Abstract
Making its debut at a critical moment in America’s history, with discussions around trans issues, gender, race and sexuality frequently making the headlines, this book seeks to answer the question: What does it mean to be a man in America? The question is particularly poignant for the trans men in this study as it deals with how they negotiate not only this identity, but also how they negotiate space and place in America as trans men and with the intersectional addition of race, class and geography. More frequently the work of human geographers, this is a sociological intervention into discussions of space and place as it pertains to transgender and masculinity studies. Indeed, as a country dealing with a rise in racism and the ascendency of the right, a draw back on gains made in policies pertaining to women’s rights, LGBTQI rights etc., it is a pertinent contribution to a post-Obama landscape that seems to be regressing instead of progressing. Abelson’s interlocutors often expressed that there was no one way to be a man, and their performance of masculinity was thus context dependent. Levi for example, one of the men the author interviewed, stated ‘I don’t have one way to be. I have a bunch of ways, and I decide them situationally’ (p. 5). The research was carried out with 66 trans men living in South, Midwest and West USA. The ‘book shows men’s experiences of gender, race and sexuality are shaped by various spaces they inhabit and move between throughout their lives’ (p. 5). Race and class are inextricably linked to space and place. The book centres transgender men’s stories across urban, rural and suburban landscapes, enabling the reader to gain some understanding of the violence and fear of violence perpetrated against trans men. Violence, a constant fear in the men’s narratives, rarely materialised in the form of the spectacular violence which they were weary of. Instead, it was the non-white, particularly black trans men who had to contend with the constant harassment by the police and suspicion and fear from others, particularly white women. One issue I found most compelling in the book, was that the violence trans men experienced, both physical and verbal, mainly came in places one would not expect, such as places of care, like hospitals, and clinics.
The term ‘Trans Broken Arm Syndrome’ was an example of this, whereby simply going into hospital for say a broken arm, resulted in further questions and interrogation about their transgender history, often inappropriate touching would take place, and some men were even asked to show their chests. These stories shed light on the ways in which appropriate training on transgender people is lacking, which forced many of the men to travel long distances to areas which had more experience with transgender patients. Ironically however, these same areas with broader ‘gender knowledges’, that is, more liberal areas such as San Francisco where there are a lot of LGBTQI identified individuals who have more knowledge of transgender people and issues, were often the very places some men wanted to escape from since they did not want to be recognised as transgender and wanted to be seen as just men. Throughout the book we hear different experiences and stories which evidence how geography can affect your experience as a trans man and whether you are read as such. An example of this was Wesley, who had moved to a southern state many years before the interview. He would go into his backyard topless, and as he had not had any chest surgery, his breasts, which were large, were prominent. Whilst in a place such as San Francisco he would be read as trans, because of the wider gender knowledge, in this place his neighbour read the large breasts, when he saw him topless, as him suffering from a medical issue. Because Wesley adhered to the white working-class masculinity of that place, he was seen to be ‘in place’. As he did not upset the rigid gender binary connected to that area, he was read as just male.
Overall, I enjoyed learning about this sample of trans men’s experiences. My criticism would be that I did not feel that enough attention was given to the experiences of the non-white, particularly black men, who made up such a small amount of the interviews. It became clear throughout the book that white trans men were able to be ‘in place’ as long as they subscribed to often homophobic rules of engagement such as having a ‘Goldilocks masculinity’ which was ‘just right’, in ways that black men could not. As a consequence, being able to hear more of their voice and experience would have given the book an added richness. The author does recognise this and encourages further research, which would enable the experiences of non-white trans men to be explored further.