Julia Serano's Blog, page 2

My Best Writings of 2023

I thought I’d begin the new year with a quick recap of my writings from 2023. All these essays are on Medium and have been demonetized. If you appreciate them, please consider supporting my work on Patreon!

Several of the essays were my definitive responses to major anti-trans talking points: They are thoroughly researched (citing sources all along the way), comprehensive, and well-argued—so if you only read one or a few, I encourage you to make it these:

Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth Is Neither New nor Experimental: A Timeline and Compilation of StudiesUnderstanding the Anti-Trans Parent MovementAll the Evidence Against Transgender Social ContagionExplaining Assigned Sex Ratio Shifts in Trans ChildrenSpotting Anti-Trans Media Bias on Detransition

Here are the other essays I’ve written this year. I am proud of these too, but they were less intensive research-wise (and are often shorter as a result):

What Is a Woman? (a response)On “Male Socialization” and the “Trans Masc Versus Trans Fem” DiscourseDid Lisa Marchiano Invent “Transgender Social Contagion” and “No Transition Before Age 25”?Masculinity, Femininity, and MeaningsHistory of the Word “Transgenderism” (and why “eradicating transgenderism” = eradicating transgender people)Anti-Trans Op-Ed & News Story Bingo

Finally, since years are an admittedly arbitrary time-frame, I will end with two essays that I wrote at the very end of 2022. Both distill some of the main take-home points of my recent book Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back and apply them to our current anti-trans moral panic and what drives transphobia and biphobia within queer and feminist circles:

Penises, Privilege, and Feminist & LGBTQ+ Purity PoliticsAnti-Trans “Grooming” and “Social Contagion” Claims

I have lots of essays in the works for 2024, so stay tuned—they will all be cross-posted on both Medium and Substack, with alerts and links sent to my Patreon supporters. I am also working on a talk-length video entitled “Transgender People and Biological Sex: What the Science Says,” so subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to be notified as soon as it comes out...

Kat Cataclysm and NaNoWriMo 2023

Some of you who are newly following me may not know this, but in early 2020, I released my debut novel, 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel. The narrator/protagonist, Kat Cataclysm, is a polyamorous bisexual woman and absurdist short fiction writer. And 99 Erics is a humorous account of Kat’s experiences writing a book called 99 Erics, which is about her experiences dating ninety-nine different people named Eric. It is more surreal than slutty. Not that there is anything wrong with slutty.

Despite not being able to promote it as much as I would like due to the pandemic, 99 Erics is the only book I’ve written to date to have ever won a book award: It was the winner of the Publishing Triangle’s 2021 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, an Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) 2021 silver medalist in LGBT+ Fiction, and one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Books of 2021.

The reason why I’m telling you all this now is because, after much deliberation, I think I’ve finally found a worthy premise for the next Kat Cataclysm novel. A few days ago, I sat down and started typing and the words just flew out of me! Unlike my nonfiction books and essays, which come together in a slow and methodical manner, I’ve found that my best fiction arises when I just let my unconscious mind loose and let improvisation take hold.

Given the good start so far, I’ve decided to take part in NaNoWriMo this month. For those unfamiliar, that acronym stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you try to write every day in November, hopefully coming out the other side with a fledgling first draft of a novel in hand. While I highly doubt that I’ll finish a whole first draft (especially since I have other commitments), I figured I’d give it a go and see how much progress I make!

In the meantime, rather than inundate y’all with those super-rough drafts, I thought I’d share all the publicly available excerpts of 99 Erics, to hopefully whet your appetite for an eventual second Kat installment.

My favorite chapter of 99 Erics—which I believe offers a great sense of both the character and the book—is “Posers.” A video of me reading from the entire chapter can be found on YouTube and a smaller excerpt of the first part of the chapter can be found on Medium.

Here are other excerpts from the book that I’ve published on Medium (all no-paywall):

Ethical Slut Vs. Confused Slut

Banana Slug of a Different Color

Hipsters in Queer Bars

Bomb (a bisexual coming out chapter)

The One & Only Writing Tip You Will Ever Need

Note: That last excerpt actually references NaNoWriMo—small world!

For my Patreon supporters, I have a few more patron-only chapter excerpts available:

“Eric Number One” (the very first chapter)

“Great Expectations” (my send-up of gender-swap stories)

“Shopping Carts, Part One” and “The Sex Which Is Not One” (a live reading of those two chapters).

More info and links to buy 99 Erics can be found on my 99 Erics webpage. I also sell signed copies of the book on my “buy stuff” webpage . . .

more evidence that Lisa Marchiano invented "transgender social contagion"

cover image for my recent Medium post
about Lisa MarchianoIn February 2019, on this very blog, I published Origins of “Social Contagion” and “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria ,” which investigated the history of when these terms first appeared online and how they spread. The main finding of that piece was that the concept of “transgender social contagion” appears to have been invented by someone who went by the handle “skepticaltherapist” in a comment posted on February 20, 2016, on the anti-trans parent website 4thwavenow. I was not able to determine who exactly skepticaltherapist was, but I provided evidence that they went on to become one of the founders of the anti-trans website youthtranscriticalprofessionals.org (YTCP).

A couple days ago, I published a follow up piece on Medium entitled Did Lisa Marchiano Invent “Transgender Social Contagion” and “No Transition Before Age 25”? It was based on recent findings that Marchiano ran YTCP (which has since been confirmed) and that she possibly invented ROGD too. Based on this, I proposed that Marchiano was also likely skepticaltherapist — aka, the person who invented the notion that “social contagion” is turning kids transgender. 

In this post, I provide further evidence that this is indeed the case.

The following evidence was provided to me by an anonymous researcher who emailed me last year (back when I didn't have the time to follow up). The incidents take place in a short period of time, on March 14th and 15th, 2016 – just a couple weeks after skepticaltherapist first proposed "transgender social contagion."

It begins with a generally pro-trans article posted on the website Psychotherapy Networker entitled The Great Escape: Welcome to the World of Gender Fluidity. If you scroll down to the comments section, you'll find that the first comment was posted on Monday, March 14, 2016 at 1:32:32 PM by someone named "Lisa" and the language is extremely Marchiano-esque. Particularly this passage: "[A] large number of young people -- especially teen age girls -- are coming out as trans after intense internet binges on sites such as reddit, tumblr, or YouTube." This phrasing is nearly identical to what YTCP (presumably Marchiano) said on TransgenderTrend on March 16, 2016 (two days later): "In many cases, these young people come to identify as trans after binges on social media sites such as tumblr, reddit, or YouTube."

On March 15, 2016 (the day after "Lisa" posts that comment), YTCP publishes its second blogpost, entitled What’s at Stake?, which is a lengthy critique of that same Psychotherapy Networker article. Once again, this is presumably Marchiano.

Also on March 15, 2016, at 6:07am (so very early in the day, likely before the aforementioned YTCP piece is published), skepticaltherapist posts her final comment on 4thwavenow before mysteriously disappearing. In a reply to someone named Starrymessenger, skepticaltherapist says: 'I wanted to mention that this month’s Psychotherapy Networker is focusing on trans youth issues, and the tone of each article is uncritically celebratory — lots of mentions of “courage,” and “bravery.” You may need a subscription or at least an account to comment, but I have so far.'

At the time of this comment, "Lisa" is the *only* person to have posted a comment on this particular Psychotherapy Networker article, as the 2nd comment doesn't appear until later that evening (7:30:15 PM on March 15th; both 4thwavenow & Psychotherapy Networker appear to be based in the U.S., so the should be only a few hours apart, if at all). Therefore, "Lisa" and skepticaltherapist must be the same person.

The fact that Psychotherapy Networker requires a subscription might explain why Marchiano went by her first name (e.g., if that's the name she originally used when she subscribed) rather than by one of her other internet handles (e.g., skepticaltherapist, timetodream).

As I pointed out in my Did Lisa Marchiano Invent “Transgender Social Contagion” and “No Transition Before Age 25”? piece, if all this is true, then Marchiano has told the same story from three perspectives: 1) as the mother of a trans child, 2) the mother is her friend "B", 3) the mother was a client of hers. I cannot say whether she posed as a mother (via the persona of "skepticaltherapist"), or whether she is the mother of a trans child but later played that personal aspect down in order to come across as an "objective" therapist. I suppose either could be true. 

Finally, I remember when writing my Origins timeline, I tried to figure out if "B" (her purported friend who had a trans child) was someone involved in this trans-skeptical parent scene, but I could not make any headway. But now knowing that Lisa Marchiano also often went by the name "Lisa Bell" online, I cannot help but wonder whether the "B" could possibly stand for "Bell" in a self-referential way?

[note: If you appreciate this piece and want to see more like it, please check out my Patreon page]

my latest email update

My latest email update is out – you can read it here. Highlights include: 

Signed Books for Sale! (for the holidays or otherwise)Two new essays: Penises, Privilege, and Feminist & LGBTQ+ Purity Politics and Anti-Trans “Grooming” and “Social Contagion” Claims Explained (both no-paywall links)More news about my latest book Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back , including a September book interview on the podcast Vox Conversations (now called The Gray Area)A podcast interview about Whipping Girl for This Queer Book Saved My Life New social media platforms I'm on (including Mastodon , Post.News , Tumblr , and TikTok ).

If you want to receive my email updates directly into your inbox (never more than once every few months), you can sign up here: http://eepurl.com/CxWWf 

Signed Books for Sale! (for the holidays or otherwise)

photo of Julia with her two most
recent books: 99 Erics & Sexed UpIt's that time of the year again, when you may be considering presents to get your friends and family (and perhaps for yourself as well). Which means it's time for me to shamelessly peddle my wares!

If you know someone who appreciates my past books, I bet they'll like my latest (and IMHO best) book Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back. It is currently available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook — those links will take you to the Seal Press website, which offers a variety of outlets to choose from. Alternatively, you can (and should!) pick up a copy at your local independent bookstore — if they don't have it in stock, just ask them to order a copy for you!

While I'm not able to sell signed copies of Sexed Up at this time, it is possible to get signed copies of any of my other books — here's how:

I have two self-published books – 99 Erics & Outspoken – which you can purchase signed copies of directly from the "stuff to buy" page of my website for $25 (PayPal or credit card), shipping included (instructions via that link). The shipping will be through USPS Media Mail, which they say takes 2 to 8 business day to deliver – this means your mailing address must be in the U.S. to do this (if not, see alternatives below). Here's more about each of those books:

99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel is a silly, surreal, sex-positive tale about a bisexual female absurdist short fiction writer who dates ninety-nine different people named Eric for literature’s sake. It was the winner of the Publishing Triangle’s 2021 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, an Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) 2021 silver medalist in LGBT+ Fiction, and one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Books of 2021.

Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism collects many of my trans-themed writings from 2002-2014, including my early slam poems, and numerous essays written contemporaneously with my books Whipping Girl and Excluded.

Julia holding her books, Whipping Girl,
Outspoken, & the Kat Cataclysm chapbookMy other two non-fiction books are Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity and Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive. While I do not sell these directly from my website, I often give away signed copies of these books for my Patreon supporters. Specifically, for people who support me at the $20 level for three months, or people who support me at the $50 level (or higher) for one month.

(Note: these can be delivered internationally, and 99 Erics & Outspoken are signed book options as well.)

Everything you need to know about doing this can be found on my Patreon site. If you do decide to join, you will be charged right away, and there's nothing to stop you from quitting your subscription once you've qualified for a free signed book. Or you could simply reduce your pledge for future months (to as little as $1) and thereby continue to access behind the scenes updates and exclusive Patreon writings like the ones listed at the end of this post.

So to summarize: You can order signed copies of 99 Erics & Outspoken from my website so long as you're within the U.S., or can be gifted signed copies of either of those books, or Whipping Girl, or Excluded, by supporting me on Patreon at the aforementioned tiers. 

If you get your orders in before December 9th, I should be able to get them in the mail & delivered to you before Christmas 2022 (although I can't 100% guarantee that, so the sooner you order the better). But these offers will continue to stand beyond the holiday season, so you can do this any time in the future you want.

Whatever you decide to do, thank you for supporting my work! 

Penises, Privilege, & Purity: a new essay about LGBTQ+ intra-community debates

So my latest Medium essay just dropped! 

It's entitled Penises, Privilege, and Feminist & LGBTQ+ Purity Politics. It's a longer read, but worth it, as it explains many intra-community debates. This includes lesbian stereotypes about bisexual women (such as the myth that we are "perpetually heterosexual privileged"), how those relate to "gender critical"/TERF stereotypes of trans women, plus recent debates between trans male/masculine and trans female/feminine communities. Basically, I show how all these sentiments stem from sexual stigma and our culture's bizarre patriarchal and heteronormative beliefs about sex and penises.

I think this is the best thing I've written since... well, since my latest book Sexed Up, I suppose. In fact, it's the first piece I've written that really builds upon some of the ideas that I introduce and flesh out in the book, including the Predator/Prey mindset and how sexual stigma shapes many popular stereotypes about queer people.

Here is the no paywall link, so you can readily share it with others: https://juliaserano.medium.com/penises-privilege-and-feminist-lgbtq-purity-politics-bafd1f25fe3e?sk=5098f46767404745b65d298b79aa8066

If you're on Twitter, here's a whole thread about it.

And if you like it, please give it lots of "claps" (up to 50, I think) so that other Medium users will see it.

This essay was made possible by my Patreon supporters. If you appreciate that I make writings like this available for free online, please consider supporting me there.

new book readings, talks, interviews & debunking pseudoscience

I just published my latest email update, chock-full of new news. you can read it online here: https://mailchi.mp/64d1973d6b99/new-book-readings-talks-interviews-debunking-pseudoscience

and if you want to receive my email updates directly to your inbox, you can sign up here.
It is a fairly long update, so I won't reiterate it all here. But highlights include:
1) links to several recent interviews (in print, podcast, and YouTube forms) with me about my new book Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back – this includes two of the book events I did back in July. These interviews, as well as all the book excerpts, reviews, etc., can also be found on the Sexed Up webpage I just linked to.
2) On September 22nd, in honor of, Bisexual Visibility Day, I will be reading a few bi+ specific passages from Sexed Up at Fabulosa Books (489 Castro St, San Francisco, CA). The event begins at 7pm; masks are recommended but not required. Here is the Facebook invite for the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1091569688453976 – please come out if you can!
3) Just in time for the 2022-23 academic year, I've updated my booking webpage to include a bunch of new presentations, some Sexed Up-themed, others covering trans, bisexual, LGBTQIA+, and feminist issues I often write about. If you are part of a conference or college organization that's looking for speakers, definitely check it out!
4) Debunking anti-trans pseudoscience, in two parts:
First, J. Michael Bailey and his protégé Kevin Hsu recently published a study in Archives of Sexual Behavior that attempts to refute the existence of “autogynephilia in women.” Jaimie Veale and I wrote a response that the journal just published: Autogynephilia Is a Flawed Framework for Understanding Female Embodiment Fantasies: A Response to Bailey and Hsu (2022) [PDF link]. In it, we point out numerous methodological and interpretive flaws with their study—including how their results are incompatible with Blanchard's original taxonomy—and make the case that “autogynephilia” is a flawed framework for considering both trans and cis women's sexual fantasies and desires.
Second, some of you may recall my 2019 Origins of "Social Contagion" and "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria" post, which is essentially a timeline of all the major events regarding the invention and dissemination of these ideas within anti-trans activism. I just updated the timeline with a newer entries, many of which are recent studies that undermine or outright disprove the basic tenets of these theories. All those new entries can be found in the Post-Publication Note toward the beginning of that post.
So that's what's in the update – please check it out!

newly added Sexed Up book event and interview!

Hello everyone! I've already mentioned that tomorrow (Thursday July 21st), California Institute of Integral Studies is hosting an online conversation between me and Abeni Jones entitled On Sexualization and Society. We will be talking about my latest book Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back. It will take place at 7pm PDT (10pm EDT), suggested price of $10 but pay what you can. Info about registering for the event and accessibility accommodations can be found via the link. Please come out!
But if you can't make it, I'm happy to announce that one more Sexed Up book event has just been added: On Thursday, July 28th, I will be doing a Conversation with Carol Queen in which we will talk about Sexed Up. The event is FREE and will take place at the Berkeley Good Vibrations store (2504 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702) from 5:30 - 6:30pm PDT—there is very limited seating, so you must pre-register via the link if you wish to attend in person (masking required). But you can also watch it online (and for FREE) on Good Vibes’ Instagram Live.

Whether you can make it to these events or not, you should definitely check out the latest Sexed Up interview (by Marcie Bianco) that just came out in The Advocate: Author Julia Serano Separates Sex From Stigma in Sexed Up. It discusses how the book came to be, some of the topics it covers, how me being a biologist influenced my writing, and more! 

virtual book events! plus a new book excerpt!

Hi folks, lots of news to share!

First, I just published a new excerpt from my latest book  Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back  – it's from a section of the last chapter entitled Sexual Dystopias and Utopias . While not explicitly discussed in the piece, it grew out of my concerns with “no kink at Pride” discourses, but it’s also pertinent to recent “don’t say gay” bills and claims that LGBTQIA+ people “groom”/“sexualize” children by merely existing.
Here is the no paywall link . And if you like it, please give it lots of "claps" (up to 50, I think) so that other Medium users will see it.
Second, I have two Sexed Up virtual book events coming up in the next couple weeks. Both will have ASL interpretation and require pre-registration – here are the details:
On Thursday July 14th, I'll be reading from Sexed Up and engaging in conversation about the book with Jude Doyle at a virtual event hosted by the NYC bookstore Bluestockings. The event is from 7 - 8:30pm EDT (4 - 5:30pm PDT), tickets are $0 - $15, and you can register for the event here.
Then on Thursday July 21st is On Sexualization and Society, a live online conversation about Sexed Up between me and Abeni Jones, hosted by California Institute of Integral Studies. It will take place at 7pm PDT (10pm EDT), suggested price of $10 but pay what you can. Info about registering for the event and accessibility accommodations can be found via the link.
As always, you can learn more about the book – including praise, reviews, excerpts, interviews, plus links to purchase it – at the Sexed Up webpage .

reviews & an excerpt from my new book Sexed Up!

My latest email update just came out. If you want to receive these sorts of updates directly into your inbox, you can sign up here. Since it's chock-full of reviews, excerpts, and info about my new book Sexed Up, I have transcribed it here in its entirety...

In last month's update, I announced my new book, Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back (Seal Press), and encouraged y'all to pre-order it. It officially came out a week ago, so hopefully many of you have your copies by now and are diving in!

If you haven't picked up the book already, no worries, you can do so today! It’s available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook – those links will take you to the Seal Press website, which offers a variety of outlets to choose from. You can also go to your local bookstore or library and ask them to order a copy for you. 

If you are hesitant, this email should have what you need to convince you to pick up a copy of Sexed Up!

For starters, last week I published Sexed Up: a chapter-by-chapter preview of my new book on Medium. As the name suggests, it describes all the sex, sexuality, and sexualization topics that are covered in the book, and which chapter(s) you'll find them in.

The Guardian image that accompanied my excerptAlso last week, The Guardian published an excerpt from Chapter 3, "Unwanted Attention." Their version is entitled What I learned about street harassment after I transitioned . While most people who have navigated the world being perceived as female will likely relate to some of the experiences I describe, my interpretation differs somewhat from that standard feminist "sexual objectification" explanation, and provides insight into forms of street harassment faced by other marginalized groups.

In my last email update, I shared praise the book has received from other authors. Here, I will share a few of the early book reviews that have come in so far:

“Serano succeeds in explicating a wide range of complex ideas about gender, sexuality, and identity, and offers incisive new frameworks for reckoning with some of the most discussed issues in contemporary feminism and queer culture. The result is a nuanced and approachable guide to ‘making sex more equitable’.”
—Publishers Weekly (full review via link)

“Sexed Up doesn’t just identify a common problem; it identifies a common ground for solidarity and resistance. ”
—NBC News (full review via link)

“A feminist argument about sexism and patriarchy from a fully trans- and queer-inclusive point of view... When Serano introduces a concept ... I expect the idea to pervade and permeate feminist thought.”
—Liber: a Feminist Review (full review via link)

“Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back gives every bit of [Julia’s] usual rigor as it interrogates the ways that people who hold stigmatized identities are desexualized, hypersexualized, sex-shamed or sex-policed. ”
—Xtra (full review via link)

“An engaging and thoughtful addition for any library’s popular human sexuality collection.”
—Library Journal (full review via link)

I will be adding new reviews, excerpts, and interviews to the Sexed Up webpage as they arise. There, you will also find links to order the book in hardcover, ebook, or audiobook formats. And if you enjoy the book, please spread the news far and wide, and leave it a good review on Goodreads, Amazon, and elsewhere!