Listen free for 30 days
-
Before We Were Trans
- A New History of Gender
- Narrated by: Dr. Kit Heyam Ph.D
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $25.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
You may also enjoy...
-
Transgender History, Second Edition
- The Roots of Today's Revolution
- Written by: Susan Stryker
- Narrated by: Emily Cauldwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Covering American transgender history from the mid-20th century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events.
-
-
A good intro to the topic
- By Robert Romeo Cote on 2022-09-03
Written by: Susan Stryker
-
Gender Euphoria
- Stories of Joy from Trans, Non-Binary and Intersex Writers
- Written by: Laura Kate Dale - editor
- Narrated by: Laura Kate Dale
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So often the stories shared by trans people about their transition center on gender dysphoria: a feeling of deep discomfort with their birth-assigned gender, and a powerful catalyst for coming out or transitioning. But for many non-cisgender people, it's gender euphoria that pushes forward their transition: the joy the first time a parent calls them by their new chosen name, the first time they have the confidence to cut their hair short, the first time they truly embrace themself.
Written by: Laura Kate Dale - editor
-
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars
- A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir
- Written by: Kai Cheng Thom
- Narrated by: Adri Almeida
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A haunted young girl (who happens to be a kung-fu expert and pathological liar) runs away from an oppressive city, where the sky is always grey, in search of love and sisterhood - and finds herself in a magical place known only as the Street of Miracles. There, she is quickly adopted into a vigilante gang of glamorous warrior femmes called the Lipstick Lacerators, whose mission is to scour the Street of violent men and avenge murdered trans women everywhere. Can our intrepid heroine find the truth within herself in order to protect her new family and heal her broken heart?
-
-
Amazing story
- By J on 2023-04-11
Written by: Kai Cheng Thom
-
Whipping Girl
- A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
- Written by: Julia Serano
- Narrated by: Julia Serano
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julia Serano shares her experiences and insights - both pre- and post-transition - to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole. Serano's well-honed arguments and pioneering advocacy stem from her ability to bridge the gap between the often-disparate biological and social perspectives on gender. In this provocative manifesto, she exposes how deep-rooted the cultural belief is that femininity is frivolous, weak, and passive.
-
-
Thank you Serano!
- By Kasane B on 2021-12-01
Written by: Julia Serano
-
Tranny
- Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout
- Written by: Laura Jane Grace, Dan Ozzi
- Narrated by: Laura Jane Grace
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of Billboard's 100 Greatest Music Books of All Time: The provocative transgender advocate and lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me! provides a searing account of her search for identity and her true self. It began in a bedroom in Naples, Florida, when a misbehaving punk teenager named Tom Gabel, armed with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a headful of anarchist politics, landed on a riff. Gabel formed Against Me! and rocketed the band from its scrappy beginnings-banging on a drum kit made of pickle buckets-to a major-label powerhouse.
-
-
TSR
- By Anonymous User on 2023-11-17
Written by: Laura Jane Grace, and others
-
Detransition, Baby
- A Novel
- Written by: Torrey Peters
- Narrated by: Renata Friedman
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.
-
-
Insightful.
- By Ryla on 2023-08-17
Written by: Torrey Peters
-
Transgender History, Second Edition
- The Roots of Today's Revolution
- Written by: Susan Stryker
- Narrated by: Emily Cauldwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Covering American transgender history from the mid-20th century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events.
-
-
A good intro to the topic
- By Robert Romeo Cote on 2022-09-03
Written by: Susan Stryker
-
Gender Euphoria
- Stories of Joy from Trans, Non-Binary and Intersex Writers
- Written by: Laura Kate Dale - editor
- Narrated by: Laura Kate Dale
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So often the stories shared by trans people about their transition center on gender dysphoria: a feeling of deep discomfort with their birth-assigned gender, and a powerful catalyst for coming out or transitioning. But for many non-cisgender people, it's gender euphoria that pushes forward their transition: the joy the first time a parent calls them by their new chosen name, the first time they have the confidence to cut their hair short, the first time they truly embrace themself.
Written by: Laura Kate Dale - editor
-
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars
- A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir
- Written by: Kai Cheng Thom
- Narrated by: Adri Almeida
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A haunted young girl (who happens to be a kung-fu expert and pathological liar) runs away from an oppressive city, where the sky is always grey, in search of love and sisterhood - and finds herself in a magical place known only as the Street of Miracles. There, she is quickly adopted into a vigilante gang of glamorous warrior femmes called the Lipstick Lacerators, whose mission is to scour the Street of violent men and avenge murdered trans women everywhere. Can our intrepid heroine find the truth within herself in order to protect her new family and heal her broken heart?
-
-
Amazing story
- By J on 2023-04-11
Written by: Kai Cheng Thom
-
Whipping Girl
- A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
- Written by: Julia Serano
- Narrated by: Julia Serano
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julia Serano shares her experiences and insights - both pre- and post-transition - to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole. Serano's well-honed arguments and pioneering advocacy stem from her ability to bridge the gap between the often-disparate biological and social perspectives on gender. In this provocative manifesto, she exposes how deep-rooted the cultural belief is that femininity is frivolous, weak, and passive.
-
-
Thank you Serano!
- By Kasane B on 2021-12-01
Written by: Julia Serano
-
Tranny
- Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout
- Written by: Laura Jane Grace, Dan Ozzi
- Narrated by: Laura Jane Grace
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of Billboard's 100 Greatest Music Books of All Time: The provocative transgender advocate and lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me! provides a searing account of her search for identity and her true self. It began in a bedroom in Naples, Florida, when a misbehaving punk teenager named Tom Gabel, armed with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a headful of anarchist politics, landed on a riff. Gabel formed Against Me! and rocketed the band from its scrappy beginnings-banging on a drum kit made of pickle buckets-to a major-label powerhouse.
-
-
TSR
- By Anonymous User on 2023-11-17
Written by: Laura Jane Grace, and others
-
Detransition, Baby
- A Novel
- Written by: Torrey Peters
- Narrated by: Renata Friedman
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.
-
-
Insightful.
- By Ryla on 2023-08-17
Written by: Torrey Peters
Publisher's Summary
A groundbreaking global history of gender nonconformity
Today’s narratives about trans people tend to feature individuals with stable gender identities that fit neatly into the categories of male or female. Those stories, while important, fail to account for the complex realities of many trans people’s lives.
Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Before We Were Trans transports us from Renaissance Venice to seventeenth-century Angola, from Edo Japan to early America, and looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures.
What the critics say
"Before We Were Trans is a thoughtful, fun, and refreshingly readable romp through the history of gender variance before the invention of contemporary ‘transgender’ categories and concepts.—Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History
"Before We Were Trans provides much needed context, nuance, and breadth to our understanding of human gender diversity throughout history and in different cultures. While people who we might now call transgender or LGBTQIA+ have always existed, Kit Heyam shows how both individuals' and societies' understanding of sex, gender, and sexuality are situational, multifaceted, and constantly evolving.—Julia Serano, author of Whipping Girl and Sexed Up
"Before We Were Trans enlarges our understanding of trans histories and highlights the beauty, complexity, and contradictions of doing historical work - all in a voice that invites the reader in, and not only teaches us what to think about trans lives in the past, but how to think about them.—Hugh Ryan, author of The Women’s House of Detention
What listeners say about Before We Were Trans
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lindsay B.
- 2023-06-26
A must read!
This is the kind of book that for years I have been looking for. It looks at the past with an openness that reflects the breadth of the trans experience. Rather than pointing to a list of people who meet certain criteria, the author expounds on the trends and situations of the past and the multi-layered reasons for acting in gender-nonconforming ways—from the economic and social/political in Western/European history to reasons intrinsically tied with sexuality, (non-white) culture, and spirituality. I may not have finished this book with a laundry list of definitely trans figures, but I'm left with a buoying feeling that people like me have always existed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!