Before We Were Trans cover art

Before We Were Trans

A New History of Gender

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Before We Were Trans

By: Dr Kit Heyam
Narrated by: Dr Kit Heyam
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

A globe-spanning, different and vital new history of gender.

Across the world today, people of all ages are doing fascinating, creative, messy things with gender. These people have a rich history—but one that is often left behind by narratives of trans lives that focus on people with stable, binary, uncomplicated gender identities. As a result, these stories tend to be recent, binary, stereotyped, medicalised and white.

Before We Were Trans is a new and different story of gender, that seeks not to be comprehensive or definitive but—by blending culture, feminism and politics—to widen the scope of what we think of as trans history by telling the stories of people across the globe whose experience of gender has been transgressive, or not characterised by stability or binary categories.

Transporting us from Renaissance Venice to 17th-century Angola, from Edo Japan to North America, the stories this audiobook tells leave questions and resist conclusions. They are fraught with ambiguity, and defy modern Western terminology and categories—not least the category of 'trans' itself. But telling them provides a history that reflects the richness of modern trans reality more closely than any previously written.

Before We Were Trans is a history and celebration of gender in all its fluidity, ambiguity and complexity.

©2022 Kit Heyam (P)2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Gender Studies LGBTQ+ Studies
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Transgender History, Second Edition cover art
Rainbow History Class cover art
Whipping Girl cover art
Collapse Feminism cover art
My Story cover art
Virgin cover art
In Transit cover art
It Never Goes Away cover art
The Madness of Crowds cover art
Love from the Pink Palace cover art
I'm Afraid of Men cover art
Trans cover art
Refusing Compulsory Sexuality cover art
Tomorrow Will Be Different cover art
The Lies That Bind cover art
Sexed Up cover art

What listeners say about Before We Were Trans

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thoughtful and caring

learned a lot, the author brings a fresh and careful approach that I really respect

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating and thought provoking

This is a fascinating exploration of gender identities throughout history and across various cultures, challenging the idea that trans and gender-nonconforming identities are a modern ‘trend’ or ‘fad’. You may not agree with everything that Kit Hayem argues, but it’s thought provoking and incredibly well researched.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful