Trans Kids is a trenchant ethnographic and interview-based
study of the first generation of families affirming and facilitating
gender nonconformity in children. Earlier generations of parents sent
such children for psychiatric treatment aimed at a cure, but today,
many parents agree to call their children new names, allow them to
wear whatever clothing they choose, and approach the state to alter
the gender designation on their passports and birth certificates.
Drawing from
sociology, philosophy, psychology, and sexuality studies, sociologist
Tey Meadow depicts the intricate social processes that shape gender
acquisition. Where once atypical gender expression was considered a
failure of gender, now it is a form of gender. Engaging and
rigorously argued, Trans Kids underscores the centrality of
ever more particular configurations of gender in both our physical
and psychological lives, and the increasing embeddedness of personal
identities in social institutions.