The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You

by Bergman, S. Bear

• ISBN13: 9781551522647
• ISBN10: 1551522640
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-01
• Publisher: Consortium Book Sales & Dist

Summary

Lambda Literary Award Finalist Alternately unsettling and affirming, devastating and delicious, The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, is a new collection of essays on gender and identity by S. Bear Bergman that is irrevocably honest and endlessly illuminating. With humour and grace, these essays deal with issues from womenÂ’s spaces to the old boys' network, from gay male bathhouses to lesbian potlucks, from being a child to preparing to have one; throughout, S. Bear Bergman shows us there are things you learn when youÂ’re visibly different from those around you'•whether it's being transgressively gendered or readably queer. As a transmasculine person, Bergman keeps readers breathless and rapt in the freakshow tent long after the midway has gone dark, when the good hooch gets passed around and the best stories get told. Ze offers unique perspectives on issues that challenge, complicate, and confound the "official stories" about how gender and sexuality work.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 9
The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You	p. 11
While You Were Away	p. 18
Wrap/t	p. 23
Today, I am a Man (And Other Perorations of the Tranny Jewboy)	p. 29
Roadside Assistance	p. 39
It Only Takes a Minute, I	p. 43
Dutiful Grandchild	p. 45
When Will You Be Having the Surgery?	p. 51
What's in a Name?	p. 55
New Year	p. 64
The Velveteen Tranny	p. 68
It Only Takes a Minute, II	p. 88
The Field Guide to Transmasculine Creatures	p. 90
I'm Just Saying	p. 97
Passing the Word	p. 105
Not Getting Killed, with Kindness	p. 113
Getting Myself Home	p. 121
The Rule of Two	p. 128
Like Love	p. 134
It Only Takes a Minute, III	p. 141
Seahorse Papa	p. 143
Writing the Landscape	p. 149
Just a Phase	p. 155
Bowing to the Beams	p. 160
Gay Men, Queer Men, and Me	p. 164
It's Always Easier If You Can Be Something They Recognize	p. 171
Shame	p. 180
It Only Takes a Minute, IV	p. 189
Sing If You're Glad to Be Trans	p. 191
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