Trans/Genderqueer/Gender Non-Conforming Writers

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Comment by Stephen Mead on July 28, 2008 at 8:09am

Thanks, Jennie, for giving me a few more titles to place on my "to read" list! I think Margerite Yourcenar is an excellent example of a woman writer who has written eloquently from a male perspective. And then, on the other side of the spectrum, Wally Lamb writing as a female teenager is an incredible voice in "She's Come Undone". I'm glad your feeling more confident about the authenticity of your own characters, female and male!

Comment by Jennie Kermode on July 24, 2008 at 12:17pm

Although it might not be considered a very positive example, I really like The Wasp Factory because I've shared that experience of thinking I was one thing and later discovering I was something else, with all the related awkwardness which comes from trying too hard to pass. I also liked Middlesex as, besides being a really well written novel (I also love The Virgin Suicides by Eugenides), I had a lot in common with the central character; this meant a lot to me because I grew up trying really hard to identify with female characters and always failing, though friends told me it was easy for them. I loved having the opportunity to feel generic, to feel that somebody else could speak for me.

I've always tended to write in a male voice. It's what came most easily to me, even when I thought I was straightforwardly female; I've always found it easier to understand how men think. I'm lost in conversations with women. It's only in my current novel, after twenty years of trying, that I feel I've finally managed to create some solid, believable female characters who can themselves pass.

Comment by Stephen Mead on July 15, 2008 at 6:17pm

I consider myself a gender non-conformist since a great deal of my writing has been written from a female perspective. Also, when I first started trying to get published back in the stone age I used only initials for I didn't give a fig if people knew if I were male or female. I preferred to let them wonder and to realize that may it did not make a difference. Of course the joke was on me since no one cared! Eventually I just started using my real name as a not particularly conscious way of "owning" who I am with the voices I use (or am used by) to write. What are some of your favorite trans writers, artists or role models, including perhaps characters in films or books? I happen to think Jan Morris is a very good writer. Then there is the ex football player in "The World According to Garp", plus Hewig kicks butt, and the story of Billy Tipton of "Suits Me Well" is pretty damn interesting. But I have blabbed enough.