Tag Archives: transgender

TBR Pile Review: Gender Heretics – Evangelicals, Feminists and the Alliance Against Trans Liberation, by Rebecca Jane Morgan

Format: 208 pages, Paperback
Published: September 20, 2023 by Pluto Press
ISBN:9780745349015 (ISBN10: 0745349013)

Blurb

For decades, conservative evangelicals and Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) have worked hand-in-hand to oppose trans liberation. But how did this alliance come about? What makes it tick? And how can trans people and allies respond?

This book, written by a transfeminist who is also an evangelical Christian, is a history and genealogy of reactionary ideas. Gender Heretics traces how a shared belief in the essential unity of the mind and the body, together with a common fear of ‘dualist’ or ‘Gnostic’ philosophies, first brought these groups into contact in the 1970s.

Morgan explores how theological arguments snaked their way from anti-trans feminist tracts into the everyday practices of evangelical churches today. She offers a hopeful way forward, advocating for a full recalibration of evangelical thought on gender identity and trans activism.

My Review

I bought my copy of this book from Lighthouse Bookshop In Edinburgh in September and I’ve finally got around to reading it. I was intrigued by the title. Over the years I’ve had some run-ins with evangelicals and TER’F’s. Sorry, they ARE NOT FEMINISTS. There’s nothing feminist about hating people because they’re different from you and seeking to prevent people from living authentically, with bodily autonomy. Anyway, one of the things that really confused me was that evangelicals, especially the American ones, hate feminism, but they will align with people who are nominally feminists to spread trans fear, hate and misinformation, and to take away the bodily autonomy of others. They all seem to think the ‘born in the wrong body’ analogy is a universal trans experience and don’t realise it’s an analogy for those who can never understand what it means to have a gender that doesn’t match one’s assigned sex.

Quite often the answer to the puzzle is a simple: well they’re using each other. Possibly, but it’s deeper than that. The evangelicals are hung up on what they perceive as ‘gnostic’ tendencies, and the TERFs are struggling with what they perceive as a body/mind binary. These are essentially the same thing in different words and conceptual frameworks, if I’m reading this book correctly. The author is both an Evangelical Christian and a trans woman feminist academic. She has just the right background to explore the strange relationship between people who hate trans people for nominally feminist reasons, and people who hat trans people for nominally religious reasons. Her lived experience informs the academic exploration, and the quotes from other trans Christians that inform the text are often heart-breaking to read. I just want to hug them and turn into a dragon to breath fire at their attackers.

I’ve been asked if there’s some ‘gendered soul’ before, and been utterly confused, because I don’t believe in souls (I’m agnostic, mostly). So why would I think I have a differently gendered soul in a female body? Apart from anything else I’m genderfluid/agender. I don’t have a gender that I can discern, and what I can discern fluctuates regularly. My body is nominally female in that I have a vulva and uterus, but I’ve never had hormone levels checked, not my chromosomes. For all I know I might have an intersex condition, most people don’t know they’re intersex until they reach puberty or want children and find they have a fertility issue. I couldn’t get a clear answer from that person when I asked how they reached their conclusion about ‘gendered souls’ being a ‘belief of gender ideology’ (and honestly, I think they were repeating TERF talking points). I blocked them not long after because they constantly insulted and misgendered me. Should have barbecued Cassandra (yes, the delusional twit called herself Cassandra because she reckoned Autistic girls were being ‘transed’ and she was the only one warning about it *insert eye-roll here*).

Anyway.

I found this book really interesting and useful, even to those of us who are atheists or agnostics, or are deists of a different religion to the author, because it explains the complex interplay between the two groups leading the anti-trans campaigns that are infecting political, social and religious life in the UK and US at the moment. There is a certain level of knowledge of both evangelical and transphobe beliefs needed, but the author does her best to make things clear. The references to Biblical verses went over my head (I haven’t read the Bible for 25 years, at least) and while I have copies of the Bible floating around the library, I don’t have the energy to look up particular passages so I’m just taking Morgan’s word for it. This is quite niche specialism, but an important one, so I recommend this book to everyone interested in religion and transgender issues.

TBR Pile Review: Life Isn’t Binary, by Meg-John Barker and Alex Iantaffi

Format: 237 pages, Paperback
Published: May 21, 2019 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 9781785924798 (ISBN10: 1785924796)
Language: English

Description

Challenging society’s rigid and binary ways of thinking, this original work shows the limitations that binary thinking has regarding our relationships, wellbeing, sense of identity, and more. Explaining how we can think and act in a less rigid manner, this fascinating book shows how life isn’t binary.

My Review

This book starts with the obvious understanding of ‘non-binary’ in discussing sexuality and gender, and then goes on to discuss non-binary approaches to relationships, bodies, emotions, and thinking. What this really means is that people tend to think in either/or ways, yes/no, black/white, etc. but the authors recommend more and/both thinking about life.

For someone who is non-binary it is an interesting, yet obvious concept. Although I’m autistic and we’re often accused of black and white thinking, I’ve always wanted to ask why? and my conception of conflict as the stories people tell themselves not meshing completely, already allows me to view reality in a way that includes what the authors refer to as ‘multiversal’. The authors use a therapist and Buddhist way of putting it, but it’s the same thing. Our stories are always changing, we’re always in the process of becoming, not completed, not finalised. And we have many stories, depending on who we’re interacting with.

I found this book fairly interesting. I got through the first four chapters in record time, but the last two chapters seemed to drag a bit. It was mostly the last chapter. I found it a bit woo heavy, especially the ‘make an alter to yourself’ reflection point. I understand the authors are interested in Buddhism, and work as therapists, so it’s understandable. It just doesn’t work for me.

It’s a good introduction to non-binary genders and unconventional relationships.