Seeing Gender

What Iris Gottlieb has created with Seeing Gender is a wonderful thing, an accessible and easily digestible way to help just about anyone understand the full spectrum of gender in a way that doesn't make the reader feel like a jerk. Really. I received this book in digital form from the publisher to review but I loved it so much that I'm going to buy a copy for my home (it really is visually awesome) but also a copy for my mom because she has finally told me that she wants to learn the right way to discuss people of nonbinary gender.

Buying a copy for my mom to learn may not seem like a big deal but to me, it shows exactly why this book is such a gem. My mom is religious, has spent a lot of her life closed off to understanding anything that was not hetero-normative (including me), and needs a little help with separating the BS from the facts. She absorbs the negative thoughts of others like a sponge. But the way Gottlieb has explained the logical and emotional reasoning behind the importance of using the correct pronouns, along with the history of many important moments in history, and even discussed some of the science of gender in a very accessible way is a tool that anyone with an open enough mind to not just reject what is 'normal' to them should be able to understand.

The art is adorable and delightful.

I'll probably edit this review later with some favorite quotes.

Big thanks to the author and Chronicle Books for the chance to review an arc of this great book. The opinions are all my own.