Fierce, Fabulous, and Fluid
How Trans High School Students Work at Gender Nonconformity
Format:Paperback
Publisher:New York University Press
Published:11th Jun '24
Should be back in stock very soon
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£74.00(9781479819591)
Highlights the work trans youth do to create inclusive spaces in schools
Fierce, Fabulous, and Fluid presents a poignant critique of educational policies aimed at supporting trans and gender-nonconforming youth in schools. Over the years, caring adults have recognized these students as vulnerable and have tried to create inclusive environments to address their unique challenges. However, the book argues that these approaches have inadvertently perpetuated a narrow definition of trans identity, leaving many trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming youth feeling excluded and unseen.
Based on a year-long ethnographic study conducted in a high school, LJ Slovin closely observes the experiences of gender-nonconforming youth who were often overlooked in the discussions about trans issues. Despite the lack of recognition, these hard-working young individuals persevered, navigating their identities and striving to thrive within the education system.
Through their daily efforts, these young people tried to expand notions of gender in their school environment, building more inclusive spaces that embraced all trans identities. By sharing their stories, Slovin emphasizes the need for educators to shift away from a focus on risk and concern, to instead foster a celebration of trans and gender-nonconforming youth. The book urges educators to cultivate a genuine desire to understand and support trans youth, paving the way for a brighter and queerer future within educational settings.
Fierce, Fabulous and Fluid tells us a new story of trans youth. It’s a story in which gender fluid young folks are not just dreaming of a better world, they are actively building one. For the trans students at East High inclusion is not enough, it is simply a starting point to build the world young folks envision and deserve. This world is characterized by trans joy and doesn’t just tolerate queer lives, but celebrates them. * C.J. Pascoe, author of Nice is Not Enough: Inequality and the Limits of Kindness at American High *
Slovin honors the seen and unseen labor that gender non-conforming youth perform as they work to survive high school. Slovin deftly shows gender nonconforming youth revel in their ambiguity and uncertainty, pushing at the edges of intelligibility. Slovin’s lesson, for educators and adults, asks us to honor and dwell in our own gender ambiguity and to recognize, in youth and ourselves, the radical potential of refusing the demands of gender normativity. * Jen Gilbert, author of Sexuality in School: The Limits of Education *
A powerful ethnography. Slovin draws on extensive ethnographic experience to portray high school both as an oppressive environment striated by whiteness, colonialism, class privilege and heteropatriarchal sex and gender norms and as a space of resistance and transformation. * Travers, author of The Trans Generation: How Trans Kids (and Their Parents) Are Creating a Gender Revolution *
ISBN: 9781479819607
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 417g
240 pages