Tilde Lowengrimm reviewed None of the Above by Travis Alabanza
Painfully relatable and distant in equal meaure
Travis considers their nonbinary experience through the lens of various phrases which have stuck in their memory.
This was a difficult one for me, fam. Travis's experience is like mine and nothing like mine. They have suffered so much more of the UK's transphobia while I hid until I was in San Francisco. Most of the phrases in this book aren't ones that have been said to me, but I still hear them loud & clear — even if I have plenty of space to retreat from them.
The thing that hit me hardest was the concept of trans & queer identity only needing to be what it is because society imposes narrow restrictions. If society didn't attempt to control & constrain us in these ways, we wouldn't need to define our identities how we do. What would queerness be like in a society which did not impose a value …
Travis considers their nonbinary experience through the lens of various phrases which have stuck in their memory.
This was a difficult one for me, fam. Travis's experience is like mine and nothing like mine. They have suffered so much more of the UK's transphobia while I hid until I was in San Francisco. Most of the phrases in this book aren't ones that have been said to me, but I still hear them loud & clear — even if I have plenty of space to retreat from them.
The thing that hit me hardest was the concept of trans & queer identity only needing to be what it is because society imposes narrow restrictions. If society didn't attempt to control & constrain us in these ways, we wouldn't need to define our identities how we do. What would queerness be like in a society which did not impose a value judgement about the relative genders in relationships? What would queerness be like in a society which already centered gender on experience and choice? What would it mean to be nonbinary in a society which didn't hinge on binary gender and use that to empower and punish.
