Recently-colored footnotes and further resources pages from the GENDER book.

Ideas for resources to add? What are your favorite gender- or trans- related books, videos, articles, websites, and groups? I’d love to hear your ideas. I’m still collecting them myself. You can email me directly at mel@thegenderbook.com. Alternately, you can try leaving comments here, I check those sometimes. 

PS- Don’t mind the footnotes; they will be updated and edited, heavily. I just put some rough text there to play with fonts and such. :)

Trans Man page from the GENDER book

Transmen are people whose experience is usually that of being assigned female at birth and socialized as such, to determine at some later point that their gender identity is masculine to the extent that they desire to live full-time in those roles.

Though there is a wide variety of people who identify as somewhat trans-masculine, most who embrace the “transsexual” identifyer usually prefer masculine pronouns, take masculine or androgynous names, and may want to alter their bodies to match their gender  identities.

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(cc) the GENDER book project. in progress snapshot presented for community editing and feedback. Please direct all notes to mel@thegenderbook.com or comment using disqus on the original post to ensure your voice gets heard. Thanks!

Hey Tumblrs!

The GENDER book is in the process of making a video that will be used for an upcoming kickstarter and for a grant application. If you want to be in it, we’d love to have you. Here’s how you submit a shoutout:

Make a brief video of you saying how a resource like the GENDER book could make positive change in your life, family, home community. Who do you know that could use some gender education?

Bonus points if you show off your copy, hand-printed or found at an event, or include a shot of your favorite page(s).

Every contributor will get a shoutout in the final hardcover GENDER book and here on our website, and our heartfelt thanks. 

Send us an email to creators at the genderbook dot com with Video Shoutout in the subject line, and a link to your blog or youtube or whatever you’d like us to promote for you. But hurry, they’re due by Wednesday Feb 20th if you want to be included. 

Much love and community,

Mel, Jay, and Robin

co-creators of the GENDER book

The transgender umbrella (page from the GENDER book)

Gender Expression

Another page from the GENDER book, edited.

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Oh cool, I get it. Gender expression is about the ways I communicate my gender to other people. This includes my short hair, baseball cap, how I don’t wear makeup, how I refer to myself, the way I talk, and even the activities I enjoy. Though the specifics change every time I get dressed, I notice I tend to use a consistently masculine palette overall. However, I might present a little differently depending on my mood that day, and the context - you know, whether I’m going to church with my grandma or a party with my friends. But that’s just me. How do you wear your gender?

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Please leave comments/critique/feedback as comments on our original post if you want us to read them, or simply email us at creators (at) thegenderbook.com. We’d love to read what you have to say.

Gender Perception

Another page from the GENDER book, edited.

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So I’m constantly putting out these messages that express my gender. Sometimes I’m not even aware of it. But that’s only half the story… How those signals are interpreted by others (Like Jim here) is their perception of my gender.

I’m finding that when my gender is consistently correctly identified by strangers, it’s easier to navigate going to the grocery store. I feel safer* and more comfortable. 

However, I, like most people, sometimes have the experience of being misgendered by well-meaning strangers at one time or another. While this can be very upsetting (or frustrating or amusing or however you deal with such misunderstandings), it’s important to remember that how others judge your gender is never as important as how you see yourself. 

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Please leave comments/critique/feedback as comments on our original post if you want us to read them, or simply email us at creators (at) thegenderbook.com. We’d love to read what you have to say.

Imagine gender as a planet.

All people grow up somewhere on that planet, most in Ladyland or in Manlandia. Lots of people are comfortable where they’re born and stay in that same area their whole  lives. Some people,  though, are citizens of Manlandia but are born in Ladyland. Just like in the real world, you can’t tell someone’s citizenship by looking at them, it’s very personal. As we get older we may want to move to a place where we are more comfortable. 

cisgender If you’re most comfortable in the gender you were assumed at birth, that’s called cisgender. 

transgender Anyone who lives outside their expected gender land, crossing state lines, so to speak, could be said to be transgender. 

Gender Identity

is how you see yourself, based on where you feel most at home in the universe of gender possibility.

RULES

#1 There are no rules.

#2 Play as often as you like; sometimes identities change.

#3 You can claim many words, or eschew  labels altogether, it’s up to you.

#4 This game is just for fun! The real answers are within yourself.

HINT - sometimes to find your identity, a little experimentation and self-reflection is required.

*Remember, this is not a standalone image, but a page from the GENDER book. Please see our site for the latest versions and feel free to offer us feedback in the comments below (we’re less likely to find it on your own blog) Thanks! - Mel, illustrator and co-creator

Hey folks! I haven’t been updating as much because, well, the coloring part of the book is mostly done. But! I am still doing promotional graphic design, and this was one recent project for that: a postcard to help advertise our book at trans conferences. See it this year at Philly and the Gender Spectrum in Berkeley. Where do you think we should send them? These also could come in handy for sharing our project with potential publishers. 

-mel

What did you do this morning?

I fed my horses and the dog and myself, and then colored and texted up this page. I think it’s probably one of the most important ones in the book, so I don’t know why I saved it for next-to-last to color. Maybe because we already have a page for it in the booklet, maybe because I wanted to get more research in, make it as good as possible. It’s not perfect, but I hope it helps. Please share.    -Mel

Yay! Back in the illustrating groove today. I just finished coloring and typesetting (rough draft) text to the gender perceptions page- we welcome your feedback on it.

In other news, the way I was able to get this working despite my copy of Photoshop cS3 not surviving my OS crash ( and subsequent reinstall. grr, licensing errors! ) was by downloading the free 30-day trial of CS5 and omg guys, it’s pretty much amazing. Anyone want to donate a serial code for the good genderbook cause? haha. 

Anyway, more pages are on the way, so thanks for your patience so far.