A deep sociological portrait of a new generation of transgender men and of how they see themselves and the world, the dangers they continue to face, and the important ways in which they shape our culture.
ARLENE STEIN is a Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. The author of four books, she received the Simon and Gagnon Award for career contributions to the study of sexualities and the Ruth Benedict Prize. She also serves on the graduate faculty of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies. She has written for The Nation, Jacobin, The New Inquiry, Haaretz, Vice and elsewhere. She lives in New Jersey.
"Earnest, diligent and defiantly optimistic....What gives this book
its real heat -- is more personal; it's the challenge posed to
[Stein's] own cherished beliefs."
--Parul Sehgal, The New York Times "A book written by a sociologist
who writes like a novelist. It's a rare nonfiction page-turner and
an important book."
--Rebecca Makkai, Conde Nast Traveler "Sensitive....A much needed
primer for those who are puzzled by contemporary discussions about
gender."
--The New Yorker "Moves beyond the popular fixation on bathroom
politics to explore individual lives."
--The Washington Post "Moving.... By allowing her subjects to speak
for themselves as those selves are reinvented in various ways,
Stein leaves room for productive conversations to appear."
--Harper's Magazine "For readers bewildered by how to make sense of
gender today.... Having received rave reviews, for those wanting to
learn more about transgender people, especially as their issues
continue to make news, Unbound serves as a useful primer."
--The Bay Area Reporter "Stein tracks the rapid evolution of gender
identity in this provocative group portrait of trans men....Her
book succeeds in documenting what it means to be trans today."
--Publishers Weekly "Arlene Stein brings insight, wit, and
generosity to this perceptive analysis of the dazzling shifts in
how we imagine, and live out, gender today. Unbound will surprise
readers who thought they had this figured out decades ago."
--Janice Irvine, Professor of Sociology, University of
Massachusetts "A new sociological study on transgender individuals
and their experience transitioning. This significant book provides
medical, sociological, and psychological information that can only
serve to educate those lacking understanding and awareness of an
entire community of individuals who deserve representation. A
stellar exploration of the complexities and limitations of
gender."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred) "If you've been trying to make sense of
how gender today seems to have slipped the chains that bind it to
our bodies in familiar ways, Unbound is a book for you. It's a
sympathetic account by non-transgender sociologist Arlene Stein,
aimed at a primarily non-transgender audience, of four people
assigned female at birth who surgically masculinize their chests.
Stein helps her readers understand that they, too, no longer need
be bound by conventional expectations of the meaning of our
flesh."
--Susan Stryker, founding co-editor, TSQ: Transgender Studies
Quarterly "In this gripping, illuminating and clear-eyed portrait
of what it means to be transmasculine in today's America, Arlene
Stein does justice to an oft-misrepresented topic. A vivid and
fiercely empathetic narrative that juxtaposes nuanced portraits of
these young people with a clearly articulated understanding of what
it means to navigate a culture that treats gender minorities with
contempt, ignorance, and violence. Unbound is a revelatory read
that fills an important role in gender studies."
--Ryan Berg, author of No House to Call My Home "Unbound is a
timely and critical response to the loud silence permeating the
current public discourse on gender and transgender experiences,
especially the lived realities of transgender men within the US. A
critical and stunning work that will shift the ways gender has been
politicized and imagined. Should be required reading for all."
--Darnell L. Moore, author of No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age
Black and Free in America
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