Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality

This book should have been shorter and more balanced. That said, it states some things that desperately needed stating. Pediatric transitioning now seems more disturbing to me than ever.

Something that has always bothered me about our current understanding of trans identity, that I don't think I've ever seen explicitly stated elsewhere, is that it seems to think gender is definable by the most culture-specific, superficial things - i.e. liking pink and liking dresses makes you a girl. Joyce discusses how being trans is explained to children: "You nod along to descriptions of restrictive gender norms, hoping for the right conclusion: that nobody need conform if they do not want to, and that there is nothing wrong with boys playing with show more dolls or girls playing with trucks. You long to hear that girls (or boys) are people with female (or male) bodies who behave however they damn well please; instead you hear that girls (or boys) are people who behave in feminine (or masculine) ways." show less

Well written and lucid account of the political, social, and personal narrative of trans ideological politics. The author is erudite and accessible, a difficult feat for many. Her research is quite solid, and her compassion for the women and children caught in the expanding web of trans politics is evident. She discusses autogynophilia, but here I think it might be a little weaker, because while I understood everything she talked about, I was already aware of this condition and diagnosis. I am not sure she explained it well enough for anyone coming to this fresh from the obliviousness of not caring about it before, and it is an important topic to understand. I suggest this book should be in every library, and should be given to every show more college freshman (though by then it might be too late). show less

A solid book! I believe Ms. Joyce succeeds in distinguishing her objective criticism from the right-wing narrative that continues to plague this crucial topic. Those who label her a transphobe may, in fact, be reinforcing the perception that transgenderism is both widespread and the default position of every trans civil rights movement, when it clearly is not. Whether such critics would even attempt to read the book is highly doubtful. The same could be said of right-wing pundits, who exploit transgender issues for their own ideological agendas.

This is also a book for parents—whether or not their children experience any form of dysphoria. It offers valuable insights into how to support children who may feel uncomfortable with their show more sexuality or gender identity.

Some sections could benefit from clearer explanations to prevent potential misunderstandings or misuse of her arguments. show less

The premise in this eloquent and fair argument against the erasure of women-only spaces is that the demands of transactivists are going to end up harming the rights that women have been fighting to get for decades, and consequently children in general aswell. The people who gave this a bad review haven't read it. There's is no way you could think that Helen Joyce is being hateful in any way, there's not a more reasonable exposition anywhere about this topic. Every point you could think of to "debunk" her has been address, that's why it could be a little repetitive but it is necessary. From legislative points of view, to celebrities, to normal people living their lifes who couldn't care less about any of these, to activists in favor or show more against, she delivers in everything.

Declaring pronouns can do only so much to reveal an inner self to everyone else. If you want everyone to accept gender-identity ideology, they must be persuaded that sexed bodies are not material, and that gender identities are. show less

As a curious but uninformed observer of the arguments between Trans activists and second wave feminists, I felt this gave me a clearer view of those feminists arguments regarding gender identity and material sex along with how it's currently playing out in public policy. The book was very ideological and dogmatic - making the title a bit silly. I don't know anything about book marketing, so I don't know how much the author has to do with a title.

Some of Joyce's arguments veered into some significant anti-trans territory. For instance, when reviewing prison rapes experienced by transwoman Joyce says "One oft-cited justification for those transfers is that transwomen are unsafe in men’s prisons. But are they? ...That would suggest that show more around 0.6 percent of transwomen in prison report an assault each year. The Howard League, a campaigning British charity, estimates that one percent of all male prisoners in the UK have been raped, and five percent have been coerced into sex – but those are cumulative, not annual, figures, and also include very many unreported incidents."

If I'd written that line about biological woman in my new book Fem: When Ideology Meets Reality, I think that feminists would rightly see it as bigoted and dehumanizing. I can imagine: "coerced sex?? Really?? That's called RAPE". When Joyce is singing to the choir, I don't think she understands (nor does her target audience) about just how bigoted this book gets. This is just one example of that, though the worst that I perceived.

Writing 4.5 pages of reference notes for a book like this is also unacceptable - unless this is actually all the research she did for this book - which then is unacceptable.

I still came out agreeing that physiology matters, and that woman have been historically targeted in many ways which took massive efforts to be partially addressed. Policies meant to ensure that transwoman don't suffer can hinder those gains for biological woman (examples of sport and safe spaces away from bio-men) she argues well. Science seems to be 'in progress' on how deeply biological and social gender are separate spheres. For transwoman and biological woman, there are many issues to be worked out, but the loudest on each side are pulling against the center, which isn't good for woman as far as I can tell either as a gender or a sex.

I'm appreciative to Helen Joyce for writing a book that was engaging and did a fair job of laying out the point of view for woman like her who share similar philosophies. In an era where a powerful, if fridge, left has stopped bothering to pay lip service to Enlightenment ideals and consider free speech a form of violence when it is not in service of their political ends, getting this published outside of hard right wing publishers couldn't have been easy. show less

A very timely book which is coherent and well-researched. However, it is flawed in that it is written entirely from a feminist perspective, and thus only really interested in how gender ideology affects women's rights, rather than society as a whole. Men and boys are excluded. So too are concepts of natural law, which is seemingly discarded, in the feminist fashion, as a nothing more than a series of confining and reductive stereotypes. This leaves Joyce with repeated emphasis on biology, which is really an empty point, unless one accepts the nature that goes with it. One cannot help but think that feminism itself bears some responsibility for how we got here. Joyce is a former Economist editor and thus probably weird (most of them show more are): anyone that praises Nick Cohen for "generosity of spirit" is probably not an especially perceptive, or well-adjusted, human being. Somewhat dry. Pulls its punches. But all we've got, hence a slightly higher rating than it might otherwise deserve. show less

Superbly written and accessible, especially as the subject matter can be so confusing. The detail underpins the reasons for defending women’s spaces, women’s words and sport. Essential reading for our times.