Transgender Biographies | Your Blog Description

Giò Stajano - Roma erotica

Full title: "Roma erotica" (Erotic Rome) by Giò Stajano.

Giò Stajano, the most famous transgender woman in the history of Italy, shares her erotic encounters in the city of Rome at a time when she is still not certain about her true identity. She starts as a homosexual man, gradually discovering her feminine side.

According to Wikipedia, Countess Maria Gioacchina Stajano Starace Briganti di Panico, known simply as Giò Stajano (1931-2011), was an Italian nobleman, writer, journalist, actress, and transgender painter. In the 60s, before her mtf transition in 1983, she was the center of public attention as one of the first homosexual men publicly declared in Italy. She is remembered for a night swim in the Fontana della Barcaccia. She was said to have been inspired by Federico Fellini's scene of Anita Ekberg's bath in the Trevi Fountain in La dolce vita (1960).

Full title: "A Fellow No More" by Traci Felloes.

"A journey from boyhood . . . to womanhood. This book if full of vivid and emotive imagery. It is a truly human story about an amazing person who battles the odds to be who she is, educating those around her and finding love and acceptance from people in all walks of life.

Traci has made all those who know her realise that a person should only be judged for the individual they are, not what sex they choose to be. She is a thoughtful human being who has a special way of creating acceptance and respect."

Original title: "Manifeste d'une femme trans" (Manifesto of a trans woman) is the French language edition of "Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism" by Julia Serano.

In this collection of essays, Julia Serano, trans woman and activist, analyzes the different mechanisms of cissexual privilege, as well as the sexism, misogyny and transphobia that permeate representations of trans women in the media, the arts and academia.

Her analysis offers new perspectives for interpreting the issues experienced by trans women in continuity with the theories, disagreements and solidarities developed within the feminist movement, and provide keys to building feminism by, for and with all women, whatever their stories and backgrounds.

Original title: "Kallion kuningattaret" (Queens of the Rock) by Tarja Surakka.

The gritty glittering life stories of two divas, Jari Vihinen and Morgan Devereaux. On stage, divas have been allowed to shine as drag queens, dancers, and actresses. Jari and Morgan co-founded Finland's first drag queen groups and dressed at a time when homosexuality was first a crime and later classified as a disease.

In the underground world of the rock, they lived a glamour life - snatching a poke for themselves from restaurants, and sometimes also directly from the street. There were men buzzing around who liked the "girls" dressed in the dress. Offstage, life has been a fierce struggle for space as an artist, for a living, and for the opportunity to live in peace as oneself.

Full title: "Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on Identity, Institutions, and Imperialism" (2005) by Viviane Namaste. The second edition of the book was published in 2011.

"The book provides readers with an introduction to contemporary transsexual politics in Canadian and Quebecois contexts. Through different case studies relating to the law, human rights, health care, and prostitution, Dr. Namaste exposes readers to the complexity of the issues involved in thinking about transsexual politics in relation to feminism.

Written in accessible language, and using a variety of forms, including interviews, essays, political speeches, the book will appeal to academics, activists in the community, and the general reader."

Original title: "Otokode mo naku on'nade mo naku ― hontō no watashirashi-sa o motomete" 男でもなく女でもなく―本当の私らしさを求めて (Neither a man nor a woman - Seeking true me) by Tsutamori Tatsuru 蔦森樹.

From a GI cut motorcyclist to a woman who wears a light blue dress handmade by her mother. The author runs through the two genders and reaches the “I” that lies beyond that. This book describes the trajectory of the author who sincerely confronted what “man” is and what is “woman.”

Nowadays, gender crossing is regarded as a problem of the disease called “gender identity disorder,” and it is not regarded as a gender (gender) problem in society. However, the author's vivid light of struggle against gender still illuminates the darkness of the gender dichotomy that has not disappeared.

Original title: "¡Muxe! Du treng ikkje å vere kvinne for å vere dame" (¡Muxe! You don't have to be a woman to be a lady) by Stephen J. Walton.

The book presents the gender system in the Isthmo de Tehuantepec. This system is a variant of the multi-genus systems that existed all over America before the European conquest. The reasons why it has survived there lie in the deep economic and political structures and not least in the habitus and the strong social position of the women.

Sex, gender, and sexuality are dynamic fields in modern society, and the system is also changing rapidly in the isthmus.

Full title: "Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Burma and Thailand" by Mariette Pathy Allen, with Zackary Drucker (Foreword), and Eli Coleman (Contributor).

"In collaboration with Dr. Eli Coleman, professor and director of the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota, Transcendents studies the phenomenon of gender variance among the spirit cults of Burma and Thailand. This book combines a raw, personal, photographic standpoint with an anthropological and sexological perspective on the genderfluid spirit mediums in Thailand and Burma."

According to Mariette's website, Mariette Pathy Allen has been photographing the transgender community for over 40 years. Through her artistic practice, she has been a pioneering force in gender consciousness, contributing to numerous cultural and academic publications about gender variance and lecturing throughout the globe.

"Zřídlo" is the Czech language edition of "Freshwater" by Akwaeke Emezi.

I liked Gina Maya's review a lot, so let me quote her: "Transgender narrative this may be, but it's far removed from Western, U.S.-based definitions in spite of its primary location in the U.S. The story follows the young life of Ada, a Nigerian child who travels to America to study, but her whole life involves psychical interaction with the indigenous spirits who vie for control of her. Is Ada Ogbanje too?

By the end, she appears to embrace this self-conception as an offspring of the Universal Creator Ala, visualized as cosmic python – the source of the spring from which all freshwater comes from its mouth. Yet Ada for almost the novel's entirety is also the human, engaged in an uneasy relationship with otherworldly spirits who inhabit her mind, visualized in turn as a room of marble, perhaps not unlike the Kaaba of Mecca. The most powerful, possessive, and controlling of the spirits is Asughara, occasionally presented as Ada's pernicious alpha. At times, Asughara blocks out Ada from consciousness, either to protect or punish Ada."

Original title: "Las biuty queens" by Iván Monalisa Ojeda.

With a cheeky and honest look, Iván Monalisa Ojeda immerses himself in the transvestite universe of the New York streets. The stories in this book narrate her life and that of her companions, Latin American transsexuals who make the street, smoke crystal meth, participate in beauty contests, look for clients on high heels and are victims of Trump's new immigration policies. A world where laughter, survival, death and love will be glimpsed in a city that fascinates and corners the protagonists.

The narrative talent of Iván Monalisa Ojeda, who plays with a street language full of rhythm, freedom and freshness, places him as a surprising and particular voice in current Latin American literature.

Full title: "In My Mind's Eye: A Thought Diary" by Jan Morris.

"'I have never before in my life kept a diary of my thoughts, and here at the start of my ninth decade, having for the moment nothing much else to write, I am having a go at it. Good luck to me.'

So begins this extraordinary book, a collection of diary pieces that Jan Morris wrote for the Financial Times over the course of 2017. A former soldier and journalist, and one of the great chroniclers of the world for over half a century, she writes here in her characteristically intimate voice - funny, perceptive, wise, touching, wicked, scabrous, and above all, kind - about her thoughts on the world, and her own place in it as she turns ninety. From cats to cars, travel to home, music to writing, it's a cornucopia of delights from a unique literary figure."

Original title: "Człowiek w przystępnej cenie. Reportaże z Tajlandii" (Man at an affordable price. Reports from Thailand) by Urszula Jabłońska

A collection of reports from Thailand, stories about the situation of society, especially women, and references to young transsexual girls.

"This story takes place in red neighborhoods lighthouse (where the author tries to understand why prostitution in Thailand is illegal), slums (where she discovers that nearly two-thirds of adult Thais work illegally), fishing ports, and shelters for refugees.

The book presents a story about what it actually means to "buy a man". What makes him want to do it? Where is the border between help and trade? Who can afford freedom? And why exactly in Thailand, where slavery was abolished at the beginning of the twentieth century, and whose name means "country of free people"?" We can follow the story of Nong Toom, a transgender Muay Thai fighter (Thai boxing), who no longer fights. And there are other ladyboys who tape their genitals to look more feminine...

Original title: "Peilissä näin naisen: Zoen tarina" (I saw a woman in the mirror: Zoe's story) by Zoe Foster, Petri Pietiläinen, and Juha Metso.

A woman who was born into the body of a man. Everyone considered him an English boy. She looked at herself in the mirror and dreamed at night - she was a woman. Then she fell in love with a Finnish woman, got married, moved to Finland, and had two children. For a long time, Zoe Foster gathered the courage to transform into the person she really was. She told her wife, "I'm a woman clad in a man's body!" Tears, anxiety, sadness, anger, and divorce followed. Zoe was on the verge of suicide. She paid a heavy price for his honesty.

This story encourages everyone to be happy as human beings without the gendered compulsion to be female or male. Zoe is a proud trans woman. She is more than a woman or a man. Petri Pietiläinen (b. 1966) is an award-winning non-fiction writer from Kotka, whose works include One Regiment, One Hundred Stories - Veterans Tell (Docendo 2017) and Junnu Vainio, Such a Life Is (Docendo 2018). Juha Metso (b. 1965) has been successful as both a newspaper and art photographer. His images have been used in dozens of books.

Full title: "My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity" ia the updated version of "My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely" (1997) by Kate Bornstein.

"Cultural theorists have written loads of smart but difficult-to-fathom texts on gender theory, but most fail to provide a hands-on, accessible guide for those trying to sort out their own sexual identities. In My Gender Workbook, transgender activist Kate Bornstein brings theory down to Earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender. Bornstein starts from the premise that there are not just two genders performed in today's world, but countless genders lumped under the two-gender framework. Using a unique, deceptively simple and always entertaining workbook format, complete with quizzes, exercises, and puzzles, Bornstein gently but firmly guides readers toward discovering their own unique gender identity."

Original title: "La novia de Sandro" (Sandro's girlfriend) by Camila Sosa Villada.

Sandro's bride, the hopeless lover, the bottomless hole where hope disappears, the passage to the edge of the precipice, the one entrusted to the Virgin of the Transvestites, the one who knows men because she was one of them, comes to rescue the essence of poetry: to put her finger on the wound, to sing the wound of love or of the times, make us feel beautiful or pathetic (that is what we are), remove the patina that makes us respectable so that we shine at last in the face of some true fire, of those who burn and shine, of those who reduce us to ashes and entrust us to the last truth of the wind.

The one who wants to ask for forgiveness, the one who wants to cure his evil of loneliness or company, conjure his particular evil or his evil of all, the one who wants like Vallejo to show the bad his little bit of good and vice versa, the one who does not want to die of thirst or blindness without finding the puddle in which to drink or in which to look. Celebrate this book: because poetry dries up if every now and then a Camila Sosa Villada does not appear to put words back into circulation. Yes. Poetry dries up. As Córdoba was impoverished until Camila Sosa Villada arrived from Mina Clavero with her Carnes tolendas, to revitalize us, deepen us, show us the light and the shadow, and be pointed out as beautiful and miserable. - Jorge Marzetti

Full title: "Take Me There" by Tristan Taormino, and contributors: Kate Bornstein, Shawna Virago, Julia Serano, and others.

In mainstream media, the erotic identities, sex lives, and fantasies of transgender and genderqueer people are often oversimplified, sensationalized, or invisible. Take Me There is an erotica collection unlike any other that celebrates the pleasure, heat, and diversity of transgender and genderqueer sexualities. The power of seeing and being seen is a central theme in the anthology; it’s not simply about passing or not passing (an idea often explored with transgender characters), but about being acknowledged and desired in a sexual context.

The book takes you from San Francisco to Israel, from heartache to lust, from stranger sex to a 10-year anniversary, from ballet shoes to butt-plug bondage tables, from fumbling teenagers to leather-clad bears, from MTF and FTM - and in between and beyond.

"Trans: Un alegato por un mundo más justo y más libre" (Trans: A plea for a fairer and freer world) is the Spanish language edition of "The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice" by Shon Faye.

"Trans people in Britain today have become a culture war 'issue'. Despite making up less than 1% of the country's population, they are the subjects of a toxic and increasingly polarised 'debate', which generates reliable controversy for newspapers and talk shows. This media frenzy conceals a simple fact: that we are having the wrong conversation, a conversation in which trans people themselves are reduced to a talking point and denied a meaningful voice.

In this powerful new book, Shon Faye reclaims the idea of the 'transgender issue' to uncover the reality of what it means to be trans in a transphobic society. In doing so, she provides a compelling, wide-ranging analysis of trans lives from youth to old age, exploring work, family, housing, healthcare, the prison system, and trans participation in the LGBTQ+ and feminist communities, in contemporary Britain and beyond."

Original title: "Vidas Trans: A luta de transgeneros brasileiros em busca de seu espaco social" (Trans Lives: The struggle of Brazilian transgenders in search of their social space) by Amara Moira, João W. Nery, Márcia Rocha, and Tarso Brant.

In VIDAS TRANS, four trans people: Amara Moira, João W. Nery, Márcia Rocha, and Tarso Brant tell readers about the moment when they realized that something was different, about the feeling of inadequacy before the required standards, about the prejudices and pain experienced inside and outside the family, about the moment of transition and, finally, about the freedom felt by this decision. In four individual reports, each one tells their life story, and constant and everyday struggle in reaffirming the right to their name, body, and full existence.

Full title: "Lettin' It All Hang Out" by RuPaul.

"In this book - part autobiography, part how-to manual - drag queen RuPaul comes out and reveals the real person behind the paint and powder, the sequins and the wigs. He talks of growing up in a house full of exceptional women; he describes a difficult but warm California childhood with the challenges of being "different"; he relates outrageous experiences in the drag scene and the New York underground; and he drops names that include Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, Courtney Love, Karl Lagerfeld and Diana Ross. Sprinkled throughout the book are RuPaul's secrets to achieving fame, riches, success and glamour in the 1990s, as well as his worldly observations on being black, being gay and being a drag queen."

Original title: "Dziennik" (The Diary) by Klaudia Newerna. This is the second book by Klaudia Newerna. Her first book "Onna: Sceny z życia" (S(he): Life Snapshots) was published in 2010.

The record of events in the author's life covers the period from December 2000 to mid-2005, including a reference to some of her activities after those years. In the book, the author describes her own experiences from the period in which she undertook the process of gender transition, which at the beginning is usually associated with the need to confront doctors and the legal system.

The described events concern the period that should be treated as "pre-Internet times", the experiences of contemporary transgender women are currently shaped differently due to the fact that the Internet is generally available. Although there are relatively few transsexual people, their fates can be very diverse – this is mainly influenced by: financial resources, the issue of acting as a woman or a man (mtf, ftm), the intellectual potential of family and friends, and finally a gracious or unkind nature that bestows a specific beauty.

Original title: "Hanbunshōjo boku to atashi" 半分少女僕とアタシ (Half Girl Me and Atashi) by Kaba-chan KABA.ちゃん.

This book is the story of Kaba-chan, born in 1969, in Yanagawa, Fukuoka, a Japanese transgender woman, and choreographer. According to Wikipedia, after studying dance in the USA, she became known in Japan as a member of the musical group Dos with Taeco Nishikawa and Asami Yoshino.

Being a celebrity in Japan, Kaba-chan was open with her sexuality. While she was already known for her flamboyant character in Dos, she came out as a gay man publicly on television on a 2002 episode of the Japanese variety show Dancing Sanma Palace.

Full title: "The Stranger Within: Living with Multiple Personality Disorder" by Judith Skillings.

"While The Stranger Within is undeniably a story about coming to terms with being transgender, I found I often identified with the struggles of both “Stacey” and “Jack.” I think we all have vulnerable aspects of ourselves that we are afraid to expose to public scrutiny. We have all experienced rejection and pretended to be something we weren’t to gain acceptance. I suspect we have all ached, at one time or another, to be different in some magical way other than how we are—smarter, taller, richer, wiser, funnier, prettier, healthier. In that sense, this story is everyone’s story. They both played the hand they were dealt, changed what could be changed, and accepted the rest. And did it with great flair."

Original title: "Trilogia esplicita: Romanzo esplicito - P. La mia adolescenza trans - Anestesia" (Explicit trilogy: Explicit novel - P. My trans adolescence - Anesthesia) by Fumettibrutti.

With her unparalleled bare, primary, essential sign, an author who in a few years has established herself among the most important voices of Italian comics transports us on a complex, painful but overflowing with life path. An autobiography in three stages, which make their way on the page following the order dictated by the urgency of the story.

Here then is "Romanzo esplicito", the dazzling first work of Fumettibrutti, the story of an important love, followed in all its painful evolution through glimpses of real life, in which sex can lead to the apex of the union but also in the abyss of loneliness.

Original title: "Angebliche Huren: Prostitutionskoketterie in zeitgenössischen Drag-Performances" (Alleged whores: Prostitution Coquetry in Contemporary Drag Performances) by Daniel Inäbnit.

In many contemporary drag performances, an extremely subversive, sex-positive, but also euphemistic handling of vestimentary and linguistic signs that move in the field of associations of prostitution is striking. The study explores the question of how and why drag performers often make references to sex work in this way and stage them accordingly. Linked to this is the question of how drag performances can currently be defined at all and which established theatre science concepts can prove productive for such a description.

Full title: "Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude" by Amy Bloom.

"Bloom takes us on a provocative, intimate journey into the lives of “people who reveal, or announce, that their gender is variegated rather than monochromatic” - female-to-male transsexuals, heterosexual crossdressers, and the intersexed. We meet Lyle Monelle and his mother, Jessie, who recognized early on that her little girl was in fact a boy and used her life savings to help Lyle make the transgender transition. On a Carnival cruise with a group of crossdressers and their spouses, we meet Peggy Rudd and her husband, “Melanie,” who devote themselves to the cause of “ordinary heterosexual men with an additional feminine dimension.”

Original title: "Non basta una parrucca: Storie di transessualismo dal maschile al femminile" (A wig is not enough: Stories of transsexualism from male to female) by Antonio Veneziani in co-operation with Ignazio Gori.

The book is a journey into the world of transgenderism, where seventy "trans" women tell their stories, chosen from about four hundred interviews collected in more than three years of work. Mature or underage, sex professionals and not.

This fascinating and contradictory world is probed through monologues, interviews, and advertisements, up to today's and cleared "fluid sex", a new sexual frontier. A book made of stories, humanity, and courage, accompanied by a collection of additional texts where scholars or artists who have dealt with the transgender world during their careers are called into question.

Original title: "MI HIJ@ ES TRANSGÉNERO ¿y ahora qué?: Diario de una madre" (MY DAUGHTER IS TRANSGENDER, now what?: Diary of a mother) by Susaneda.

In this book, I narrate my experience as a mother, about the gender transition of my adolescent daughter. It is a summary of our "adventures" during her first year of transition, since the start of hormone blockers and also some anecdotes from the previous months.

I also include a dictionary of terms (essential to communicate), addresses of associations and the meaning of the flags, as well as some anecdotes of history and mythology in a humorous tone.

Full title: "Chaye Unfolding" by Chaye Hartwell.

"Imagine a little girl trapped inside the body of a boy. This little girl has dreams of becoming a fashion model one day, but instead, life forces her to learn the art and craft of living as a male. She attends an all-boys boarding school, plays dominant male sports, and eventually crafts herself into the societal ideal of a young man.

This little girl is me, and for twenty-five years, she remained living her life in secret. Appearing in short bursts in the dark of night through a laptop screen or my imagination, her need for existence was my greatest shame and fear. Eventually, the pain of not sharing her with the world grew too intense, and regardless of how established my male life was, she needed to come out.

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Giò Stajano - Roma erotica

Traci Felloes - A Fellow No More

Julia Serano - Manifeste d'une femme trans

Tarja Surakka - Kallion kuningattaret

Viviane Namaste - Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on...

Tsutamori Tatsuru - Otokode mo naku on'nade mo naku

Stephen J. Walton - ¡Muxe! Du treng ikkje å vere kvinne for å...

Mariette Pathy Allen - Transcendents: Spirit Mediums...

Akwaeke Emezi - Zřídlo

Iván Monalisa Ojeda - Las biuty queens

Jan Morris - In My Mind's Eye: A Thought Diary

Urszula Jabłońska - Człowiek w przystępnej cenie

Zoe Foster - Peilissä näin naisen: Zoen tarina

Kate Bornstein - My New Gender Workbook

Camila Sosa Villada - La novia de Sandro

Tristan Taormino - Take Me There

Shon Faye - Trans: Un alegato por un mundo más justo y más libre

Amara Moira & Others - Vidas Trans: A luta de transgeneros...

RuPaul - Lettin' It All Hang Out

Klaudia Newerna - Dziennik

Kaba-chan - Hanbunshōjo boku to atashi

Judith Skillings - The Stranger Within

Fumettibrutti - Trilogia esplicita

Daniel Inäbnit - Angebliche Huren: Prostitutionskoketterie...

Amy Bloom - Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops, and...

Antonio Veneziani - Non basta una parrucca: Storie di...

Susaneda - MI HIJ@ ES TRANSGÉNERO ¿y ahora qué?

Chaye Hartwell - Chaye Unfolding

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