely added in after the book was written since Lesile Feinberg changed the title if I remember.
yeah i think Feinberg (writing mainly in the 90s) often uses the term “transgender” to describe “someone that has an unorthodox gender presentation” rather than “someone that identifies as a different gender than their birth assignment”.
nowadays we’d probably use the term “gender non-conforming” to discuss drag queens or butch lesbians or Joan of Arc, but we wouldn’t necessarily consider them trans
So Lesile Feinberg mentions through out the book that the history of transgender people has been greatly undermined by historians looking into the past and having their biases paint what they see. Joan of Arc crossing dressing is seen largely as a one off thing but in reality was a big part of their being. The ruling class saw a threat because Joan of Arc came from a very poor background. Lesile Feinberg mentions that a lot of like cultural imperialism swept into France, among other places, and displaced a lot of older religions for this new patriarchal one. But these older religions still persisted among the poor and because of Joan of Arc status as most likely ftm many poorer people saw Joan of Arc with power labeling them the second most important saint.
When captured by the british, France could have paid a ransom but choose not to and the church saw fit to try crushing Joan of Arc in order to cement their power. Joan of Arc at the time couldn't be killed for just cross dressing but was forced to sign a document saying no more cross dressing but the rub was Joan of Arc was illiterate. Joan of Arc was burned for going back on their word. Lesile Feinberg comes to this conclusion by looking into the trial of Joan of Arc and knowing the power play the church was up to.
This is what more or less Lesile Feinberg posits hopefully I didn't get anything wrong. I high recommend reading it and hopefully if I got any thing work more diligent comrades here can correct me.
I hope you do and if you find anything I messed up please feel free to correct me. Or just discuss further would appreciate it.
Check with mods to see about getting this post stickied in at least /books.
Set a day (probably like a week or so) and a chapter/section range to shoot for discussions.
It seemed to work alright when TC69 had their book reading/discussion project going several months ago.
Sweet, gonna take some time for a nap and to look over the first few chapters. If you or anyone else reading this wanna jump in go for it. I'll share my thoughts if asked but will try not to dominate conversations here.
