The Transgender Issue

Paperback, 320 pages

Published by Verso.

ISBN:: 978-1-83976-839-2

(2 reviews)

In this brilliant introduction to trans politics, journalist Shon Faye gives an incisive overview of systemic transphobia and argues that the struggle for trans rights is necessary to any struggle for social justice.

So often, Faye argues, trans people are understood as a “side issue,” the subjects of a toxic and increasingly polarized debate which generates reliable controversy for newspapers and talk shows. This media frenzy conceals a simple fact: that we are having the wrong conversation, a conversation in which trans people themselves are reduced to a talking point and denied a meaningful voice.

With skill, rigor, and heart, Faye uncovers the reality of what it means to be trans in a transphobic society. In this compellingly readable study, she explores issues of class, family, housing, healthcare, sex work, the prison system, and trans participation in the LGBTQ+ and feminist communities. What she finds, ultimately, is that when we …

In this brilliant introduction to trans politics, journalist Shon Faye gives an incisive overview of systemic transphobia and argues that the struggle for trans rights is necessary to any struggle for social justice.

So often, Faye argues, trans people are understood as a “side issue,” the subjects of a toxic and increasingly polarized debate which generates reliable controversy for newspapers and talk shows. This media frenzy conceals a simple fact: that we are having the wrong conversation, a conversation in which trans people themselves are reduced to a talking point and denied a meaningful voice.

With skill, rigor, and heart, Faye uncovers the reality of what it means to be trans in a transphobic society. In this compellingly readable study, she explores issues of class, family, housing, healthcare, sex work, the prison system, and trans participation in the LGBTQ+ and feminist communities. What she finds, ultimately, is that when we fight for trans liberation, we fight for a better world for us all.

3 editions

pdotb reviewed The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye

Really good, for the right audience

4 stars

Content warning transphobia

tl;dr version of this review: it’s really good, and lots of people should read it.

Slightly longer version: Shortly before my pre-order arrived, I caught a YT review that argued, pretty well I thought, that the target audience for the book was people whose sole ‘knowledge’ about trans people would have come from the media (which, being the UK, is obviously a dumpster fire). Faye’s book should act as a good corrective for all this misinformation and so, as I read it, I had in the back of my mind, “Could I give this book to my parents?”

Having reached the end, I think the answer is “Yes, but with reservations”.

First, the positive: it does, as you might expect, an excellent job of laying out the facts and countering all of the, well, let’s call a spade a spade, and call them “media lies”. There’s a really effective mixture of facts and personal narratives that humanize the issue. While it’s not intended to be a memoir, Faye does let some of her own experiences shine through, but primarily she allows the people she interviewed to be heard.

The main reservation I have, is that it feels like the book rather uncomfortably straddles two incompatible readerships. There’s people who are somewhere centre/centre-right, who urgently need a better understanding of the reality for trans people in the UK than they’re currently getting from the media. A second group are people who would gain from the subtitle of the book: “Trans justice is justice for all”. I think the book does a good job of showing how many of the actions that would make society better for trans people, would be better for pretty much everyone. That’s a big step, though, for people who aren’t already somewhere on the left. TBH, I don’t see how you go from reading the Mail to believing in prison abolition in a single step, and I worry that including both sets of arguments in a single book runs the risk of reducing its usefulness for the needed task of countering right-wing press narratives.

Amber Age reviewed The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye

Review of 'The Transgender Issue' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Here we have another case of "great content, flawed execution".

First things first: this book is great. Shon Faye is right about 99.9% the things she says, and there are no two pages in this book where I didn't underline at least one sentence of the "louder for the people in the back" variety. She accurately details a huge number of problems trans people are faced with today, in general and in Britain in particular; she describes the various ways transphobia can express itself, highlights the crucial intersections between the liberations of trans, disabled, and BAME/BIPoC people, and all the ways in which trans people's liberation is inseparably connected with the struggle of the working class for freedom. She debunks several transphobic myths, dissects the media-driven moral panic about us, describes in detail the unholy alliance between reactionary "feminists" and American neo-nazis, and envisions a better world in which workers' …

Here we have another case of "great content, flawed execution".

First things first: this book is great. Shon Faye is right about 99.9% the things she says, and there are no two pages in this book where I didn't underline at least one sentence of the "louder for the people in the back" variety. She accurately details a huge number of problems trans people are faced with today, in general and in Britain in particular; she describes the various ways transphobia can express itself, highlights the crucial intersections between the liberations of trans, disabled, and BAME/BIPoC people, and all the ways in which trans people's liberation is inseparably connected with the struggle of the working class for freedom. She debunks several transphobic myths, dissects the media-driven moral panic about us, describes in detail the unholy alliance between reactionary "feminists" and American neo-nazis, and envisions a better world in which workers' liberation and trans people's liberation will go hand in hand to improve the lives of both (not least because these two categories overlap significantly). She also explains transition, how it works, when it starts, and most crucially, how much of the general public's opinion about it is distorted and based in outright, easily debunked, lies.

But. Here's the but.

The book isn't without flaws. Be that Faye's persistent use of outdated (in many cases, considered slurs) words without quotation marks that would indicate quotes or then-contemporary use when writing about historical events and people, her hesitation to call fascism what it is despite her overwhelming condemnation of respectability politics (I don't believe the word "Nazi" appears more than once or twice), and her irritating insistence on extending absurd amounts of good faith to fascists, with euphemisms like "ultra-conservative" or an overuse of subjunctives in the form of too many "may", "might", "could", "perhaps", and whatnot. One cannot help but ask how much obvious bad faith and undisguised ill intent is needed before Shon Faye will call a Nazi a Nazi and stop pretending far-right ideologues are "concerned" or worry about women's rights.

The other big issue is the dragging of in-community discourses before an audience that is not involved, does not know about them, does not get a vote in them, and does not have the knowledge or context to make sense of them. Was Marsha a trans woman even though the word didn't exist then? Should LGB be separate from the T? By the time she comes around and says, yes, most T people are also LGB, and our struggles have always been connected, she has already spent a dozen pages showing understanding for "LGB without the T" bigots (and by extension, their far-right backers). Similarly, before she admits that calling historical trans people trans, even though the word hadn't been invented then, is probably beneficial, she has already spent tens of pages providing ammunition to those who want nothing more but to erase our forebearers from history and frame us as a 21st century fad.

Let me be blunt: if an uninformed-but-well-meaning person can read your book and come away a transphobe, you've failed. Period.

Or, in other words: trans people reading this book won't learn much they didn't know already, cis people will receive vital education, but also be told stuff that doesn't concern them, may confuse them, or (due to Faye's occaisonal both-sides-ism) even appear to strengthen fascist positions.

So why the fours starts?

Because, going by content alone, and the sheer amount of well-explained, well-sourced, well-argued debunking of transphobia herein, the book deserves all the stars I have to give, and some more. It is just its occasional bad form, and the confusion about who the intended audience is, that undermine this book's important message.

Don't give this to your liberal friends, though. The chapter on prison abolition and anti-policing will upset them.