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πŸ“š Book: Gender(s)

Reading  ✺  People  ✺  Queer

Katherine Bond Stockton

This book deconstructs gender layer by layer, diving into the strangeness of gender however "normal" it may seem at first. It draws on the relationships of gender with race, capacities of bodies, and money.

Implied in this book are layers of violence. There is the force of words imposed at birth. There is the fort (with all the inglorious associations of that term). There is clothing as a mandate, official and suggested. Meanings put on skin. Realms of diagnosis. So-called biology put on biology. Racialized gender-that is, gender-exposes these layers. And there is debility. That's a little term with a horrifying spread. This important word now stands for "the slow wearing down of populations" β€”"slow death," if you willβ€”a life being snuffed in very slow motion-caused by the way state powers withdraw or withhold the resources that sustain life. 192

The author was also on the Ezra Klein show, and they touch on a lot of the points from the book in a very interesting conversation.

β€ŽThe Ezra Klein Show: Gender Is Complicated for All of Us. Let’s Talk About It. on Apple Podcasts
β€ŽShow The Ezra Klein Show, Ep Gender Is Complicated for All of Us. Let’s Talk About It. - Aug 5, 2022

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