Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A deep sociological portrait of a new generation of transgender men and of how they see themselves and the world, the dangers they continue to face, and the important ways in which they shape our culture. Ben, Parker, Lucas, Nadia are four patients of Florida's Dr. Charles Garramonepreparing to receive surgery to masculinize their chests on the same day. In the following years, they, along with more than a hundred others across the country, opened up to the award-winning professor of gender and sexuality Arlene Stein about how they conceive of their identities and sexuality, how they decided to transition, how they were received by their families and communities, and the joys and challenges they continue to face after transitioning. Weaving together the history of the transgender movement and the personal journeys of these transgender individuals, Stein sheds light on how transgender men tell their stories, make sense of their lives, and build communities in the face of skepticism, confusion, ignorance, and, often, violence. Because despite any progress we've made as a culture in accepting alternative identities, Ben and the others Stein meets continue to live in a world that is dangerous to them.
In this moving, raw, intimate book about the lives of transgender men, Stein reveals how transgender men as a group, largely invisible in previous decades, today exert a significant impact on business, medicine, culture, and have drastically reshaped how we as a nation conceive of gender, sex, and identity. In so doing, Stein has also created an essential resource on female to male transitioning: for parents, educators, friends, and those who question their identities and seek further information.
Synopsis
A deep and intimate portrait of a new generation of transmasculine individuals as they undergo gender transitions. Award-winning sociologist Arlene Stein takes us into the lives of four strangers who find themselves together in a sun-drenched surgeon's office, having traveled to Florida from across the United States in order to masculinize their chests. Ben, Lucas, Parker, Nadia and their friends and family, hope that the surgery, along with hormone treatments, will make them more comfortable in their bodies and more masculine in appearance.
Transgender men comprise a large, growing proportion of the trans population, yet they remain largely invisible. Stein's powerful, timely and eye-opening account--drawn from dozens of interviews with transgender people, along with medical and psychological experts, as well as activists--reveals how a younger generation of trans men are prying open our assumptions about gender. At a time of conservative resurgence, they do so despite great personal costs.
Documenting the ways that individuals reshape their bodies and their lives, Unbound uniquely sheds light onto our changing understanding of what it means to be male and female in America.