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59th out of 608 books
—
540 voters
Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity
by
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (Goodreads Author),
Mattilda
Nobody Passes is a collection of essays that confronts and challenges the very notion of belonging. By examining the perilous intersections of identity, categorization, and community, contributors challenge societal mores and countercultural norms. Nobody Passes explores and critiques the various systems of power seen (or not seen) in the act of �passing.” In a pass-fail s...more
Paperback, 354 pages
Published
November 27th 2006
by Seal Press
(first published November 6th 2006)
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Sometimes, I have trouble reading non-fiction at a decent pace. I'm far more of a fiction reader, and so it is usually very easy for me to take weeks to finish a book like this.
Except I read all of this one in less than three days, because it was that awesome.
Like all collections of this sort, there were some essays that weren't quite as good as the others. In this case, though, there wasn't a single one I thought was bad- just some that were vaguely incoherent in what they were trying to say. B...more
Except I read all of this one in less than three days, because it was that awesome.
Like all collections of this sort, there were some essays that weren't quite as good as the others. In this case, though, there wasn't a single one I thought was bad- just some that were vaguely incoherent in what they were trying to say. B...more
From my review:
"Nobody Passes exposes the problems that arise when we assume that a left/progressive agenda depends on commonalities between varying causes of social justice. It also exposes the continuing inequalities faced by those who don’t pass, refuting the notion that a world where sexual and gender identities are celebrated is necessarily a better one. As Rocko Bulldagger wryly asks in “the End of Genderqueer,” “…when exactly does this smug queer future begin?” The book challenges our che...more
"Nobody Passes exposes the problems that arise when we assume that a left/progressive agenda depends on commonalities between varying causes of social justice. It also exposes the continuing inequalities faced by those who don’t pass, refuting the notion that a world where sexual and gender identities are celebrated is necessarily a better one. As Rocko Bulldagger wryly asks in “the End of Genderqueer,” “…when exactly does this smug queer future begin?” The book challenges our che...more
p 25 "All Mixed Up With No Place To Go: Inhabiting Mixed Consciousness on the Margins" by Nico Dacumos
Dacumos talks about going to Smith College being a brown, low-income... "Looking back, I feel sorry for all of us. All of us, white students and students of color, economically privileged and poor, queer and straight, transgender and nontransgender, found ourselves in an overwhelming situation with no one to help us navigate the difficult negotiations and acts of violence that occur when people...more
Dacumos talks about going to Smith College being a brown, low-income... "Looking back, I feel sorry for all of us. All of us, white students and students of color, economically privileged and poor, queer and straight, transgender and nontransgender, found ourselves in an overwhelming situation with no one to help us navigate the difficult negotiations and acts of violence that occur when people...more
I really wanted to like this book. I love the work that Mattilda does to fight assimilation and the erasure of an honest queer culture. I find stories of how people are read by others and how that structures and shapes interactions to be fascinating. I quite purposefully don't pass as much and when I do, I'm always a bit amused at the interaction. I'll be honest - this book was A LOT OF WHINING. And posturing. I don't need to read pages about how you are "really butch" or "really biracial" - jus...more
A collection of essays on all sorts of passing and "contradictory" ways of being: the rejection of submissive sexuality by many feminists, passing as white, air travel as trans, being openly radically queer in your racist/sexist/homophobic parents' house, identifying with queer struggle and sexuality when your attractions are "hetero." this book has a very open view of what it means to pass. I haven't read all of the articles but so far what is lacking is an explicit discussion on the politics o...more
This was the first book I ever read about trans- identities, so the acts of acquiring and consuming it were significant in themselves, for me. A collection of essays by a diverse group of talented writers, it explores facets of the transgressive, rebellious nature of transgender identity in heteronormative space, as well as the politics of 'passing' in other ways -- political, sexual, ethnic, and so on. (Or something. I don't know. That's a more jargon than I usually wrangle, and I'm overdue for...more
The very first story talked about how the author had been questioned for their "people of colour-ness" - and I knew I found a kindred spirit. While the introduction posits this book as being primarily about gender, there were really plenty of stories exploring intersections of identities, where things were not so clean-cut, where choosing one identity over another was fraught. Very few of the writers had found answers, which actually was a relief - as someone who finds the idea of labels borderl...more
This anthology is a very mixed bag--the author also rejected rules of what to include. So most stories are about gender, but others are about any differences that cause difficulties. That would be fine, if broad, as a theme. But the quality is very uneven. For me (maybe not other readers), there is way too much self-righteous convoluted conceptual thinking, to the point of polemic. Some of it is political correctness that denigrates other people's ideas of what is politically correct. Worse, muc...more
Five stars might be pushing it, because not every essay is fantastic (that would be a lot to ask), but it's been a while since I've read gender-stuff that bounced around in my brain for so long.
Where That's Revolting has stuck with me as something challenging and provocative and pushing me further an broader, this was immediately validating upon reading (well, some of the essays; others felt like they were the best available option to insert in order to suggest that passing was not just an issue of race and gender) and has largely been forgotten since. Don't misunderstand; it's a great book for people who don't regularly have the question of passing at hand, and the shortness, directne...more
Collection of essays on passing, with a focus on intersectionality (often, but not exclusively, trans + something else). Big variety of approaches and viewpoints (and quality of writing). Interesting experience to read some things that seem too radical even for me -- I should do that more often. The best of these allowed me to look through the eyes of someone with very different experiences than my own a little bit -- the worst seemed like mini-hit-pieces on small political scenes that the autho...more
This book was chock-full of amazing essays, and whenever I'd whipped it out on breaks at the workshop I was teaching, one of the other medics would walk by and go, "oh-my-god, are you reading that?! It's SOOOOO good!" and it was. I feel like I want to make this my go-to "here, let's start you on the road to unlearning some of those oppressions you've internalized" guidebook for some of the people I love who are well-meaning, but still often pretty overtly racist/sexist/etc, along with bell hooks...more
A mixed collection of essays. I liked the premise, how "passing" can refer to many aspects of identity (not just ethnic/racial or gender). A few of the pieces I thought were too bogged down in the authors' exhausting recountings of intricate strains of identity, and I had to laugh at the two women whose dialog makes up "'And Then You Cut Your Hair'" ("When I have short hair, I use it to signify queer identity; but I find that straight people don't really pick up on that. [...:] On rare occasions...more
This book had a lot of woah in it. The stories impressing upon me the most are the stories of a submissive woman trying to have lunch with her mom (not being able to tell her why she likes the man that she is dating because he romps her good) and a story about the american flag being used as a symbol by people marching for immigrant rights. It was great to read all of the essays about gender and language cause I'm a bit of a language nut. I sent a copy of an essay to Emily. Will she enjoy it?
I loved this book. Collection of essays that really made me think...about the ways in which acquiesce to societal judgements, and the discomfort of being unable to pass as normal. I love a book that gives me the feeling of being in someone else's experience. I expected it to be largely focused on gender; this is a theme tying the essays together, but certainly does not encompass everything included in them. Race, ethnicity, culture, religion, sexuality, disability, and more were intimately discu...more
13. Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity, Matt Bernstein, ed. Somebody over on [info:]debunkingwhite recommended this to me and it was def. worthwhile. I haven't been keeping up with my list very well, so I'm not sure when I finished it... maybe 3/9/09? Anyway, it was a great anthology, maybe I'll look through it again to find my favorite essays to recommend here.
This books takes everything you think you know about queer theory and feminism and identity politics, connects it all, rearranges it, and spits it all out in a thought provoking never before seen way. No one will hold your hand as you try to understand how being FTM makes someone understand their mixed latina heritage, all you can do is try to keep up and keep your mind open.
This is a collection of essays ranging from the personal to the academic, and as such it's a mixed bag; there were some that I returned to over and over, and others I ended up skimming. In general, an interesting anthology, but not super fantastic - the four-star rating is for those essays I couldn't stop reading.
Just what an anthology should be: diverse, utterly readable, thought-provoking, of generally high and uniform quality. Nobody Passes is a can't-put-down tour de force of race, gender and cultural queering, eye-opening, provocative, moving, often hilarious. Really just a wonderful, readable book.
Wow. Just...wow. This anthology was amazing. There were a couple essays that were less than stellar, but the rest of the (well-written, insightful, sometimes painfully honest) essays more than made up for it. A number of the contributors tackled issues and topics that aren't often discussed, that are taboo - even within a lot of the more radical factions of the queer movements. My favorite, I think, was Jen Cross' "Surface Tensions." The intersections of an identity as a victim/survivor of child...more
Like all anthologies, there are really strong pieces. And then there's other stuff. That other stuff tries to be too anti- intellectual/ anti-academe, which is absolutely unnecessary. Our territory need not be exclaimed from academics, so not sure why the authors felt that pressure.
If you grab this off the shelf expecting it to be about "Gender and Conformity" as linked terms, you may be disappointed. Although there are several contributions that address both gender and conformity, there are equally as many contributions that address these topics as separate issues. For instance, trying to pass as a person of color or passing on passing as part of a culture. This does not, in any way, take away from the intentions of the book. Gender and conformity need not be linked to pr...more
A potential bad thing about essay collections is that they can be uneven, which I thought this was. The good thing is that you can skip around. One standout for me was Helen Boyd's contribution, "Persephone," but I already really liked her writing. Definitely worth reading.
Since reading an interview in Bitch magazine 3-4 years ago, I'm down with Mattilda. Her queer politics analysis and activism is righteous. This book is good overall; just a handful of essays not quite or focused or seemingly connected. Outsiders unite!
The whole time I was reading this collection of essays I struggled to define it succinctly so I could tell my friends what I was doing with my life ("I'm reading this book Nobody Passes. It's about..."), but I failed. Which is, actually, really exciting. I thought this book would be about gender, the queering thereof, and things gendered and queer (in general) - which it was. But it also contains essays about passing under other circumstances - passing as white, passing as queer, passing as femm...more
Common theme of "passing" is interesting, but in some essays obscures the power structures that make some people's "passing" more necessary than others'
This was a great, thought-provoking book. A lot of the essayists are the folks who get effaced by the way that the world constructs gender and sexuality - the people who have privilege in some spaces but not others, the people who aren't supposed to exist if the gender binary is true, the people who aren't supposed to exist if the gender binary isn't true (because they're too much this or too much that).
Some of the essays were challenging to me (especially the ones about race). Some of the essay...more
Some of the essays were challenging to me (especially the ones about race). Some of the essay...more
I loved this book! As someone always grappling with so many different identities it was nice to read other experiences.
I finished this book on planes and trains over a holiday visit. The brilliant Mattilda has edited a collection of essays on "passing" in a way that pushed this notion beyond merely gender. The core of this book is the intertwinedness of all forms of oppression within our capitalist, patriarchal hegemony, and this book also deals with "passing" as an immigrant, racially, and ability, as well as many places where forms of "passing" intersect. We all deal with "passing" in some way, and articulatin...more
more shameless self-promotion. my favorites are essays by Nico Dacumos (makes me cry) and Luis Gutierrez-Mock.
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Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is an insomniac with dreams. She is the author of two novels, So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (City Lights, October 2008) and Pulling Taffy (Suspect Thoughts 2003). Mattilda is the editor of four nonfiction anthologies, most recently Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (Seal 2007) and an expanded second edition of That's Revolting! Queer Strategies f...more
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“If we eliminate the pressure to pass, what delicious and devastating opportunities for transformation might we create?”
—
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Dec 10, 2010 08:54am
Dec 10, 2010 10:34am