what media coverage of online "transvestigators" & the Imane Khelif ordeal get wrong

Hi everyone, I just published a brand new essay: Why Does "Transvestigation" Happen? On Gendering, Ungendering, and (Mis)Perceiving Trans People! 

I have read and viewed numerous solid articles and videos about both the online "Transvestigator" communities that focus on ungendering celebrities, and the recent JK Rowling/Elon Musk/Fox News ungendering and harassment of Olympian Imane Khelif. But I worry that they set up a false dichotomy, where these groups are imagined to view gender “abnormally” or “incorrectly,” while the rest of us who are not in these groups (including the majority of cis people) supposedly perceive gender and trans people “normally” or “correctly.” 

And frankly, nothing could be further from the truth! 

So this essay is a deep-dive into how we (mis)perceive & (mis)interpret trans people and gender more generally. It draws from research I carried out and insights I forwarded in my books Whipping Girl and Sexed Up. It is a "long-read", but I believe it communicates many aspects and nuances of this story that most people are currently overlooking. You can read it at:

Medium (friend link): https://juliaserano.medium.com/why-does-transvestigation-happen-d2c19847afb9?sk=dfabc9bd0962eaab89b54d03097cee28

or Substack (no paywall): https://juliaserano.substack.com/p/why-does-transvestigation-happen

As always, please share widely and give it lots of claps and likes and such! 

Whipping Girl 3rd Edition to Be Released in March!

I'm happy to announce that a 3rd edition of my first book Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity will be coming out this March — you can pre-order it here!

I just published an announcement post for the book, which you can read on either Medium or Substack). It's only a 5 minute read, but here's a brief synopsis: It's basically the same book as before, but with a new Afterword on trans youth and moral panics (aka, responding to the current anti-trans backlash). It also has a new cover (as you can see to the right) — I describe the thinking process behind the cover in the announcement post as well. 

In addition to the book's release in March, I have a series of essays and videos related to Whipping Girl planned for the coming months, including a transmisogyny explainer video and spoken word performances of some of the chapters. So be sure to follow me on YouTube, Medium, and/or Substack if you’re interested in those.

As always, I will be spreading the word on social media — that link provides a comprehensive list of all that platforms I am currently on if you wish to follow me there too...

Signed Books for Sale! (for the holidays or otherwise)

photo of Julia with her two most
recent books: 99 Erics & Sexed Up

It's that time of the year again, when you may be considering presents to get your friends and family (and perhaps for yourself as well). Which means it's time for me to shamelessly peddle my wares!

If you know someone who appreciates my past books, I bet they'll like my latest (and IMHO best) book Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back. It is currently available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook — those links will take you to the Seal Press website, which offers a variety of outlets to choose from. Alternatively, you can (and should!) pick up a copy at your local independent bookstore — if they don't have it in stock, just ask them to order a copy for you!

While I'm not able to sell signed copies of Sexed Up at this time, it is possible to get signed copies of any of my other books — here's how:

I have two self-published books – 99 Erics & Outspoken – which you can purchase signed copies of directly from the "stuff to buy" page of my website for $25 (PayPal or credit card), shipping included (instructions via that link). The shipping will be through USPS Media Mail, which they say takes 2 to 8 business day to deliver – this means your mailing address must be in the U.S. to do this (if not, see alternatives below). Here's more about each of those books:

crowdfunding for Japanese translation of Whipping Girl

Some good news to share: The Tokyo-based publisher Thousands of Books has made an arrangement with my publisher (Seal Press) to translate my first book Whipping Girl into Japanese!

The translation is dependent on their ability to raise money for this effort via crowdfunding. So if you (or someone you know) are excited about this prospect, here are the links where you can contribute. They also share further information about the publisher, project leader, and translator for the book.

This is the main crowdfunding link; it is in Japanese, but many browsers can translate the page for you:

https://greenfunding.jp/thousandsofbooks/projects/5658

And here is a supplemental crowdfunding page on Indiegogo, which is in English and in USD currency:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/japanese-translation-of-whipping-girl#/

Like I said, please feel free to share these links, as they have until mid-April to raise the necessary funds for the translation.

99 Erics Wins Two Book Awards! (plus other news)

I recently sent out my latest email update – you can read it at that link. And if you want to receive these email updates directly to your inbox, you can sign up here.

The biggest news is that my latest book 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel, is the winner of not one, two book awards! 

First came the Publishing Triangle’s 2021 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction (shown to right). And I have since learned that it is an Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) 2021 silver medalist in LGBT+ Fiction (medal below). 

I am honestly a bit flabbergasted! Two of my past books were nominated for awards, but this is my first actual "award winning" book! 

Publishing Triangle described the book as: "Whip-smart, fast-paced, and drop-dead hilarious, Serano gives us the lighthearted fun read that we all need right now." So please consider adding 99 Erics to your summer reading list!

The book is available at all the usual online booksellers, and can be ordered from your local independent bookstore too – in fact, you should encourage them to carry it! 

If you're still tentative, check out the 99 Erics webpage, where you can download the first 5 chapters for FREE, plus read other excerpts, blurbs & reviews, or watch recordings of my virtual book readings.

a year's worth of julia news!

the latest excerpt from my novel 99 Erics!

Last week, I published my first full email update in about a year! You can read the whole update here. It covers a lot of ground, including . . .

• the publication of my debut novel 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel (plus free downloads!)
• a new 99 Erics excerpt: Ethical Slut vs. Confused Slut
• video of me reading the 99 Erics excerpt: Posers
• a mix of personal + book promotion news: On Publishing a Book During a Pandemic
• Spanish/Español and French/Français translations of my first book Whipping Girl
• my second book Excluded being included on a couple 2010s Best Books of the Decade lists
• the inclusion of my essay He's Unmarked, She's Marked in the new Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Friedman anthology Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World
• my two-part essay series: Making Sense of Autogynephilia Debates and its follow up Autogynephilia, Ad Hoc Hypotheses, and Handwaving 
• a Bandcamp interview with me about the intersection of my music & my trans identity
• And The Next Thing You Know podcast interview with me about the many unexpected twists and turns in my life
• two Pride-related essays that came out last year: The Science of Gender Is Rarely Simple, and Rethinking LGBTQ+ Visibility 

As always, if you wish to receive these email updates directly into your inbox, you can sign up here!

Spanish and French translations of Whipping Girl

Welcome to the second of four posts summarizing recent news about books that I have written and/or contributed to. In this post, I am honored to announce the publication of Spanish/Español and French/Français translations of my first book, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity!

The Spanish/Español translation is entitled Whipping Girl: El sexismo y la demonización de la feminidad desde el punto de vista de una mujer trans. Rosa María García is the translator, and it is published by Ménades Editorial. The book can be purchased directly from the Ménades Editorial website (via that link), and a Kindle version can apparently be found on Amazon (aka, the U.S. site).

The French/Français translation is entitled Manifeste d'une femme trans: Et autres textes. Noémie Grunenwald is the translator, and it is published by Éditions Cambourakis. Unlike the Spanish version (which is a translation of the full book), Manifeste d'une femme trans includes translations of 8 chapters from the book (Trans Woman Manifesto, Skirt Chasers, Pathological Science, Dismantling Cissexual Privilege, Ungendering in Art and Academia, Experiential Gender, Deconstructive Surgery, and Love Rant). The book can be purchased directly from the Éditions Cambourakis website (via the above link), or from the French Amazon site.

As of now, these are the only two translations of any of my books. However, a number of my individual essays have been translated into other languages – those can be found on the translations section of my writings webpage. If you are interested in potentially translating one of my books or essays yourself, an “FAQ” (frequently asked questions) on how to do so can be found here.

Lies about Transgender People and the Vagina Monologues

This is one in a series of essays exposing falsehoods forwarded by feminists who are suspicious of or antagonistic toward transgender people. This series includes Debunking “Trans Women Are Not Women” Arguments and my forthcoming essay Transgender People and “Biological Sex” Myths. If you appreciate this work, please consider supporting me on Patreon.

These days, almost every anti-transgender hit-piece written from a feminist perspective will mention an incident that occurred in 2015, in which Mount Holyoke College canceled a scheduled performance of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues for not being inclusive of transgender people. By citing this instance out of context, these writers attempt to assert or imply that:

1) all trans people must want to censor The Vagina Monologues.
2) more sinisterly, trans people are trying to stop women from talking about their vaginas.
3) this is yet another example of why feminism and trans activism are inherently incompatible.

However, this framing purposefully ignores two crucial factors.

Julia November update: my new book Outspoken is out, plus other stuff!

A few days ago, I sent out my latest email update. The big news in it is that my third book, Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism has just been released! It collects forty-eight of my previously unpublished or difficult to access trans-themed writings, including my early slam poems and spoken word, essays and manifestos written contemporaneously with my previous books Whipping Girl & Excluded, plus my recent work addressing differences within trans communities and activism.

Check out the Outspoken webpage to view the book’s Table of Contents, read part of the Introduction & other book excerpts, and explore the online trans/gender glossary that accompanies the book. At the moment, paperback books can be purchased at Amazon, and it will be available at other retailers & for bookstore/library purchasing (through Ingram) very soon (so stay tuned!). E-books can be purchased at/for Amazon/Kindle, Barnes & Noble/Nook, iTunes Books, Kobo, Smashwords, and other outlets.

Another item of interest in the email update is the official release of the Whipping Girl 2nd edition audiobook! It is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Audible, and other outlets.

The update also includes tidbits on my various other projects, plus helpful post-election resources for trans people.

You can read the update in all its glory here.

If you want future Julia updates emailed directly to you, please sign up for my email list.

enjoy! -j.

three interviews, an audiobook, and a big Outspoken sneak-peak!

Hello, this is my first post here in a bit, as I've been in the throes of finally completing & releasing my third book, Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism. It will be available for purchase on Amazon no later than Wednesday, November 9th, with e-book formats and bookstore/library purchasing (through Ingram) up and running shortly thereafter.

If you are interested in "sneak-peaks" of the book, I encourage you to follow me on Patreon, a crowdfunding platform where (for pledges as low as $1 a month) you can get behind-the-scenes updates on what I am working on, access to many of my in-progress & unpublished writings, plus other goodies -- all the details are explained here.

There are currently two Outspoken excerpts exclusively available on my Patreon site:
1) A long-lost chapter originally intended for Whipping Girl
2) Sneak-peak: the last essay of Outspoken and online glossary

Excerpt from Whipping Girl Second Edition

As some of you may have heard, the Second Edition of my first book, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, was released last month! It is essentially the same book, but with a new cover (as you can see to your right), some wonderful new back cover blurbs (which you can read here), plus a new additional Preface to the Second Edition.

In the new Preface, I discuss some of the history (both personal, as well as within feminist, queer, and transgender activism) that led to me writing the book, and addressing the topics and subject matter in the manner that I did. I also share many of my thoughts about what has happened in the decade since the book was originally released in 2007: the many promising developments in trans awareness and activism, plus the countless aspects and areas where there is still vital need for improvement.

While I cannot reprint the entire Preface here, I did want to share this brief excerpt (specifically, the first three chapters) for those who may be interested:

Whipping Girl Second Edition is out this week!

The second edition of my first book, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, is officially released this week (March 8th, to be precise).

A wonderful article about the second edition, plus many readers' personal experiences first engaging with the book, appeared in BuzzFeed this weekend.

While it's pretty much the same book on the inside (with a few small clarifying changes), it has a brand new Preface that discusses how the book originally came to be, plus my thoughts on various new developments in transgender communities and politics since the book was first released in 2007.

The book launch event takes place this Thursday (March 10th) in San Francisco, at the GLBT History Museum, 7pm- I will be reading from the new Preface, plus engaging in further discussion and Q&A about the book and its themes, plus the recent evolution of trans activism more generally. (More details here and here.)

The book is available now from Amazon, Portland's independent bookstore Powell's, the Philly-based LGBTQ bookstore Giovanni’s Room, and the Chicago feminist bookstore Women and Children First. You can also use Indie Bound to find brick-and-mortar independent bookstores near you that are or will be carrying the book.

Here are some of the new blurbs from the back cover:

Julia update: Whipping Girl 2nd edition, Sister Spit 2016, future releases, and more!

So yesterday I sent out my latest email update. In it, I discuss:

1) Whipping Girl 2nd edition is here!
2) March 2016 tour dates (including Sister Spit)!
3) new writings and web updates!
4) two brand new books coming later this year!

You can read the update in all its glory here.

If you want future Julia updates emailed directly to you, please sign up for my email list.

enjoy! -j.

Julia update: new books for 2016!

So yesterday I sent out my latest email update. In it, I discuss:

1) Whipping Girl 2nd edition to be released in March 2016!
2) my 3rd book Outspoken to be released late winter/early spring 2016!
3) introducing Kat Cataclysm
4) Spring 2016 events
5) a few new(ish) essays

You can read the update in all its glory here.

If you want future julia updates emailed directly to you, please sign up for my email list.

enjoy! -j.

Julia Serano on Judith Butler

Note added in 2021: In the years subsequent to this essay being published, Judith Butler has come out as nonbinary and now uses they/them pronouns. 

For starters, my apologies about the eponymous blog-post title—I simply wanted this piece to be readily “findable” for people who do web searches using both our names.

Over the years, I have read and heard numerous reactions to my first two books—Whipping Girl and Excluded—that presume that I have negative or antagonistic views of gender theorist Judith Butler. This is not actually the case. Others have presumed that some of my work is a “misreading” of her theories, when in actuality I have never directly critiqued Butler’s work (only misinterpretations of her work). So to set the record straight, I have penned this blog-post, which will admittedly only be of interest to a small subset of readers.

Cisgender and dictionary definitions

This is happened two weeks ago, so some of you may have already heard the news. But for those who didn't, cisgender was recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

I first started using cisgender and cissexual almost ten years ago, while I was working on Whipping Girl. At the time, few people (even within trans communities) were aware of these words, so it has been amazing to see them garner acceptance over time, even within certain mainstream settings.

It has also been interesting to watch these terms (and the ways people use them) evolve and diverge over time. For those who are interested, last year I wrote two essays on this very subject: Cissexism and Cis Privilege Revisited - Part 1: Who Exactly Does “Cis” Refer To? and Cissexism and Cis Privilege Revisited - Part 2: Reconciling Disparate Uses of the Cis/Trans Distinction. Both essays explain the usefulness of these concepts, while also addressing some of the negative aspects or unintended consequences of cis terminology.

Both posts are significantly longer than a dictionary entry. But sometimes words are more complicated than a straightforward definition would have you believe.

Julia update May 2015 - new writings & stuff!

So today I sent out my latest email update. It offers links to some new (& newish) writings, including my op-ed on the Jenner interview in The Guardian, my contribution to the new illustrated sex-ed book Girl Sex 101, a French/Français translation of Whipping Girl, plus a February interview with me regarding recent online debates about "political correctness" and "call-out culture."

You can read the update in all its glory here.

If you want future julia updates emailed directly to you, you can sign up for my email list here.

enjoy! -j.

Nobody reinforces the gender binary & nobody subverts it either (plus some retrospective thoughts about Whipping Girl)

I usually don’t publicly respond to critiques of my writings. People inevitably interpret (or misinterpret) things that I have written in all sorts of ways, and I usually just strive to articulate my ideas better the next time around. However, in the last two weeks, I have stumbled across numerous instances where people have accused me of claiming that two-spirit and other indigenous non-binary-identified people “reinforce the gender binary.” This notion so goes against everything that I believe and have written in the past that I feel compelled to address the matter here.

Julia Serano's compendium on cisgender, cissexual, cissexism, cisgenderism, cis privilege, and the cis/trans distinction

When my first book Whipping Girl was published in 2007, it was (to the best of my knowledge) the first print publication to include the terms cisgender, cissexual, cissexism, and cisgenderism.* I did not invent these terms - they had been coined and used by trans activists before me, albeit rarely and sporadically. And in the years since, as these terms have increasingly caught on, I find that people sometimes use them in rather different, or even outright disparate, ways.

So for those interested in the history and evolution of cis terminology, I have subsequently written three (freely available!) blog posts that explain various aspects of, and differing perspectives on, these terms. They are as follows:

1) Whipping Girl FAQ on cissexual, cisgender, and cis privilege (2009)

This article discusses:

• the origins of cis terminology
• the reasoning behind why many trans activists use these terms
• my responses to common critiques of cis terminology
• a discussion of how the concept of "cis privilege" is sometimes misused

2) Cissexism and Cis Privilege Revisited - Part 1: Who Exactly Does “Cis” Refer To? (2014)

This article discusses:

• the specific way in which I used the terms cis, cisgender, cissexual, cissexism, and cisgenderism in Whipping Girl
• a discussion of how these same terms are often used in a rather different manner today
• how ambiguity regarding the terms "cis" and "cisgender" often erases the experiences of non-transsexual transgender-spectrum people
• my proposal of an alternative (albeit not mutually-exclusive) "three-tiered" model for considering gender-non-conformity and social legitimacy - one that may better account for the gender-based marginalization experienced by those who fall under the cisgender umbrella and/or who do not fit neatly into the cis/trans distinction.

3) Cissexism and Cis Privilege Revisited - Part 2: Reconciling Disparate Uses of the Cis/Trans Distinction (2014)

Marginalized populations often have different perspectives on, and take different approaches toward, articulating the obstacles they face. Two especially common activist approaches are “decentering the binary” and “reverse discourse” strategies. In this essay, I discuss the logic behind these differing approaches to activism, and explain why they tend to result in very different understandings of cissexism and the cis/trans distinction. In fact, some of the most common complaints about cis terminology are actually critiques of "reverse discourse" approaches to activism. Rather than outright championing one approach over the other, I encourage activists to familiarize themselves with the pros and cons of each strategy in order to use them in the most judicious and effective way possible.

Cissexism and Cis Privilege Revisited - Part 2: Reconciling Disparate Uses of the Cis/Trans Distinction

[note added November, 2016: This essay now appears as a chapter in my third book Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism]

For the record: this essay is intended to clarify misconceptions about, and to encourage more thoughtful usage of, cis terminology. Anyone who references this piece in their attempts to deny or eliminate use of the term "cis" (and its variants) is clearly misinterpreting or misrepresenting my views.

In the first essay of this two-part series, I discussed how the way in which cis terminology is often used today can sometimes invisibilize certain forms of gender-based oppression, and potentially exclude people who exist at the margins of the transgender umbrella (i.e., people who don’t fit quite so neatly into a cis/trans binary). In this essay, I want to talk about the different ways in which a cis/trans distinction may be employed, as this can greatly shape the nature and ultimate goals of trans activism.

“Decentering the binary” versus “reverse discourse” approaches

One of the more commonly heard complaints about cis terminology is that it supposedly “creates a new binary” (i.e., trans versus cis). I strongly disagree with this argument. After all, people already make a distinction between non-transsexuals and transsexuals, and between gender-conforming and gender-non-conforming individuals. So the cissexual/transsexual and cisgender/transgender binaries already exist in people’s minds. It’s just that now we (trans activists) have explicitly named the unmarked majority as “cis.”