“Redefining Realness”: Janet Mock’s compelling memoir about gender, race, identity

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.peoplesworld.org/redefining-realness-janet-mock-s-compelling-memoir-about-gender-race-identity/

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Redefining Realness is Janet Mock's story of growing up in California and Hawaii as a low-income trans girl of color. Throughout the book she richly recounts exploring and embracing both her black and Hawaiian identities. She details the painful sexual abuse that she experienced at a young age. She talks at length about her time as a teen sex worker and honor roll student. She discloses deeply personal information about her medical transition and her journey to become the woman that she always knew she was. And she does it all unapologetically.

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Along the way she also recalls the development of her familial relationships, friendships, and the hurdles faced in each domain. We see a complex narrative of a geographically divided family struggling with poverty and drug abuse. We also meet a large community of trans women in Hawaii who are fiercely grappling with sex work, street harassment, and financial stability. One thing shines through these struggles - a constant theme of determination and survival.

Mock also weaves sociopolitical commentary throughout her narrative, connecting her personal experiences to the historic oppression and dehumanization that trans women have faced.

She strongly confronts and challenges the concept that trans people are merely "passing" as another gender, and rejects the notion that the lived experience of trans womanhood is somehow inauthentic. Simultaneously, she engages in a frank discussion about the privileges that "passing" as cisgendered (someone whose gender identity is the same as their socially recognized sex) has brought to her life.

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Can't wait to read this!

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Wow. This looks really interesting. n/t

[libodem]

2. This sounds fearless

And informative. I'd like to read it.