I would rate this book 2/5 stars.

Punchard shortly describes the lives of dozens of trans, intersex, and non-binary historical figures. These bios are less than a page long and include a picture or image of the person in question. I really wanted to like this book, but I didn’t like the execution.

There wasn’t any organization to the profiles. I would have preferred maybe a chronological approach, instead of randomly listing them out. It could have used heavy sentence level editing for grammar and clarity. From the title, this book claims to be a ‘celebration’ of trans, intersex, and non-binary lives, but it seemed to focus on their genitals and the violence perpetrated against them. I would have much rather read more about fewer people, which could have allowed for a greater depth of historical analysis.

This collection of stories about transgender, non-binary and non-gender conforming people throughout history - including some brilliant insight into the lives of some people who have spoken up and helped the world progress. It definitely provides some food for thought when people try to claim gender identity is a relatively new concept. The A-Z format was an interesting choice rather than doing it chronologically so we could see a progression over time but worked in it's own way.

And while I enjoyed some of the stories, there was a lot of negative language towards trans people. misgendering and a quite negative portrayal of non gender conforming people. As a cis person who uses neutral pronouns I may not be the most important voice of opinion regarding books like this, but it has heavy focus on body parts which is something that people everywhere are trying to make sure is nobody elses business. Now, I don't know of course if this is done on purpose but could definitely be read as offensive.

The writing itself had some interesting sections, but overall needs an edit as there were a lot of repeated words or sentences that didn't make sense.

I really enjoyed this book, something I talk about often is the huge amount of queer and disabled history that has been destroyed and we can’t get back, as well as the dilution of what we do have. I appreciate this book being brutally honest about trans and intersex people of the past, not every one is a good person and this book shows some of these people did awful things. But I can appreciate knowing they existed and the wobbly/blurry lines there are because so much has been destroyed.
I wasn’t a fan of the art work.
Some feedback: P 40 there is a typo “in in”
P 42 ‘the normal xy’ the use of ‘normal’ doesn’t sit right. Maybe something like “most common” or “assumed normal”
P 50 ‘in south African’ typo
P 64 use of they seems inappropriate when it is stated this person always identified as ‘female’
P 68 typo “until till”
P 88 street prostitution, when the term sex work has been used in this book I’m not sure how appropriate the use of prostitute/prostitution is
P 90 same as above
P 102 same again
“Helped the homeless young and trans women of colour” this sentence was a bit funky, wasn’t really sure what this meant.
And the awareness day dates aren’t chronological from Jan-Dec which I found very weird?

Will probably add to my lgbtq non fiction book list on my blog

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
DNF 59%
This book had an interesting premise, but it felt very short from meeting my expectations. I had to push through to read it and even then, I couldn’t finish it. A collection of biographies of trans, non-binary and intersex people through time sounded like a very important book to write and publish. Instead, we get a clunky written book with an unnecessary focus on genitalia that fails to use consistence pronouns for the same individual. It was disorienting to jump through time periods because of the alphabetical order of the biographies. I couldn’t say I learned a lot from these individuals by how short their bios were. But it did serve as a starting point to investigate further. I hope in the future we get a chance to read more titles like these just better executed.

This book is amazing! I got to learn about many people who didn’t conform to the forced gender binary. I will definitely be getting this book for our library’s collection.

Yikes. Major yikes. This book misgenders people, uses gross and outdated language, and celebrates people who did shitty things. Pass.

It breaks my heart to give this a one star rating. It's both my first ARC and a book I had such high hopes for.

My first point of contention with the book is that the title is extremely misleading. It says it is a celebration of trans, nb, and intersex icons. I thought the entries would be about trans, nb, and intersex people who have done something of note. I was quickly disillusioned of that expectation.

There are some in here who many would consider gender pioneering icons, such as Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, Lili Elbe, Anne Lister, and Alan Hart, but there are also those in here who are rapists and murderers. I surely hope that Punchard isn't actually celebrating them. Judging by the introduction, I would assume not, as it sets up the book to tackle the argument that trans and non-binary people are a fad of a modern era. A simple look at gender non-conforming people through history is a perfectly fine concept for a book, but is not what was marketed.

This would be enough to knock the book down a star or two, but it was the actual content that had the rating plummeting. The book is all over the place. The entries are not organized in order of when they lived, there are several spelling and grammar errors, the writing reads as if someone was just jotting down a list of notes or facts they picked up on google, and— most egregious of all—I lost track of how often people were being misgendered in this book.

Not only was there misgendering, but insensitive and sometimes offensive language being used many times throughout the book, such as saying that a trans person's "true" gender was discovered. It was not their true gender. It was the sex they were assigned at birth. Please do better.

All of these aspects compounded to make a very unenjoyable read, and I even read aloud a few passages to my mom to hear her thoughts, to which end she agreed with me completely. Many times I questioned if the book had even seen an editor or simply was pushed through as a first draft. Very dosappointing.

I found this book very informative and I definitely learned a lot while reading it, but I wish it was less of an encyclopedia and maybe dived a bit deeper into some people's stories.

Phillippa Punchard has assembled a history of transgender, non-binary, and intersex people with personal profiles and beautiful illustrations. This book is a history lesson, teaching us not only that transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people have always been here, but also that the experience of gender cannot be defined and categorized by two or even three labels. Gender is multitudinous. The forward and introduction provide context for the opposition to liberation as it pertains to gender and sexuality as well as difficulties in gathering history, but also the necessity in doing so.

The profiles vary in content, presumably based on the information that is available, though it feels disjointed at times. I struggled a bit with the choice to assemble the biographies in alphabetical order rather than, perhaps, chronological order or separated by historical time periods. I wonder if it would feel more organized and easier to trace and understand threads throughout history. Regardless, this book is a essential and expansive celebration of gender-diverse history.

In the forward, Christine Burns writes, "TRANS PEOPLE ARE NOT A NEW THING."

In the intro, Punchard writes, "It is so important that we know our shared history."

It is crucial to learn untold histories to disprove existing restrictive and oppressive views on gender and sexuality. Gender Pioneers teaches us the vast global history of gender diversity, and I believe it will be an essential text.
Pub Date: 08/18/22

Thank you NetGalley, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, and Singing Dragon for the advance copy!

This is a great book to sit on your coffee table, end table, or bathroom. It’s easy to read (though clunky sometimes) and the format makes it a real quick read, too.

I do have issues with this book that so far only one other person has addressed. There are phrases that refer to someone who identified as male such as, “...was found to be female.” This type or language isn’t appropriate. Just because the community found out that he had female genitalia, doesn’t mean they found out that he WAS female. If he didn’t identify as female, he wasn’t female.

This particularly incident occurs early on in the book and similar incidents are repeated throughout.

Gender Pioneers is an admirable project. As a trans, non-binary person who hosts a history podcast about overlooked marginalized people, this book seems as if it would be directly in my sweet spot. And it would have been, if it weren't so offensive and poorly written.

The book is a collection of short biographies of trans, nb, and intersex people, and in the nature of most biography collections, only offers a brief glimpse at the subjects' lives. Without question, the most egregious issue with this book is how often descriptions of physical anatomy and physical exams (particularly of intersex people) make up 1/3 to half of a person's "biography." For example, the biography of Mademoiselle Lefort is three paragraphs long, the longest of which is detailing the anatomy of the person. And when I say detailed, I mean excruciatingly detailed. "An infant-sized small penis was also described, rather than a possible clitoris, with a partial labia and no testes. No urethral opening was seen, and strangely, there were a number of small openings that emitted urine."

I couldn't tell you much about Lefort other than their anatomy. They were once a "bearded lady." So other than the details of their anatomy, I know pretty much nothing else.

In addition to some glaringly offensive portions, the writing itself is often clunky, strange and opaque. This sentence is about two people who were arrested for dressing in women's clothes (this is the only context given prior to this sentence). "They performed, as well as keeping and going about in their women's clothes in a house in Wakefield Street, Bloomsbury, which now has a blue plaque." Or this sentence in the same biography: "They were even at one time bound over to keep the peace after being mistaken for women whilst actually being dressed as the men they were." Not only are these sentences nearly unreadable, the latter one is also making some really big leaps about their gender identities (the men they were???).

I cannot recommend this book to anyone, unfortunately, and I would actually actively caution any libraries from housing the book, as it absolutely does harm to trans, non-binary and intersex people.

Thanks NetGalley & Phillippa Punchard for an early copy of this book.

First some context: I'm a cisgendered woman who has grown up alongside trans and gender non-conforming people since middle school. While I can't give a personal account of living as a trans or non-binary, or intersexed person, I've been lucky enough and honored to listen to multiple perspectives and issues that concern the community. I am still and will always have something to learn.

Ok, that being said, I was really excited to read this history. I recognized a number of figures mentioned in this book which was really cool to see. The idea that "trans people are new" is a symptom of our myopic view of history and lack of resources we have put into preserving the stories of marginalized people. This book does a great job in showcasing how little we know but also attempts the brave task of collecting as many bits and pieces of these important stories. I want to stress that I do think this is an important work. That being said, there is a glaring focus on medically defining gender that became extremely distracting. In multiple cases, there was a curious application of pronouns:

<blockquote> "Herculine was a 19th century intersex person who always selfidentified as female" </blockquote> and then throughout the passage Herculine is referred to with they/them pronouns. The default is always to reference genitalia and in this particular case, not use the pronouns that she herself used! I found that confusing. I'm wondering why the decision to link body parts with gender is so consistent in this book. It contrasts with the moments where different gender terms are listed from different cultures—proving that gender expression is so varied. I also wonder if that is due to outdated ideas about gender being linked to sexual orientation which... is also an outdated concept. I got the sense that this book held ideas found in the <a herf="https://lgbta.fandom.com/wiki/Transmedicalism">transmedicalist community</a herf>. I cannot say that definitively, I'm just sharing my personal impression.

The passage on Marsha P. Johnson has some serious issues with the text getting jumbled in my Kindle file. Sentences were spliced into other sentences and the text didn't make any sense. It was heartbreaking because she was literally one of the most important trans activist of her time along with Sylvia Rivera. The fact that I couldn't enjoy her part in the book was really tough.

Part of me feels the issues within this book are due to what information remains about these pioneers has been recorded throughout history by cisgendered people trying to fit trans, non-binary, genderqueer, and intersexed people into useless binary boxes. Specifically, the issue of nonconsentual medical intervention upon intersexed people is mentioned but not given a lot of discussion considering how important the topic is within the community. Frankly, I am not as well versed in intersexed advocacy and found myself doing my own research outside of this book due to the questions I had while reading it.

Half way through I kept wondering if I would suggest this book to people. Right now the answer is, "it depends."

I'm not sure that I can confidently hand this to someone who is not already somewhat familiar with trans, nonbinary, and/or intersex advocacy without worrying they too will get wrapped up in questions about medical definitions versus hearing each individual person's tale about their lives. The beginning and end of this book tries to illustrate the range of different identities and I'm not sure it has enough impact. Rather it feels like an exhaustive list with few fleshed out examples that amount more to name dropping with "more about her later." I think that people learn to empathize more with others when they can really see the world through someone else's POV and this book doesn't really offer that.

For my trans and nonbinary siblings... I would worry that there are part of this they will find upsetting. Everyone's mileage will vary. While I do think it is important to discuss what medically transitioning looked like at different times in history, the sheer amount of time devoted to its discussion felt clinical and at times voyeuristic. That's not to say we shouldn't discuss hormone therapy and the different ways that people wished to affirm their gender identity. I'm more saying at times in this book it felt a bit cold.

Maybe if you approach this with the goal of being inspired by the ancestors that came before and are able to see past the rough edges—I might recommend this to you?

Positive highlights were how far back into history this book goes. Collecting stories from ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, into the 1500s, and all the way to today very much proves that gender is FAR more complex and nuanced than what the Christian patriarchy would have us believe. The appendices include a lot of great information from across the world regarding different culture’s attitudes and terminology on different genders. The list of different days of remembrance were also much appreciated! I kept reflecting on three major ideas:

1) Confirming my knowledge that trans and non-binary people aren't a fad made up by my fellow millennials. (So many people need to know this.)
2) The way we discuss gender and the terms we use evolve but the fight for dignity has always be there and will continue. No matter how conservative the time is, people find a way to live as authentically as they can and die for that right. No one should have to make that sacrifice.
3) It's amazing we even know some of these stories. The effort to erase people from history is strong. The fear that people have about defining someone else's gender has lead to truly despicable behavior from the human race.



I'm curious to hear more from my trans, non-binary, and genderqueer siblings about this one.

2.5
It probably didn't help that I just finished a similar concept of a book featuring incredible black women that was really amazing, because I found the writing in this to be really boring. Like reading off a wikipedia page of information. I know that it's hard to find first-hand information on people that weren't particularly famous, but I think the material could have been presented in a more interesting way. I love history and am a member of the queer community myself and I read a lot of nonfiction, but this was a bit of a slog with a few sprinkles of interesting throughout. I also didn't like the style of the illustrations very much. I appreciate the work it took to round up a lot of unknown people though!

Thank you to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gender Pioneers is a concise dive into trans history through short profiles of trans, gender non-conforming, non-binary, and intersex people. As it says in the foreword, "TRANS PEOPLE ARE NOT A NEW THING."

As a historian, I wanted to know more about the author's sources. There were some footnotes, but not as many as I expected for a book like this. Also, for a book marketed as a celebration of trans icons, the profiles were dry. LGBTQ+ history is nuanced and can be tragic, but I wanted more triumphs and celebrations. I also wasn't sure of why the author chose these particular icons - or if the images of the icons were or would be part of an exhibit. More than once I questioned the author's word choice - for example using a term like "sex worker" over terms like "prostitute", or using medicalized terms like "hermaphrodite" instead of "intersex" (or explaining the history of "intersex").

I do think this is an important book written during a crucial time. Trans rights are under attack around the world, and proving that trans people have been part of our history and our world is an integral part of that fight.

I am a cis -gendered woman and try to read non-fiction about experiences different to my own regularly. So I was excited by the title of this book.

Unfortunately, I really struggled my way through it. I don't know enough about gender/trans history to know how comprehensive this list is but it did seem like a good collection of accounts. They did, however, read quite cold. As the book claims to be a 'celebration' I thought there might be more than just facts and dates.
I would have loved for the people to be listed chronologically so I could have had a sense of how they crossed over and how their experiences differed due to the time periods.

Overall, I found it a little clunky and clinical. Neither of which would have been a bad thing had it been 'sold' as more of an encyclopedia.

The mistake that has caused my rating to be so low is the misgendering of multiple people in this book. Multiple times saying that someone was 'discovered' to be female when actually they were assigned that sex at birth and did not identify with it. Or saying that their 'true gender' was discovered, when in fact the sex they were assigned at birth was discovered.

CN: brief mention of transphobia, death, suicide, medical content

Gender Pioneers is a non-fiction collection of life stories of trans and non-binary people throughout history. Each biography is accompanied by colorful portraits. The biographies are short, usually a page per person, sorted alphabetically. This book is an amazing resource to show people who think that being trans is just "trendy". The author took great care in including diverse personalities when it comes to geographical origin, gender expression and identity, and class. The forewords and the epilog tied the collection together nicely.

My impression of the book version that I read was that it was very much still a draft in need of editing. This concerned both grammar/writing but also sensitivity to gendered language. I would recommend checking whether the pronouns actually made sense for all of the people, as sometimes a person was described as identifying male or female, but the pronoun used was "they".

With regard to content, I assume the fact that all of the people are now deceased and cannot tell us about their lives themselves poses a problem. However, I would have loved to read more about how they felt about their gender themselves than what courts and doctors had decided was the "truth". There were a lot of descriptions of surgeries, however I am unfamiliar with medical terminology so I did not know what that meant. While I find it important to mention pioneers in gender affirmative surgeries, I found it unnecessary to describe each person's (assumed) genitalia.

Lastly, because of the long history of transphobia, sadly many trans people have suffered violence or were murdered. Some also committed suicide. I'd wish that there were no explicit descriptions of how people committed suicide, there is a reason why reputable news outlets refrain from doing so.

For these reasons, at this point I give it only 2 out of 5 stars, but I hope that the points will be considered ahead of publication.

I found it to be an interesting and very informative book about trans, intersex and non-binary figures throughout history. It’s was interesting to see how different people throw out different points in history were treated and how they chose to live their lives.

This is a collection of short biographies on Trans, non-binary, and intersex people throughout history. On one hand, it’s very thoroughly researched. I learned about a lot of people whose history has been erased by our society & education system; all the info in this book is really important.

I don’t think it was executed as well as it could’ve been. There are a few uses of the wrong pronouns throughout, mentions of someone discovering the person's “true gender” (as in their gender assigned at birth). There are also quite a few typos. I kind of wish this was organized by year rather than alphabetically. I got a little confused moving from a time BC up to the 1900s.

#bookreview Gender Pioneers by Philippa Punchard

Firstly, I want to say that I am not trans and I don’t usually read much nonfiction, but one of my goals for 2022 was to learn more LGBTQ+ history. That’s why I asked for this ARC.

This book has some definite problems. There’s pronouns misused in simple little ways that I feel like the editors should’ve caught. There’s the confusion around whether people were just cross-dressing or actually trans in a lot of circumstances and it seems like the author only considers them trans if they had sexual reassignment surgery or wanted it. Which is terribly problematic, to my knowledge. There’s no rule book to choosing a person’s gender and it’s an entirely personal decision to do anything involving surgery or hormones or any of those options.
A thing I just found confusing was the way they presented the individual little bios about these people. Alphabetically? Why? I feel this was incredibly confusing when trying to read. If they could’ve separated them by time period if not just sorted them semi-chronologically, it would’ve been a lot less confusing to follow. Absolutely my opinion, but I was confused going from the 20th century and then suddenly back to BCE and then forward again to 1870 or whatever.
A lot of the bios are brief to the point of losing the point. They don’t even seem to tie to anything and then it’s done. Some start with birth and then continue to death and others just start and end within a few years with no explanation of their life outside of that. I understand a lot of their life might be unknown, but I still felt like it would’ve been easier to read if it was stated this is what we know and this we’re not sure about and etc. instead of just skipping to the one and only even that seems to imply they are a cross-dresser or whatever.
There is some good info here, but it’s not an easy read and it’s difficult to get past all of the errors and offensive errors and brevity. I read about 80% of it before I got tired of trying to read the unreadable sentences. Such as “She is what an amazing personality she had.” And “In also reported to have shouted ‘I got my August 2021, a bust of her was unveiled civil rights.’ in Christopher Park near the Stonewall” There’s no end period there, it just continues into another paragraph 🤪😣

rating: ⭐️

“TRANS PEOPLE ARE NOT A NEW THING, you may think otherwise, but that says more about you than about us.”

2,5 stars rounded up

The first, maybe fifty pages, were interesting. It taught me something new and I didn’t know a lot of the background of transsexuality and gender fluidness. The first people that were described in the book were also interesting to get to know, but when it just goes on for 200 pages and it describes a lot of new and different person, I will say it gets boring, and too similar to each other.

I would have liked if the author would have chosen fewer people that were more information on, so a person wouldn’t just have a few pages and then skips to a next person. For me it would have been more interesting to read a more in-depth description and backstory about fewer persons, the other way around it just seems superficial. I also think it would have been more well-arranged if the persons were arranged after a timeline, it wouldn’t be so confusing, as it is to jump in time all the time.

On the more positive note I did enjoy reading some of the persons background and it really taught me a lot of new information about the gender transition and how it has developed.

It is not a great book, but it has potential. I’m quite sure that you will learn something new, but it can be a tiring book to finish.