Julia Serano's Blog, page 4

signed books available for a limited time!

Last week, I published my latest email update , you can read it via that link. (If you want to receive these email updates directly into your inbox, you can sign up here .)

It includes a bunch of 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel news, including links to watch my now completed virtual book tour!

But in this brief post, I want to highlight a special offer I announce within it:

For a limited time, you can purchase SIGNED COPIES of 99 Erics and/or my 2016 book Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism for $25 (shipping included) provided that you are in the U.S. – I am happy to make it out to whoever you wish. Just go to my STUFF TO BUY webpage for all the details!

That page also has links to purchase my other books and music too. While I cannot sell signed copies of Whipping Girl or Excluded online, I do sometimes offer them as gifts on Patreon...

my "99 Erics" virtual book tour!

I am happy to announce my virtual book tour for my new novel 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel ! All the relevant links & info can be found on my Medium post about the tour (shown on right). 

Here is the most pertinent info:

Saturday, September 5th, 3pm EDT/noon PDT (& 8pm in the UK)

theme: On writing a book about writing a book

In addition to reading excerpts from the book, I will talk about how 99 Erics came to be. Specifically, how an earlier failed attempt to write a novel (and reading many “how to” books & articles related to that endeavor) inspired me to satire (& sometimes speak candidly about) the process of writing and publishing a book.

you can watch it on my Facebook Writer Page. here is the Facebook invite for the event.

up to 100 people can watch it on Zoom as a non-interactive webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83934657229?pwd=MlEyRXJHWGFieklDSlVPQWVYQ0J3QT09 [if you are asked for a password, enter:668290]

Tuesday, September 22nd , 7pm EDT/4pm PDT

theme: On bisexuals, “weirdos,” and book characters who are Unusually Queer™

On this Bi+ Visibility Day eve reading, I’ll explain why I initially decided to forefront Kat’s bisexuality, and how this eventually evolved into a quest to make 99 Erics the most “unusually queer” book possible — by which I mean, it is very queer in its sensibilities, but is not centered on same-sex relationships or traditional gay/lesbian framings

you can watch it on my Facebook Writer Page. here is the Facebook invite for the event.

up to 100 people can watch it on Zoom as a non-interactive webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86228773687?pwd=Tm5IQUhQMEgyZ3BrZWJkTkhDenZlZz09 [if you are asked for a password, enter: 747601]

If you miss an event, don't sweat it, it will eventually be archived on my YouTube channel. But hope you can make it anyway!

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

TERF Wars collection features my updated critique of "autogynephilia"

This week, The Sociological Review (an academic journal) published a special issue entitled TERF Wars: Feminism and the fight for transgender futures . (If you are reading this now, that link will take you to the issue; in the future, you may need to scroll back to Volume 68 Issue 4, July 2020.) 

It contains my essay Autogynephilia: A Scientific Review, Feminist Analysis, and Alternative ‘Embodiment Fantasies’ Model. That link will bring you to a PDF of my accepted manuscript. If you have institutional access, here's the final publication. While I'm not allowed to post the final publication publicly, I am allowed to share it upon individual request, so shoot me an email if you'd like a copy.

In the article, I provide an updated overview of the scientific case against autogynephilia theory. Following that, I forward an alternative "embodiment fantasies" model that explains all the available evidence better than autogynephilia theory, and is far more consistent with contemporary thinking regarding gender and sexual diversity. Finally, given the theory's recent popularity among trans-exclusionary feminists, I demonstrate how autogynephilia relies on essentialist, heteronormative, and male-centric presumptions about women and LGBTQ+ people, and as such, it is inconsistent with basic tenets of feminism. 

While writing it back in 2018-19, I found that I couldn't fit every argument I wanted to into it (due to word count), so I spun some of these additional ideas into two long-read Medium essays: Making Sense of Autogynephilia Debates and Autogynephilia, Ad Hoc Hypotheses, and Handwaving. (btw, those are both "friends links" that circumvent the paywall.)

If you add all that up, it's almost half a book's worth of writing on this theory (yikes!). While I believe this has been important work (as autogynephilia continues to be routinely cited in anti-trans propaganda), I wasn't paid for any of it. So if you appreciate this work, please consider supporting me on Patreon, which helps make projects like this possible!

Finally, if you're interested in the TERF Wars: Feminism and the fight for transgender futures collection, but do not have journal access, you'll be happy to know that it can be ordered in book form via that link. And it will soon be available via more typical book outlets.

a year's worth of julia news!

the latest excerpt from my novel 99 Erics!Last week, I published my first full email update in about a year! You can read the whole update here . It covers a lot of ground, including . . .

the publication of my debut novel 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel (plus free downloads!)a new 99 Erics excerpt: Ethical Slut vs. Confused Slut video of me reading the 99 Erics excerpt: Posers a mix of personal + book promotion news: On Publishing a Book During a Pandemic Spanish/Español and French/Français translations of my first book Whipping Girl my second book Excluded being included on a couple 2010s Best Books of the Decade lists the inclusion of my essay He's Unmarked, She's Marked in the new Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Friedman anthology Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World my two-part essay series: Making Sense of Autogynephilia Debates and its follow up Autogynephilia, Ad Hoc Hypotheses, and Handwaving  a Bandcamp interview with me about the intersection of my music & my trans identity And The Next Thing You Know podcast interview with me about the many unexpected twists and turns in my lifetwo Pride-related essays that came out last year: The Science of Gender Is Rarely Simple , and Rethinking LGBTQ+ Visibility  
As always, if you wish to receive these email updates directly into your inbox, you can sign up here!

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my debut novel "99 Erics" has been released!

So in recent posts, I shared news of my 2nd book Excluded being mentioned in two "best books of the 2010s" lists, the release of Spanish and French translations of Whipping Girl, and my essay "He's Unmarked, She's Marked" being included in the anthology Believe Me. But I've been saving the biggest news of all for last...

My debut novel – 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel – is now officially released! 

You can purchase 99 Erics right now (in paperback & ebook formats) at all the major online outlets (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Books, etc.). The ebook is also available in all formats via Smashwords (where you can download the first 5 chapters for FREE!).

Brick-and-mortar bookstores & libraries can order the book via Ingram – please encourage them to carry it! You can locate your local independent bookstores via IndieBound.

And if you appreciate 99 Erics, *please please please* give it a good review on Amazon, Goodreads, and/or wherever you purchase it, as this really helps to spread the word about the book!

If you are associated with a literary or media outlet and wish to obtain a review copy of 99 Erics, or to possibly interview Julia about the book, feel free to contact me here.

If I had to do one of those “Out of Africa meets Pretty Woman” pitches for 99 Erics, I would describe it as kinda like a Michelle Tea novel meets Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, except that none of it takes place in outer space.

Here is a more standard synopsis of the book:

Kat Cataclysm is an ethically non-monogamous bisexual woman and absurdist short fiction writer. 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.

The book is largely comprised of amusing anecdotes from Kat’s dates with various Erics; satirical takes on relationships, sexual conventions, language, the writing process, book publishing, online media, and tech culture; and Kat’s smart yet silly digressions on a variety of topics, including the distorted nature of memories, hipsters, sex toys, sabermetrics, YA dystopian fiction, trendy restaurants, temporal anomalies, Freudian slips, banana slug mating practices, lucid dreaming, the internet of things, poetry slams, and Prince lyrics, to name but a few. These more fanciful passages are seamlessly interwoven with more serious and mundane matters, such as navigating the world as a woman and sexual minority, being an outcast who doesn’t really fit in, struggling to make ends meet, and reconciling one’s past with the present. The end result is a fun and fast read that tackles meaty subjects and contemporary issues along the way.

Several excerpts from the book are available on the 99 Erics webpage . More will be released in the coming months and will be posted there (along with any interviews & reviews), so stay tuned...

He's Unmarked, She's Marked: my essay in Believe Me

Welcome to the third of four posts summarizing recent news about books that I have written and/or am otherwise included in. In this post, I want to talk about my contribution to the new Jessica Valenti & Jaclyn Friedman anthology Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World , which just came out a month or so ago.

During the height of the #MeToo movement in 2017-18, many people shared their personal stories of sexual harassment & assault using the hashtag #BelieveWomen, intended to highlight the fact that our accounts are often presumed to be dubious or outright untrue. This collection offers many insights into this problem while simultaneously expanding the discussion to include other marginalized groups and survivors of sexual assault. Lots of amazing writers and activists share their perspectives and strategies in this book, and I am very honored to be included amongst them!

When I was asked to contribute to this anthology, the first thing that ran through my mind was this: On past occasions when I have personally experienced sexual harassment or attempted date rapes, I wasn't worried so much that people wouldn't believe me because I am a woman. Rather, I thought that they would primarily dismiss my account due to the fact that I am transgender. And of course, this isn't a trans-specific issue. I've heard similar sentiments from sex workers, people of color, disabled people, and other LGBTQIA+ people. In fact, the accounts of all marginalized groups (including women) tend to be discounted or disbelieved to varying degrees, and it is even more so for individuals who are multiply marginalized.


Back when I was writing my second book Excluded (which btw was recently mentioned in two "best books of the 2010s" lists), I was looking for more accessible and tangible ways to explain how prejudice and double standards work. I eventually settled on the unmarked/marked dichotomy – that link will take you to a blog post where I delve into this further. In brief: Some people, traits, and accounts are viewed as the norm and are taken for granted – they are "unmarked" in the eyes of the general public. In contrast, other people, traits, and accounts are "marked" – they seem "remarkable" to us, and they often garner undue attention and scrutiny as a result. As I explain in both Excluded (chapter 14) and in my recent Believe Me essay (entitled "He's Unmarked, She's Marked"), people who are marked for some reason (e.g., because they are members of marginalized groups) tend to be viewed as questionable and suspect a priori, and are often presumed to have some kind of "ulterior motive."

It is my hope that "He's Unmarked, She's Marked" will help shed some light onto the unconscious biases that help lead us to view certain people's accounts as unquestionable and others as questionable. I also hope that it provides an accessible explanation for why people who are multiply marginalized – e.g., those who are doubly or triply (or more) marked – are discounted or disbelieved to an even greater degree.

I encourage you to pick up the book, not only for my essay, but for all the other amazing essays as well!

And if you are more generally interested in my thoughts about sexualization, and how it is often used as a tool to undermine women and minorities, I encourage you to check out some of my other writings:

in "Trans-Sexualization" (chapter 14 of Whipping Girl) and "Psychology, Sexualization, and Trans-Invalidations" (chapter 30 of Outspoken), I examine the various ways that transgender people are sexualized, and how this is used to invalidate our identities and lived experiences.in "Why Nice Guys Finish Last" (in Friedman & Valenti's previous anthology Yes Means Yes), I describe the underlying mindset that leads people to unconsciously see men as "sexual initiators/aggressors" and women as "sexual objects." This dynamic lies at the heart of the "virgin/whore" double-bind and the "asking for it" trope, but it also creates certain expectations and double-binds for men as well.in "Self-Examining Desire and Embracing Ambivalence" (chapter 19 of Excluded), I offer my thoughts on how we can be ethical sexual beings in a world full of sexualization and hierarchies.at colleges & universities, I sometimes give a talk entitled  Sexuality, Sexualization, and Self-Examining Desire  that delves into all of these issues and more – you can learn more about that talk via that link.[note: If you appreciate my writings and the work I do, please check out my Patreon page]

Spanish and French translations of Whipping Girl

Welcome to the second of four posts summarizing recent news about books that I have written and/or contributed to. In this post, I am honored to announce the publication of Spanish/Español and French/Français translations of my first book, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity!

The Spanish/Español translation is entitled Whipping Girl: El sexismo y la demonización de la feminidad desde el punto de vista de una mujer trans . Rosa María García is the translator, and it is published by Ménades Editorial. The book can be purchased directly from the Ménades Editorial website (via that link), and a Kindle version can apparently be found on Amazon (aka, the U.S. site).

The French/Français translation is entitled Manifeste d'une femme trans: Et autres textes . Noémie Grunenwald is the translator, and it is published by Éditions Cambourakis. Unlike the Spanish version (which is a translation of the full book), Manifeste d'une femme trans includes translations of 8 chapters from the book (Trans Woman Manifesto, Skirt Chasers, Pathological Science, Dismantling Cissexual Privilege, Ungendering in Art and Academia, Experiential Gender, Deconstructive Surgery, and Love Rant). The book can be purchased directly from the Éditions Cambourakis website (via the above link), or from the French Amazon site.

As of now, these are the only two translations of any of my books. However, a number of my individual essays have been translated into other languages – those can be found on the translations section of my writings webpage . If you are interested in potentially translating one of my books or essays yourself, an “FAQ” (frequently asked questions) on how to do so can be found here.

Excluded selected as one of the best books of the decade!

I have had a bunch of book-related news of late, some of which I've alluded to or mentioned elsewhere on social media over the last several months. But I figured that it would be helpful to pen a few posts to share all this news in a more comprehensive manner. So here is the first of four posts – the biggest news of all will land next Tuesday...
As you know, the 2010s recently came to an end. And I was excited to see that my 2013 book Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive made two different "best of the decade" lists!

The queer women's website Autostraddle included the book in their article: 80 of the Best Queer, Lesbian and Bisexual Books of the Decade (you'll find it in the non-fiction section of the list). Here is what they said about it:


Writer and cultural critic Noah Berlatsky also included the book in his Ten Best Non-Fiction Books of the Decade list. There, he links to a The Atlantic interview he did with me when the book first came out. 

If you haven't read it, you can find a slew of other interviews, reviews, and excerpts from the book on my Excluded webpage. Part One of the book is a collection of personal essays about the exclusion of transgender, bisexual, and feminine people from queer and/or feminist movements (similar in style and themes to my first book Whipping Girl ). Part Two of the book contains some of the best essays I have ever written (IMHO), including novel strategies for mitigating "call-out culture," overcoming exclusion, and challenging prejudice in all of its various forms.

So please consider picking up a copy or checking it out of your library!

"99 Erics" – an update about my forthcoming novel!

Over the last few years, I have been writing silly, surreal, sex-positive fiction centered on a character named Kat Cataclysm . Back in 2016, I published the chapbook you see here, full of short pieces that were supposedly penned by her. And this fall, my/her debut novel – 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel – will be released!

99 Erics will be published on Switch Hitter Press in October, 2019. A description of the book, plus links to excerpts, are below. More info (including cover art) will be made available once it is complete.

If you are a writer or media outlet interested in reviewing 99 Erics, or interviewing me about the book, please contact me, and I'd be happy to get you a review copy as soon as they are available!

In the meantime, here is a brief description...

Kat Cataclysm is an ethically non-monogamous bisexual woman and absurdist short fiction writer. 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.


Here is the mandatory “Out of Africa meets Pretty Woman” description:
99 Erics is kinda sorta like a Michelle Tea novel meets Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Except that none of it takes place in outer space.

Here are a few excerpts from 99 Erics – more will be added as they become available...

a live reading from the chapter "Posers" – Kat Cataclysm shares her views on queer identity and her experiences coming out as so-called "baby dyke" way back when...


a live reading from the chapter "Publishers Clearing House" (originally called "Poetry Slammed" in her chapbook) – a send-up of slam poetry, YA fiction, and searching for a publisher.



Three additional chapters ( Eric Number One , Fucking Expectations , and Shopping Carts, Part One ) have been made exclusively available to Julia’s Patreon supporters.

lyrics to "Cisgender" (my latest trans-themed song)

As some of you may know, in addition to being an author, I also write and perform music – originally with my noise-pop band Bitesize , and currently with my solo music project *soft vowel sounds* . Quite a few of my songs are transgender-themed – back in 2014, I chronicled many of these in a blog post entitled Transgender-themed artists, bands, music, songs & anthems .

Just this last December, I debuted a brand new transgender-themed song. Actually, it's a cover of one of the catchiest classic rock hits from the 1970s, albeit with me "trans"-ing the lyrics (for reasons explained in the following live performance video of the song). I've also included the lyrics below, so feel free to sing along if you wish! 

I will be performing "Cisgender" at my next *soft vowel sounds* show on Saturday, April 6th at El Rio in San Francisco, and will likely do it at future shows as well. To keep posted about my upcoming live shows and recordings (including a new album later this year!), I encourage you to sign up for my music email list . Happy listening...


Mother told me, yes, she told me I'd meet girls like you
Perfectly normal, gender conforming without even having to try
Apparently it's not uncommon for people to get off 
On the gender that they were assigned at birth

Mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird
Cisgender, cisgender, but don't give yourself away...

Father says, "your mother's right, she's really knows these things"
"Before we met she was a faux queen who performed at queer burlesque events" 
Now, I've heard stories of people spending hours getting all dolled up
But my soccer mom isn't one of them, I've known her all these years

Mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird
Cisgender, cisgender, but don't give yourself away...

Whatever happened to all the androgynous bands from back in the eighties?
Some were maybe pretending, as for the rest, where'd they disappear?
When I woke up, mom and dad are rolling on the couch
Strap-on dildos and lingerie, got my Prince records out

Mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird
Cisgender, cisgender, but don't give yourself away...

if you want to hear more, you can listen to and/or download my music at the following sites:the *soft vowel sounds* Bandcamp sitethe *soft vowel sounds* YouTube playlistthe Bitesize Bandcamp sitethe Bitesize YouTube playlist