Genderqueering Yr Bookshelf

I'm on a personal conquest for GenderPossibility these days, and thought it'd make a good theme for a post.  A lot of my academic reading this semester got me thinking about my interpretation of gender, and how we, as a [western] society, consume and produce gender, and what that means for my own identity and what choices I make, have to make, and want to make, about my own gender performance.  Here's my genderqueer recommended reading list:

Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink Or Blue by Leslie Feinberg
We read a couple of excerpts from this for class which prompted me to go out and buy the book so I could read the whole damn thing.  It's basically a collection of speeches and papers that sie has given at various events, peppered with personal anecdotes from folks challenging the gender norm, their stories in their words.  It is an extremely powerful book, partially because since they are hier speeches, they are very emotional and make empathetic appeals for action and empowerment.  Hier introduction, which argues for gender perception outside of the binary and outside of a clean, simplified spectrum, ("Merely answering woman or man will not bring any relief to the questioner.  As long as people try to bring me into focus using only those two lenses, I will always appear to be an enigma.") is so damn brilliant that I think everyone in the world should read it.

Exile & Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation by Eli Clare
This is lifted directly from my FemTheory course reading.  Clare is an astounding author who brings these intersections together in ways that will surprise, unsettle, and teach you.  He talks a lot about being critical of the Gaze, about recognizing power relations, and about questioning your assumptions and motives, but manages to relate it to economics, education, even agriculture and the environment.  I've never read such an inclusive text that highlighted so many interlocking systems of oppression.  Definitely worth reading.

Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and The Rest of Us by Kate Bornstein
Bornstein is so funny, and so magnificent, and so honest, I don't know who wouldn't enjoy this book.  I'm currently still reading it, so can't give a total account yet, but the story of her transition told along with genderexplosive tales of her friends and colleagues is fabulous.  She is critical of the gender norms assumed in the name of "passing," and goes in-depth to explore where we develop them.  Her book is stylish and important.  Check it out.

This is all I have for now, though of course I am open to suggestions.  I'm attending the Trans/Womyn's Action Camp this summer in Oregon, so hopefully I will be able to expand my reading list there.