2023/074: The Gender Games: The Problem With Men and Women, From Someone Who Has Been Both — Juno Dawson

Gender is a total paedo. Gender fucks kids. I was fucked by Gender as a kid. You were fucked by Gender, and this happened in childhood. [loc. 345]

As James Dawson, the author 'was given access to the ultimate prize: white male privilege', but was always aware that there was something out of alignment: traditionally-masculine pastimes were unpleasant, traditionally-feminine pastimes were much more appealing. As Juno Dawson, she writes 'My transition isn’t a rejection of masculinity, it’s embracing a state I feel far more attuned to.'

This is an interesting, and very personal, account of transition. There's a lot about Dawson's youth -- the ambition to be famous ('Fame is Diet Love. It tastes like love and looks like love, but there’s zero per cent real love in it'), the experiences in reality TV, the adventures on the gay scene in Brighton -- and how their perception of and relation to gender changed over the years. Where I found the book most interesting, though, was in its discussion of how gender affects us all from birth onwards, and how it perpetuates inequality. Dawson also argues that misogyny is a pillar of transphobia, which I can well believe regarding trans women but am less sure how it relates to trans men. (We see a plethora of TERF-style transphobia directed at trans women: is there an equivalent experienced by trans men? Or is there the reductionist absurdity of 'used to be a woman, so always inferior and scary'?)

Dawson's tone is colloquial and often very funny (commenting on Red Riding Hood and her hope of being rescued by the 'hunky woodcutter', Dawson remarks that 'a girl who can’t recognise a fucking wolf in a nightie probably isn’t the best role model'), and she isn't afraid to laugh at herself. Some apt similes, too, including gender as a Pullmanesque dæmon: 'for most it’s a fluffy sidekick they carry on their shoulders, hardly aware of it for much of their lives'. An engaging read, though I don't think I learnt anything new. I do, however, feel more inclined to read Dawson's historical fantasy novels, starting with Her Majesty's Royal Coven -- not least because, even as James, the author preferred to write female protagonists.

Fulfils the ‘Current Issues’ rubric of the Annual Non-Fiction Reading Challenge.