It’s here! I’m very excited to review Kate Bornstein's My New Gender Workbook (2013), an update of My Gender Workbook (1997). A lot has happened with gender, sex, and sexuality in the ~15 years since the first edition was released. Here I cover some of the changes in the new version as well as provide an introduction of what this book is about for those who have not yet read it and why I love it (still my most-recommended book about gender, on this site and off).

The Changes



The book now has a companion website at Routledge which includes resource links (with fine sites as AVEN, Genderfork, and Neutrois Nonsense), PDFs of the parts of the first edition not present in the new one, and the ability to give feedback on the book.

As for the book itself, so much is new (and improved!) that it would not be too much of a fun read to dissect it all, but I’ll mention some of the important stuff that is present:

A greater contextualization of gender as one of many areas affected by systems of oppression; the concept of kyriarchy and interlocking areas apart from gender is woven in excellently with the rest of the material

Quotes from Bornstein’s “twibe” (their preferred term for Twitter following) pepper the book in sidebars and in an extensive section where ‘101 Gender Outlaws Answer the Question, “Who Am I?”’ (I’m included, yay!). These quotes and the context in which they appear help to give the book a modern update without providing a sense of alienation for those not on Twitter (many of the quotes are completely intelligible outside of an Internet context).

More about sexuality - including asexuality! - and how it relates to gender.

The addition of Li'l Blu, a cute gender-unspecified character who pops up through the text, brimming with emotion…okay, yes, this is definitely an important addition.

Several whole new chapters…seriously, just because you have My Gender Workbook already doesn’t mean you should forget about checking this out.

What is My New Gender Workbook and Why Do I Love this Book?

I first read My Gender Workbook in October of 2010. I had just started attending City College of San Francisco for my first semester and enrolled in an Intro to LGBT Studies class. I don’t recall if I had already heard about the book online or if I just happened to notice it on the shelves, but whatever the case, it was absolutely what I needed at the time. I had not been out about my gender in any capacity for long and I was still unsure of whether I was going about anything in the right way - transitioning, name changes (if any), coming out, and so on. This book helped me realize that there is no right way, and that is a freeing notion. It is up to me to take what I want, leave what I don’t want, and even create new ideas about gender and my own personal development.

Bornstein helped me conceptualize gender (and absence of gender) a kind of “free play zone” where I could bend and make up the rules as as I saw fit, for my own comfort. Their ability to balance a sense of humor with confronting some pretty heavy topics (and not managing to dampen the seriousness of topics like oppression in the process) was very refreshing after having possessed a sense of hopelessness on the topic of gender for far too long.

I liked it so much that I bought both a physical and Kindle copy, which I haven’t done before (or since) with any other book). I just knew I needed to have it on hand, online or off, for those moments of personal doubt, or when showing others this essential stepping stone to personal comfort. While the heavier portions may not be a good fit for those remain skeptical of any postmodern, deconstructive approaches in the book, I have a hard time imagining how at least one read of this book wouldn’t open someone’s mind about gender in some meaningful, fun way - as a concept in general and for themselves personally - and encourage critical thinking about identities held, and imposed on us, in general.



The book is packed with quizzes in a kind of teen magazine style (if teen magazines were a little, er, more overtly postmodern in their approach), all about gender and, not infrequently, its relationship to other facets of identity that all inform one another: race, age, class, looks, mental health, family and reproductive status, language, habitat, citizenship, religion, sexuality, political ideology, and humanity. Bornstein writes in an accessible way about these topics that are typically difficult to wrench away from theoretical academic babble. They never let the reader forget that all of these things, gender absolutely included, don’t just float around in theory-land: they are real and have practical applications and implications.

Bornstein uses a treasure map graphic and theme to guide the reader to answer of that ever-elusive tiger of a question: what is gender? For many people, cis and trans*, gender “just is” and even questioning its nature at the core may go un-thought-of for many years, even a lifetime. I won’t spoil the answer/s for you here, not only because I hope you’ll read the book but because the answer includes your own personal touch, but I will say that Bornstein plots it at the intersection of identity, power, and desire. Amid theory, humor, and quizzes, there are also exercises to help the reader explore gender and other facets of identity on their own.

Overall, I think My New Gender Workbook would be a fine edition to a “gender deconstruction gift basket”, but that’s just me (by the way - can someone get on this idea?!). I feel lucky to have encountered it just as I was exploring both theoretical and practical topics around gender more, but I wish I had known it existed years ago and that I had found it when I was first confused about all of this. The good news is that it is absolutely never too late to acquire freeing ideas about gender, how to express yourself, and about the world at large. This book is a great place to start.