Sons of the Movement

FtMs Risking Incoherence on a Post-Queer Cultural Landscape

Table of contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: Sons of the (Feminist) Movement: Tranny Fags, Lesbian Men, and other Post-Queer Paradoxes
Chapter 2: "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom": Emergent Boyz, Bois, Boys in Popular Culture
Chapter 3: Boy to the Power of Three: Toronto's Drag Kings
Chapter 4: Our Bodies are Not Ourselves: Tranny Guys and the Racialized Class Politics of Incoherence
Chapter 5: "Strange Sisters": Toronto Femme Frenzies
Chapter 6: Conclusion: Archive of Post-Queer, Incoherent Bodies
Works Cited

Description

Sons of the Movement documents the female-to-male (FtM) transition process from an insider’s point of view, and details the limitations of both surgical procedures and pronouns. Bobby Noble challenges both the expectations of masculinity and white masculinity. As a result, this text is equally invested in creating both gender trouble and race trouble, calling for a new provocative analysis of the field of gender studies.

This is an accessible treatise arguing that the relation among FtM transsexual masculinity, female masculinity, and feminism is an underexplored site of politics in the field. While FtM transsexuals have been viewed with some suspicion within feminist and lesbian circles, Sons of the Movement argues that since FtMs have the potential to offer a unique vantage point on both feminism and masculinity, FtM masculinity instead should be rearticulated as an alterantive and pro-feminist embodiment of non-phallic masculinity.  

Reviews

"Sons of the Movement is a beautiful, paradoxical articulation and realization of a life and an analysis. The text brilliantly combines the author's own trans narrative, a cultural analysis of trans men, and a political rallying cry against identity rigidity and territoriality. While primarily centred on trans-men, Sons of the Movement details the intersecting embodiment of race, class, gender, and sexuality. As such, it demands we all rethink all identity politics. "
— ?Maureen FitzGerald, former Director of the Sexual Diversity Studies Program, University of Toronto