Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques 🏳️‍⚧️
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🏳️‍⚧️ The concept: In July 2012, age 30, Juliet Jacques underwent gender affirming surgery. It was, in many ways, the culmination of the long transition process she'd chronicled in an online column for the Guardian newspaper, but it was also the start of a new phase of her life as a trans woman. Trans: A Memoir is her story of growing up in a hostile culture and trying to find herself within art and music, exploring the difficult journey to being recognised as yourself.

This book has been on my shelf for ages and I'm so glad I finally read it! Coming to it in 2022, it's hard not to see Jacques' account of coming of age as a queer person in early 2000s Britain as a strange counterpoint to the current moment. On the one hand, there are more queer and trans voices making their way into mainstream culture than Jacques saw growing up; on the other, trans rights and the scant resources available for those wanting to transition are under increasing attack.

The memoir is written in matter-of-fact prose that coolly breaks down many common misconceptions around being trans, for instance that it relies on exaggerated gender roles. It also offers an unflinching look into the (already arduous, threatening to become more so) transition process in the UK. While she calmly breaks down ignorance around gender nonconformity, Jacques also offers extraordinary generosity to the people around her, exploring the thorny parts of socially transitioning with empathy for her past self and her friends and family as well as lifting up moments of euphoria.

Some of my favourite moments were Jacques' sharp analysis of the films and music that impacted her, for instance films by Pedro Almodóvar, but what stopped this being a higher-star read for me is simply the style. I like memoirs to be vivid and really conjure the feeling of a person's life, and while this was clear and informative I didn't find it immersive, but that's just my preference speaking I think! 

🏳️‍⚧️ Read it if you don't like flowery memoirs, and if you want some insight into what it means to medically transition in the UK, trans history, film criticism, and gender exploration. 

🚫 Avoid it if you are avoiding medical content right now, or if you want memoirs to have a more vivid writing style. 

‘Some were proud or called me brave i didn’t feel courageous i was just trying to live.’

‘If you articulate an outsider critique well enough you stop being one.’