reflective

4/5

In an effort to understand myself better, I have consume many books over the last year about gender. None of the Above was my latest foray and I found a very reflective, emotional and intense experience.

- Travis uses this book as both an exercise in self discovery and a reflection on how nonbinary people are placed in society. They use various phrases (one per chapter) to address different parts of their trans identity and the discussions these statements open up both internally and publicly. I liked this format as it paced the subjects well and allowed for discussion on a wide variety of topics.

- There is a lot of uncertainty in this book and after thinking about it I believe this is a good thing. Trans and nonbinary people often feel pressure to be certain about things, to know exactly what they want and who they are. In reality I don't know a single person, cis or otherwise, who can say truthfully they 100% know exactly who they are and what they want from their existence. Life is flux and life outside the binary can be even more so. It is refreshing to that uncertainty to be acknowledged and seen as normal and okay.

- My only qualm with the book is it does become slightly repetitive as it goes on. Whilst this makes sense as there are themes that stretch throughout the book it did become slightly dull from a reader's perspective.

If you would like to read a reflection on life as a gender nonconforming person, then Alabanza's offering is a detailed and deep journey through precisely that.

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beautifully and thoughtfully written

happy to have chosen to listen to this as a lot of the beautifully written and detailed insights land much more powerfully in the author's own voice.

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Wonderful

So, so brilliant. Loved this, you might have guessed that. Trans is a gift, baby.

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Wonderful

Thank you for sharing your experiences, gave me a good understanding of the issues you have faced, really enjoyed listening

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Moving insight into being trans non binary

As an older trans person who has recently begun identifying as non binary I found Travis' story both inspiring and alarming. I first came across them when a friend recommended I listened to an interview on the Homosapiens podcast and was so impressed by their success as a writer and performer. I think what alarmed me Boston was hearing that Travis still encounters levels of discrimination and harassment unchanged for over 50 years.

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Captivating and necessary read

Loved it, could not put down!! So great to hear the stories of those who aren't usually heard. Such a necessary read for many in and out of the lgbt community!

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This book is a gift

Truth is bravery when it shouldn’t have to be. But we live now and this book is a life in flux and permanence balanced beautifully. Just wow!!

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the joyous messiness of transness

this book is a gift, a relief, a chance to breathe a little slower in a world that wants you to be in constant flight-or-fight mode, that wants trans people to be providing rigorous academic "defence" for our identities, or copy-paste tragic accounts of being "born in the wrong body" and having "always known" who we are... there is so little room afforded for nuance, for messiness, for the complicatedness that is just a fundamental part of being human, transness being no exception. Travis generously carves out space for some of that messiness, challenging simplistic one-size-fits all narratives and shining a light on one of the most beautiful parts of transness: its expansiveness. it feels especially important as we see noxnbinary/genderqueer experiences of gender increasingly painted as a "third gender", with its own set of norms and expectations ad gender roles, somehow just making a gender "trinary" that has all the same trappings of the binary, rather than breaking that shit wide open and exposing its uselessness (and damage). transness *is* messy, and that is a gift, an opening, an invitation to roll around in that mess with us and maybe, just maybe, discover you kinda enjoy being freed from the oppressive rigidity of the gender binary.

I am so grateful for Travis' vulnerability, the raw honesty of their words as they share various hopes/fears/desires/gender feels, and the multitude of ways these things often conflict. I can't wait to see what they do next, abd also what other creations by other artists that this book might help inspire... unleash all the trans mess, I want it all.

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Such an important book.

Travis explores gender with incredible theoretical insight, gorgeous prose and generous honesty about what it means to be gender non-conforming. Holding space for doubt, love and change, they seamlessly imagine a world where it’s okay to be unsure, where transness is not a problem to be solved, where we are all figuring it out under a gender binary which doesn’t serve any of us anymore - whether trans or cis.

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Absolute Ledge

Loved hearing there story. Beautiful delivery. Heard bracingly and laugh out load funny in equal measure x

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