Shon Faye is author of the acclaimed bestseller The Transgender Issue. Her work has been published in, among others, the Guardian, Independent, British Vogue and VICE. She writes an advice column, Dear Shon, for Vogue.com. Born in Bristol, she now lives in London.
Few books are as urgent as Shon Faye's debut ... The analysis is
thorough and heartbreaking ... it's a highly fact-based book backed
up with statistics and case studies, but she manages to write it in
a hugely emotive and powerful way ... Faye has hope for the future
- and maybe so should we.
*Independent*
Faye puts forward a powerful case not of what separates us but what
brings us together. Above all, her book is a cry for compassion for
an embattled community and a plea to be treated with dignity and
fairness. It is, surely, the very least anyone can do.
*The Guardian*
I am profoundly grateful that [this book] exists ... A book such as
this one, in which a trans person has the opportunity to speak
clearly and compellingly on their own terms, is a vitally needed
antidote ... One book cannot, of course, outweigh such a continual
outpouring of animosity. Nevertheless, as drops in the bucket go,
this book is an important and weighty one.
*The Observer*
Enter Shon Faye. The journalist and former lawyer might have
gathered a following on Twitter for her wry humor, but her first
book offers a cold, hard, and, most importantly, convincing look
into the facts surrounding trans rights both past and present, as
well as a moving and impressively comprehensive overview of trans
life in Britain today. Leavened by Faye's sharp, sparkling writing
style ... The Transgender Issue is a vital resource for readers
outside of the U.K. to understand just what is happening there in
terms of trans rights - and how to bring about a long-overdue
change to the conversation.
*Vogue*
A detailed overview of the systemic violence and discrimination
trans people face in Britain today ... [Faye is] sanguine, relaxed,
and funny while eloquently delivering complex philosophical
arguments which, as she explains them, sound so obvious that you
wonder why you've never thought of them before ... The Transgender
Issue is fundamentally not a culture-war book. It operates outside
the narrow coverage of trans people in the mainstream, and lays
bare the inarguable facts of being trans: that's it's rare, that
it's misunderstood, that society makes it dangerous.
*New Statesman*
A welcome contribution to the trans debate ... Faye has written a
clear and concise analysis of the presenting issues for trans
people today.
*Evening Standard*
Faye's language is precise and the arguments well evidenced. This
will be a challenging book for those lulled by the nonsense that
sometimes passes for journalism about trans lives ... I don't
recall a work like Shon Faye's that takes the status quo by the
lapels and gives it such a shaking.
*Times Literary Supplement*
Draws on wide-ranging research to make her arguments ... Faye is
highly intelligent and writes with compassion and clarity about
marginalised groups that suffer a lot.
*Sunday Times*
Sets the record straight on a lot of subjects, many of which are
hard to misrepresent with the facts in front of you ... Once picked
up, the book was hard to set down ... The book isn't just about
highlighting problems - there are plenty of solutions offered, many
of them radical.
*Vice*
The Transgender Issue, argues this [feminist] inheritance with
energy and clarity ... Faye writes well.
*UnHerd*
Incisive and illuminating in addressing myriad aspects of trans
life in the UK, without ever being dogmatic.
*Huck*
An important work of non-fiction that should change the tired
conversation we've been having about trans people. Not only that,
it's a book for anyone who cares about building a fairer and more
just society.
*Refinery29*
A passionately reasoned defence ... If you know what you think
about all this, she - Faye - might move you to think again.
*The Times Books of the Year 2021*
Shon Faye has written a book that models clarity in its writing and
its moral vision. Focused on the UK, this book will doubtless have
a strong and lasting impact in the world. One learns here how to
distinguish between arguments that merit a response and those which
should be refused because they are either cruel or stupid. This is
a monumental work and utterly convincing - crystal clear in its
understanding of how the world should be.
*Judith Butler, Professor, University of California Berkeley*
The Transgender Issue is an urgent interrogation of the
manufactured moral panic which scapegoats and marginalises trans
people. With precision, wit, and clarity, Shon Faye exposes how
cultural and institutional discrimination against transgender
people makes all of us less free. If you're sick of seeing people's
humanity reduced to cannon fodder for the culture war, read this
book.
*Ash Sarkar*
This book feels like a moment. In clear and eloquent writing, Shon
Faye expands the discussion around trans history and experience,
the huge impact on BAME trans people, and how economic and
political inequalities intersect with trans experience. It's
heartfelt but analytical, in-depth and utterly humane. Faye, with
calm intelligence, unpacks so many of the problematic ways trans
people are marginalised and discriminated against, with so many
acts of violence perpetrated on trans bodies. I learned a lot from
this book and it adds hugely to a wider conversation around
inclusion of and support for our trans sisters and brothers. A
landmark piece of work.
*Sinéad Gleeson*
A clear, intelligent, experience-based explanation of why the
scapegoating of trans people must stop, while enthusiastically
encouraging more trans people to join feminist, anti-racist
movements for economic and social change.
*Sarah Schulman*
There is a full-blown moral panic under way in Britain about trans
people, and The Transgender Issue is the wake-up call we need. It
is an inspiring call for coalition, across the divides of class,
race, sexual identity and gender. Shon Faye shows with courage and
clarity that the struggle of trans people is the struggle of us
all. This book is a game-changer.
*Owen Jones*
From the very first words of The Transgender Issue, it is clear the
reader is in the hands of someone with absolute clarity about the
world we live in, and the one we deserve. ... Refusing to water
down the radicalism and urgency of her demands, Shon's argument for
justice is both a heartfelt outcry against injustice, and an
utterly convincing vision for change rooted in analysis and
research.
*Florence Welch*
Writing with astonishing patience, clarity, and ethical force, Shon
Faye has gifted us an essential primer for our times. The
Transgender Issue calls us into a much-needed solidarity, and makes
the project of constructing and inhabiting a more free and just
world for everyone feel urgent, possible, and exhilarating.
*Maggie Nelson, author of ON FREEDOM*
With clarity, precision and great humanity, Faye definitively draws
to a close the harmful debate on trans lives, supporting her
findings with iron-clad evidence. Truly the final word on the
matter, this is a book for anyone who wants our society to be a
kinder, fairer, more inclusive one.
*Juno Dawson*
With extraordinary clarity and intellectual vigour, Shon Faye cuts
through the concern-trolling, the sly bigotry, and the unserious
moral panics that so often characterise the discourse surrounding
transgender lives. Though she writes out of the authority of
experience, her work transcends the personal, making a plain and
impassioned case for solidarity and human rights. The result is an
invigorating and deeply researched polemic, and a necessary
addition to the evolving conversation on civil rights in the
twenty-first century.
*Mark O'Connell*
An extraordinary achievement. A smart, academic and yet totally
accessible and patient analysis of what it is to be trans in the UK
today and a convincing argument for how we can and must improve ...
I urge everyone to read it.
*Joe Lycett*
An utterly monumental work. A bullet proof text that places trans
people at the centre of the conversation, and puts forth a vision
of the world that can liberate us all. A truly exhilarating
book.
*Amrou Al-Kadhi*
An important, thorough and excellently written book by the
legendary Shon Faye. Buy it. Share it. Support her work. She is a
fearless leader in this conversation.
*Jameela Jamil*
Everyone should read this.
*Little Mix*
I recommend everyone reads The Transgender Issue, which is a great
starting point to learn about what it's like to be a trans person
in Britain at the moment. At the end of the day, we simply can't do
this work on our own.
*Elle*
A forward-thinking analysis of how capitalist and patriarchal
systems backseat trans liberation ... a vital read that clearly
communicates the extent of how deeply anti-transness is embedded in
our society and how much work is to be done to achieve trans
liberation.
*Gay Times Book of the Year 2021*
This vital, lucid book is so much more than an argument for justice
on behalf of transgender people; it's a clarion call for gender
liberation, a tonic for our politically reactionary times.
*Susan Stryker, author of TRANSGENDER HISTORY*
Shon Faye's work [has] so informed me and made me feel hopeful and
human ... do read The Transgender Issue if you want someone to
clearly and calmly explain UK trans politics in a voice that's both
wry and kind.
*Alexandra Heminsley, author of SOME BODY TO LOVE*
Shon Faye makes a compelling case that transgender issues are
inexorably linked with other social justice causes. The result is a
bold and pragmatic guide for challenging societal transphobia
comprehensively and intersectionally.
*Julia Serano, author of SEXED UP*
It's a manifesto for change, a call for healthier conversations
about being trans, and a clear-sighted, landmark book that explains
how a more compassionate society benefits us all.
*Exeter Living*
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