Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The New Girl
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1982?
WEBSITE: http://rhyannonstyles.com/
CITY: London
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
Birth name is Ryan.
RESEARCHER NOTES: Authorities N/A
PERSONAL
Born c. 1982.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, memoirist, magazine journalist, columnist, activist, musician, and performance artist. Actor in television programs, including the drama Boy Meets Girl (BBC).
WRITINGS
Columnist for Elle UK.
SIDELIGHTS
Rhyannon Styles is a writer, columnist, and memoirist based in England. She has been a columnist at Elle UK, where she wrote about transgender issues. She is considered “one of the most influential British LGBTQ activists,” stated a writer on the blog Heroines of My Life.
Styles is a performance artist, musician, and actor who has appeared in the BBC drama Boy Meets Girl. She has also toured with musical groups such as Arcade Fire and has appeared onstage as a dancer with popular singer Kylie Minogue. She has also performed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, noted the Heroines of My Life blog writer.
In The New Girl: A Trans Girl Tells It Like It Is, Styles describes her decision to make the gender transition from male to female. Born male, with the name Ryan, she had spent her youth and young adulthood in rural England. She was unsure of her gender identity during this period, and often switched between the roles of male and female in her head, depending on circumstances and which felt more comfortable at the time. The young Ryan always felt more at home with the girls in his school, and enjoyed dressing in girls’ clothes and wearing makeup, noted a Kirkus Reviews writer.
Styles reveals the difficulties she experienced as a teen, when bullying was commonplace. However, in her later teen years, she was able to find a like-minded group of adolescents who welcomed her and helped her cultivate an interest in art and music. Styles often performed in drag shows in as a young adult, but realized that doing so would only temporarily satisfy the desire to live as a woman. After finally talking to his family about the situation and making the decision, Styles changed his name and began making the gender transition at age thirty, in 2012.
In an interview on the Rhyannon Styles website, the author commented: “I’m excited that people will be able to engage with the process of transitioning, and see how I navigated the world in a way that feels comfortable.”
Talia Randall, reviewing The New Girl on the Talia Randall website, stated, “In a time when the world is finally waking up to transgender people, Rhyannon opens up to us, holding nothing back in this heartbreakingly honest telling of her life.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Styles’s memoir a “honest and helpfully specific journey through a life that has taken some unexpected turns, of interest to all open-minded readers and especially to transgender individuals and those who care about them.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Styles, Rhyannon, The New Girl: A Trans Girl Tells It Like It Is (memoir), Headline (London, England), 2017.
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2018, review of The New Girl.
ONLINE
Heroines of My Life Blog, http://theheroines.blogspot.com/ (February 22, 2017), interview with Rhyannon Styles.
Rhyannon Styles website, http://www.ryannonstyles.com (June 26, 2018).
Talia Randall website, http://www.taliarandall.com/ (October 10, 2017), “Question Time Cabaret—Spotlight on: Ryannon Styles.”
RHYANNON STYLES
Columnist for ELLE UK. Author at Headline Books. Performance artist. Face of The Body Shop Stand UP Stand OUT makeup campaign.
THE NEW GIRL: A TRANS GIRL TELLS IT LIKE IT IS
The transgender memoir you won’t stop hearing about. Rhyannon Styles will do for transgender what Matt Haig did for mental health. Elle columnist Rhyannon Styles tells her unforgettable life story in THE NEW GIRL, charting her incredible journey from male to female. A powerful book about being true to ourselves, for anyone who’s ever felt a little lost.
Imagine feeling lost in your own body. Imagine spending years living a lie, denying what makes you ‘you’. This was Ryan’s reality. He had to choose: die as a man or live as a woman.
In 2012, Ryan chose Rhyannon. At the age of thirty Rhyannon began her transition, taking the first steps on the long road to her true self, and the emotional, physical and psychological journey that would change her for ever. In a time when the world is finally waking up to transgender people, Rhyannon opens up to us, holding nothing back in this heartbreakingly honest telling of her life. Through her catastrophic lows and incredible highs, Rhyannon paints a picture of what it’s like to be transgender in glorious technicolor. From cabaret drag acts, brushes with celebrity and Parisian clown school and crippling depression, Rhyannon’s story is like nothing you’ve read before.
BUY IT HERE
The New Girl
PRAISE FOR THE NEW GIRL
“I watched Rhyannon Styles begin as the most inspiring and heart-wrenching cocoon I ever saw and now she is a glorious butterfly”
Paloma Faith
“Love Rhyannon. Love this book. Everything you’ve ever wondered about transition, cocooned in an epic tale of fleeing suburbia and big city fabulousness”
Grace Dent
“I loved this book – Rhyannon doesn’t just shine a light on this subject, she sets off a bloody fireworks display”
Cherry Healey
“I am changed for having read this – congratulations, Rhyannon, on a bold life that inspires and lifts – the world needed this truth”
Laura Jane Williams, author and blogger
“A story that will make you smile and sob in equal measure, and challenge everything you thought you knew about gender, sex, and fashion. Once read, never forgotten”
Rebecca Root
“A wonderful asset to our community”
Caroline Tula, Trans icon, model and Bond girl
“Proud to be holding this book … The best and worst of times in a wonderful memoir”
Lorraine Candy, Sunday Times
“Rhyannon is such a great ambassador for the trans community. She writes with such class while also keeping it super real. I’ve got a book coming out later this year and all I’m saying is I’m glad my book isn’t a memoir, because I’d hate to have to compete with this”
Charlie Craggs
“Rhyannon Styles journey of transition is fraught with the unique issues of her generation. Honest and unflinching, she walks the tightrope of uncertainty with confidence in the unknowing. A modern Artemis in the queer wilderness, midwifing her own becoming”
Penny Arcade
Q & A’S
What are you most excited about now that The New Girl is almost out in the world?
I’m excited that people will be able to engage with the process of transitioning, and see how I navigated the world in a way that feels comfortable.
You’ve been photographed by David Bailey. What was this like?
Daunting, intimidating and exciting. I was completely naked and had just begun my transition, so I was very nervous about revealing my body. Before the shoot David came up to me, lifted up my fringe and slapped me on the forehead, saying ‘Tell me one successful woman that has a fringe?’ I immediately grew it out. I think it was his way of defusing the situation – it definitely changed the atmosphere!
It’s incredibly brave to share your life story in The New Girl, especially given how deeply personal it is. What were you most nervous about while writing it?
I was very nervous about sharing information around my physical body, especially knowing my family are going to read it!
You are very honest in The New Girl – is there anything you had to think twice about sharing?
Definitely. I had to carefully consider what stories to include when it came to my substance abuse. It’s not a period of my life I’m proud of and it was painful to relieve those memories.
You’re Elle magazine’s transgender columnist. Did you find the process of writing a book very different from your journalism?
It was harder than I imagined, and it took some dedication to get up each morning and write – especially when sharing the juicy, embarrassing stories.
While you were writing The New Girl, did you turn to any other books for inspiration?
I referred to Viv Albertine’s Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys and Take It Like a Man by Boy George. I appreciated the level of honesty they brought to their stories and that encouraged me to share my truths.
Would you say there is a strong feminist message to The New Girl?
In the sense that every woman matters, definitely.
What’s the one thing you want readers to take away from your memoir?
I can only narrow it down to three things: self-love, self-respect and self-acceptance. Yes, I’m selfish but aren’t we all?!
Who are your role models?
Anyone who breaks the rules, lives beyond the binary, and stands out!
What’s the nicest response you’ve ever had to your Elle column?
Recently a trans woman from Nottingham reached out to me on Facebook. She said my column and my story was ‘inspirational’. I was so happy The New Girl had reached her.
You’re a performance artist, a musician and a writer. Which art is your favourite?
Right now I’m enjoying writing – it’s a new skill I’m enjoying refining. Without any art, I’d be completely lost.
How big a part does appearance play in trans identities?
For me, it’s incredibly important. I use my appearance and female presentation as a way of saying to the world ‘I’m female’.
How did you find vlogging for Elle magazine?
I loved it. It felt like a great way of bringing my columns to life, using a different medium to share my story. One of the videos has notched up over 90,000 views!
Trans has now gone mainstream. How much further do we have to go?
There is much further to go to reduce the stigma and death rates of trans people. We’re getting there, and The New Girl will definitely help with that. But we’re not there yet!
EXTRACTS FROM ‘THE NEW GIRL’
Letter to a Lost Boy:
Dear Ryan
I want to write you a letter to reassure you that everything will be OK. Let me tell you that once you come into alignment and embrace who you truly are, you will never look back. At times, this journey will be difficult and you will want to escape it any way you can – but you must not give up. You will need to summon all the strength you can find to accept who you really are and live your life. Your transformation will require an endless supply of determination, willpower and patience. You are going to need courage, more courage than you can ever imagine. You will face obstacles and challenges that will shake you to your core. Don’t be afraid of who you are, don’t let fear suffocate you forever. My dear friend, don’t let these trivial circumstances get in your way. You should take comfort in knowing that all this pain will be temporary. You have the potential to be so much more than what you are right now. Amidst the confusion and the turmoil, you will need to find clarity, composure and grace to move towards a greater and higher place of being. By doing so you will grow in more ways than you can ever imagine and life will be delicious. Focus on what you want and keep moving towards it. You will succeed.
Whenever you’re ready, I will be here for you.
I love you.
Rhyannon
Letter to my Future Self:
Dear Rhyannon,
For many years I have thought about who you are and how you will appear. I have wondered where you are and how I am going to find you. I have sculpted you in my mind and in my performances, hoping that this momentary realisation would last forever. I’m sorry that I often dismissed you and tried to escape you in every way possible. I sought shelter, safety and salvation in the wrong places. I wanted to deny your existence because I was scared of the truth. I continually pushed you further away and convinced myself you weren’t real. I don’t want to live in shame or denial any longer. I’ve reached the point where living as Ryan makes no sense any more, no matter how hard I try. I can’t pretend any more. It has taken me thirty years to accept this truth, but now I am ready, I am ready to transition. Rhyannon, my dear companion, now is your time. I hope I have served you well.
Love always,
Ryan
I don’t think of myself as someone who is between two opposites, because I don’t regard my male and female ‘genders’ at opposite ends of a spectrum. It’s the end of 2016 as I write this and I’m throwing out the labels, the assumptions and the rulebook. I won’t let anyone else reduce my gender to either female or male; my identity is an energy that is unique to me. I feel that as my transition has progressed, my male and female self have actually become one. Ryan and Rhyannon have become one. However this is labelled, and regardless of how uncomfortable this might be for others, I see it as a spiral of two equal parts circling around a central point of love and acceptance. For now, I want to continue my transitioning journey to the undefined space that exists beyond my vision.
My childhood wasn’t like everyone else’s, unless you are trans too, in which case you will probably relate to nearly everything. But for everyone else, this is what it is like growing up and not knowing who you are or the person you want to be – I often switched between the roles of girl and boy in my head, unsure which one felt more secure. These memories are tough and painful to recollect. I dodged flying potatoes and collected butterflies as I tried to navigate and understand my gender, and find a place where I felt comfortable. Quite often the only place of comfort was to be found in my own head. Within this safe space I indulged in fantasy. The only escape from the reality of my life. The voice in my head told me one thing and then society told me another. I was constantly watching over my shoulder and lived in fear.
My name is Rhyannon Styles and I identify as a transgender woman. For those of you who don’t know, trans, transgender and transsexual means identifying as a different gender than your assigned sex at birth. In many cases, some trans people don’t identify or conform to a particular gender at all. (High five!) Are you with me? Let’s start at the beginning. When I was born, I was assigned ‘male’ because of my anatomy. Then, it was presumed my gender would follow suit. Growing up, the labels of ‘male/boy/man’ didn’t always feel accurate. Yes, I had a penis, but did my body have to dictate how I lived my life? I didn’t think so. In 2012, I’d had enough of pretending and started living. I changed roles to become the person I’d always wanted to be and I let Rhyannon enjoy the limelight at last. It was a decision that had taken years to understand and the consequences were massive! Today I use the terms ‘girl’, ‘she’ and ‘her’ to define who I am. I proudly use these words to clarify my identity.
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Interview with Rhyannon Styles
Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Rhyannon Styles, an actress, writer, ELLE UK magazine’s columnist, one of the most influential British LGBTQ activists, and the author of the biographical memoir titled “The New Girl: A Trans Girl Tells It Like It Is” (2017). Hello Rhyannon!
Rhyannon: Hi Monika!
Monika: You are a woman of so many talents that I do not know how to start … Let me start with your acting career … You have been a performer in Carnesky Productions since 2008. Their latest theatre show ‘Carnesky’s Incredible Bleeding Woman’ was recently at the Soho Theatre in London. How do you find yourself putting the magic back into menstruation? :)
Rhyannon: You know the classic sawing in half trick? Usually performed by male magicians, well this time we reversed the action. I appear from inside the sawing in half illusion, naked and covered in blood. It was purely magical.
Monika: Could you elaborate more on your other performances?
Rhyannon: I have been performing since 2004. Which has included the Guggenheim in New York City, dancing with Kylie Minogue on ITV and touring with Arcade Fire.
Monika: In September 2016 you made your TV appearance in the BBC’s drama ‘Boy Meets Girl’. Did you like your character and atmosphere during shooting the drama?
Rhyannon: I played a trans woman who attends a support group to talk about a recent transphobic attack. The atmosphere on set was exciting. I really like the buzz around a production like that.
Monika: I had an interview with Rebecca Root, playing the lead role in this drama, just before the premiere date of “Boy Meets Girl”. She was hoping that the drama was going to make a bit of a splash in the UK. What is your view on the perception of the drama and transgender characters?
Rhyannon: I think it has done just that. It has been noted as one of the first dramas to include trans actors. Which many other shows have now continued with.
The book will be released on 1st June 2017.
For pre-order, click here.
The book cover by Cameron McNee.
Monika: Do you have any favourite actresses?
Rhyannon: Cate Blanchett, Courtney Love, Christina Ricci.
Monika: Many cisgender actresses play transgender women. Why we cannot see any transgender actresses playing cisgender women?
Rhyannon: We will very soon, I know it’s going to happen within the next year!
Monika: However, it is amazing to see so many talented transowomen in the UK that promote the transgender cause across the nation...
Rhyannon: Yes, the UK has a wealth of trans people who are visible right now.
Monika: Why did you decide to write your memoir?
Rhyannon: I was asked by my publishers ‘Headline’, after they read my ELLE columns.
Monika: Which aspects of your experience can be useful for other transwomen?
Rhyannon: I’ve loved transitioning, but it required buckets of patience and acceptance. I hope others will realise to transition is not something that can happen overnight and it definitely isn’t a trend.
Monika: At what age did you transition into woman yourself? Was it a difficult process?
Rhyannon: I started at the age of 30. It wasn’t difficult, although occasionally it was challenging. But, I believe without obstacles you don’t grow.
Monika: At that time of your transition, did you have any transgender role models that you followed?
Rhyannon: I loved referencing my Nan Goldin book called ‘The Other Side’. It really helped me when I didn’t feel that I was progressing.
Monika: Are there are any transgender ladies that you admire and respect now?
Rhyannon: Many – Charlie Craggs, Paris Lees, Hari Nef and Mx Justin Vivian Bond.
Monika: What was the hardest thing about your coming out?
Rhyannon: Being honest with myself.
Monika: The transgender cause is usually manifested together with the other LGBT communities. Being the last letter in this abbreviation, is the transgender community able to promote its own cause within the LGBTQ group?
Rhyannon: Absolutely, I think the ‘T’ is a very powerful letter in the abbreviation. It may be at the end, but for many it’s the most prominent.
Another headshot.
Monika: I love your style! Do you like fashion? What kind of outfits do you usually wear? Any special fashion designs, colours or trends?
Rhyannon: I’m still learning about my style, and I often buy things which don’t work for me. But I believe in progress and not perfection.
I love wide legged trousers because they complement my long legs. I’ve recently got back into buying heels too.
Monika: Could you tell me about the importance of love in your life?
Rhyannon: Love for yourself is an absolute must, when you can do that others will flock towards you.
Monika: Are you working on any new projects now?
Rhyannon: Yes, a collaboration with a cosmetic brand – but I can’t say who it is yet.
Monika: What would you recommend to all transgender girls struggling with gender dysphoria?
Rhyannon: Talk to people, don’t isolate yourself and remember your situation will always improve.
Monika: Rhyannon, thank you for the interview!
Question Time Cabaret
Question Time Cabaret - Spotlight On: Rhyannon Styles
October 10, 2017
My dears, the London show of Question Time Cabaret was 18 days ago.
It was banging. I haven't written about it yet. I've been busy. I'm dyslexic. I'm still processing.
But enough about the past and back to the future....
The Brighton show of Question Time Cabaret is just 9 days away and I'm practically pissing my pants with excitement.
The theme is SEX - sexual freedom, the state of sex (mis)education in schools, defining and redefining sexiness - there is A LOT to talk about.
So lets talk about it. On October 19th, at The Marlborough, Brighton, it'll cost ya £7.50/£9.50.
Here are more details about of one the stars of our mega line-up. Lets shine a Spotlight On...
Rhyannon Styles
Rhyannon Styles: Columnist. Author. Performance Artist & Face of The Body Shop
Photo by Ekua King
In September 2015 Rhyannon became ELLE UK magazine’s transgender columnist. Rhyannon’s column called ‘The New Girl’ documents her experiences of transitioning; from the awkward beginnings of navigating gendered changing rooms, telling her family that she identified as transgender and to finding love.
In June 2017, Rhyannon released her memoir, also called ‘The New Girl’, based on some of the experiences she wrote about for her ELLE column (published by Headline).
In a time when the world is finally waking up to transgender people, Rhyannon opens up to us, holding nothing back in this heartbreakingly honest telling of her life. Through her catastrophic lows and incredible highs, Rhyannon paints a picture of what it’s like to be transgender in glorious technicolor. From cabaret drag acts, brushes with celebrity and Parisian clown school and crippling depression, Rhyannon’s story is like nothing you’ve read before.
Man, I feel like a woman
Sarah Ditum
New Statesman.
146.5368 (May 26, 2017): p40+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 New Statesman, Ltd.
http://www.newstatesman.com/
Full Text:
Trans Like Me: a Journey for All of Us
C N Lester
Virago, 240pp. 13.99 [pounds sterling]
Becoming Nicole: the Extraordinary Transformation
The Secrets of My Life
Caitlyn Jenner
Trapeze, 336pp. 18.99 [pounds sterling]
Man Alive: a True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man
Thomas Page McBee
Canongate, 172pp. 8.99 [pounds sterling]
Transgender politics has become a media obsession. But can it reveal anything larger about our sense of identity?
The world of transgender politics is full of big claims and bold declarations, but here is an understatement to start with: "The media is having a
trans moment," writes C N Lester in Trans Like Me. They are not wrong ("they" because Lester identifies as non-binary, and so asks to be
referred to with gender-neutral pronouns). Besides the books addressed here, recent additions to the discussion include the novel This Is How It
Always Is (based on the transition of the author Laurie Frankel's own child), The Gender Games by the Glamour columnist Juno Dawson
(modestly subtitled The Problem With Men and Women ... from Someone Who Has Been Both), The New Girl by the Elle columnist Rhyannon
Styles, True Colours by Caroline Paige (the first openly trans person in the British military) and Surpassing Certainty by the trans activist Janet
Mock--a second volume of autobiography to follow 2014's Redefining Realness.
These books cover memoir, popular science and manifesto. Inevitably, they are wildly variable, both in quality and in ideology. I suspect that
Lester might prefer a little less ideological range. Trans Like Me opens by asking, "What does the word 'trans' mean to you?" which, Lester then
explains, is how they begin the corporate diversity training sessions they lead. Few books have so accurately captured the experience of being
detained in a conference room and forced to reckon with a whiteboard.
Lester insists that there is no right or wrong way to be trans. They are equally adamant that there is a right way to talk about trans issues, and that
any deviation from this is a vicious wrong: "Use the right names, use the right pronouns, and don't fall for the line that we're too difficult for our
own good." It sounds simple enough but, in practice, trans people come from many backgrounds and have many different narratives of selfunderstanding.
Consequently there are trans people who fall short of Lester's own standards. Chief among these disappointments is Caitlyn Jenner, the former
Olympic champion decathlete and reality-TV star. To Lester, Jenner is guilty of sensationalising transition for a voyeuristic public, and has taken
on the mantle of representing all trans people while holding the privileges of wealth and whiteness. "Despite not knowing Caitlyn Jenner, I can
feel let down by her actions," Lester grumbles, like a head teacher speaking of a frequent truant.
Lester's argument displays a reluctance to engage with criticism. For instance, they wave away concerns that desegregating public spaces in the
interests of trans inclusion will intrude on women's access to services with the statement: "As far as I am aware--and at the time of writing this --
there has not been a single reported case of a trans person attacking a cis person in a public bathroom. Ever." ("Cis" denotes a person whose
gender corresponds to their sex at birth; the gloss Lester offers for it is "the antonym of trans".) There are, however, several cases of male sex
offenders who have claimed to be trans; more banally, when the Barbican recently redesignated its male and female toilets as "gender-neutral",
women were forced to queue longer for a cubicle and men retained de facto sole use of the urinals. It would be good if Lester at least
acknowledged such conflicts of interest, even if they do not have the solutions.
As for what gender actually is--or what Lester's experience of gender is--they collapse into ellipses when they attempt to define this: "... the
knowledge of how my mind knows my body to be is so ... I don't even know how to put it. How do you describe the mind and body describing
the mind and body?" I don't know, either, but I suspect that more clarity might be in order before readers embrace Lester's pursuit of a "less binary
world".
In any case, isn't the cis/trans terminology that Lester pushes a binary opposition in its own right? Lester defines as trans anyone "who has had to
challenge or change the sexed and gendered labels placed upon them at birth to honour their true selves", which implies that, conversely, the "true
selves" of non-trans people do fit the labels given them. By this reasoning, any woman who challenges the restraints of gender (say, Mary
Wollstonecraft arguing in 1792 for female education, or suffragettes pushing for the vote in 1905) is arguably not a woman at all. Her demands
tell us only that she has been mislabelled, rather than reflecting the dues of women as a class. There is a heavy imposition packaged in the word
"cis" that Lester does not explore.
Amy Ellis Nutt is the only writer here to approach the subject as an outsider. Though not trans, she spent several years reporting on the Maines
family, which adopted twin boys at birth in 1997 and subsequently supported one of them through the process --as the title of her book has it--of
becoming Nicole. Nutt is a science writer for the Washington Post and describes her beat as being "the brain". Nicole's self-assertion is recounted
with detail and compassion, but for Nutt the real interest is in such light as may be shone on the nature/nurture dispute. Was Nicole born a girl
despite her male body, or did something in her upbringing propel her towards cross-sex identification?
Nutt is confident that it is the former. In the opening chapters of Becoming Nicole, she emphasises that the Maineses are a couple who could
never be said to have encouraged femininity in a son. Two plain people from hardscrabble backgrounds, they share a conservative politics and the
husband, Wayne, looks forward to teaching his boys to hunt. (His dismay is palpable when faced with a son who wants to be the Little Mermaid.)
Nutt even titles one chapter "The Transgender Brain"; in it, she marshals neuroscience to support her position.
But the evidence she supplies is a couple of small-scale studies (one of which involved just six subjects). Even if they conclusively proved a
relationship between brain structure and gender identity (and they don't), they would not prove that the brain structure causes the gender identity.
At one point she explains that animal studies are a poor proxy for gender identity in human beings (animals have a physical sex but not the human
cultural understanding of gender), yet later on she recruits an experiment on rats to validate her hypothesis of innate gender.
More interesting is the story that emerges between the lines of the Maineses' narrative. "That's how the conversations--if you could call them that-
-went," Nutt writes, as she describes Wayne's confrontations with Nicole the toddler (she was then called Wyatt). "Wyatt wearing a dress; Wayne
wanting Wyatt to act more like a boy." On the one hand, it is true that Nicole received nothing but encouragement to behave like a stereotypical
boy. On the other, it reads as if her parents presented her with an ultimatum from the earliest age: if you wear a dress and if you like mermaids,
you cannot be a boy. Most children might change their behaviour to "match" their sex, but surely some would make the opposite deduction and
claim the other sex, rather than change their interests and personality.
Nutt's casual sexism suggests that she has little interest in deconstructing stereotypes. She tells us that Wyatt "wasn't gay, he wasn't a boy attracted
to other boys. He was a girl. He was a girl who wanted to be pretty and feel loved and one day marry a boy--just like other girls did." As a
teenager, Nicole "looked like a girl, she felt like a girl, and she yearned to be kissed like the girl she really was". Is this what being a girl consists
of? Can lesbians even be considered female, in Nutt's understanding? When Wyatt wants to wear a skirt to a school concert, Nutt tells it as though
the injustice is for one child to be denied access to their preferred sex stereotype, ignoring the greater injustice of all children being forced to "do
gender" as part of their uniform.
Perhaps it would be better if trans people were left to tell their own stories. Then again, what if they have as little interest in the rules of activism
as Caitlyn Jenner does? Contemporary etiquette holds that "dead-naming" (using a person's pre-transition name) and "misgendering" (referring to
them by the pronoun of their sex at birth rather than their chosen gender) are acts of grave rhetorical violence. Jenner is having none of it, as she
makes clear in her introductory note to The Secrets of My Life: "I will refer to the name Bruce when I think it appropriate, and the name Caitlyn
when I think it appropriate. Bruce existed for 65 years, and Caitlyn is just going on her second birthday. That's the reality."
Jenner has teamed up with an excellent ghostwriter for this book--the Friday Night Lights author "Buzz" Bissinger, who, like Nutt, is a Pulitzer
Prizewinner. There is also the advantage of a good story. Jenner starts off as an awkward, accordion-playing child, becoming a national hero after
his triumph at the 1976 Olympics salvaged the Cold War pride of an underperforming US team. Knowing this makes it easier to understand what
Jenner and her transition signified in her home country. It does not necessarily make Jenner more likeable. Separating from one's wife, getting a
second woman pregnant, and then getting your wife pregnant to boot is not appealing behaviour.
Nevertheless, her refusal of bullshit is refreshing and sometimes eye-popping. C N Lester would probably not approve of Jenner musing that "a
trans woman who looks like a man in a dress makes people uncomfortable", nor the avowal that "I am not a woman. Nor will I ever be. I am a
trans woman. There is a difference." Jenner also alludes frankly to the possible sexual motives for transition, including autogynaephilia: the
theory, proposed by some sexologists, that certain trans women are aroused by the idea of themselves as women. In Trans Like Me, Lester
dismisses the idea as "discredited". Yet as Jenner writes: "Sometimes I wonder if dressing up like this is the equivalent of having sex with myself,
male and female at the same time." Lester might well feel let down.
Lester believes that trans politics and feminism progress hand in hand but Jenner shows how awkward the fit can be in practice. As an athletic
man, Jenner writes, "my legs are made to go, not show"; but after transition, "my legs are there to show, not go". These descriptions equate
femaleness with passive, objectified femininity; maleness with active, high-achieving masculinity. There is no reason to believe that accepting the
doctrine of gender identity should automatically lead to female liberation. Indeed, both Ireland and Malta have exceptionally liberal laws on
gender recognition and yet outlaw abortion.
Thomas Page McBee, a trans man, is the only author here to approach seriously the question of how gender hurts female bodies. His memoir Man
Alive is, in its own way, as resistant to pat conclusions and sloganeering as Jenner's. It is also literate and witty, a kind of informal companion to
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, published in 2015. Where Nelson watched her partner Harry Dodge's transition through testosterone therapy
and "top surgery" (elective mastectomy), McBee describes it from the inside. He is willing to leave uncomfortable truths out for scrutiny.
McBee is sexually abused as a young girl. The violence causes depersonalisation, a feeling of being removed from one's own skin: McBee's
experience is the story of "how I lost a body, or how I conflated the two ways that my body was lost to me". Perhaps the abuse contributes to
McBee's masculine identification--or perhaps, he muses, "my manhood was always there, blueprinted in my torn-knee jeans, my He-Man castle,
my short hair". McBee's openness to negative capability, his refusal to fix on an answer for everything, make his book more valuable and more
engaging than much of its cohort.
Yet McBee's account of gender still feels lacking. His girlfriend Parker tells him (and the author seems to agree) that gender is "not something
that's done to you, it's who you are". But if gender is who you are and not how you're treated, how come McBee's book was originally copublished
by Sister Spit, the feminist imprint of the San Francisco-based City Lights? Why, if C N Lester is not a woman, has their book appeared
under the banner of Virago, a women's press? And why do natal females occupy such a small part of trans culture overall, while natal males
dominate?
Regardless of how McBee and Lester identify, the publishing industry and the world at large appear to have little difficulty treating them as
female. Later this year, new books by the journalist Will Storr and the historian Rachel Hewitt will appear, asking questions about what we mean
by a "self" and whether it makes sense to think of ourselves as individual essences, rather than products of complex social relationships. Identity
has been fertile ground for publishers lately; but when it comes to understanding who we are, perhaps it is a dead end.
Sarah Ditum is working on a book about gender in the 21st century
Caption: Different roads: Nicole (left; born Wyatt) with her identical birth twin, Jonas, aged 18. Their case raises questions about nature, nurture
and gender
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Ditum, Sarah. "Man, I feel like a woman." New Statesman, 26 May 2017, p. 40+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497729414/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=26a0382a. Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497729414
Styles, Rhyannon: THE NEW GIRL
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Styles, Rhyannon THE NEW GIRL Headline (Adult Nonfiction) $15.99 3, 27 ISBN: 978-1-4722-4258-7
Styles, who began transitioning from male to female at age 30 in 2012, looks back over the path of her life from childhood up to the present.
In her first book, the British author, who was the transgender columnist for Elle U.K. from 2015 to 2017, reaches out to readers who wonder
about the often awkward and confusing process of transitioning. She begins with memories of growing up in rural England in the 1980s, often
switching "between the roles of girl and boy in my head, unsure of which one felt more secure." Young Ryan--who changed his name to
Rhyannon when he began transitioning--liked to dress in girls' clothes and wear makeup and felt at home with the girls in his primary school.
Bullied as an early teen, he found a home later in adolescence with other teens involved in art and music and then went on to London to study
jewelry making in art school. For a while, the author satisfied his desire to dress as a woman by performing in drag shows. Eventually, however,
he wanted a more permanent and less showy change, so he began to communicate with his family, whom he had previously kept in the dark about
his gender identity. Though generally upbeat, Styles also reveals a more tormented side in a chapter called "The B-Side," which details long
periods of depression and drug and alcohol abuse, eventually abated through 12-step programs. She describes in cheerful detail the process of
transitioning, including the effects of hormones on her body and personality, both positive and negative, and she details her present state of
indecision about just how far to go with transition. Her acceptance of a fluid identity should be comforting for readers who feel out of place in a
cultural system that divides gender into traditional male and female roles.
An honest and helpfully specific journey through a life that has taken some unexpected turns, of interest to all open-minded readers and especially
to transgender individuals and those who care about them.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Styles, Rhyannon: THE NEW GIRL." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A525461537/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7a44c9fb. Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A525461537