Citation: Carla Pfeffer: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Carla Pfeffer, PhD, professor, sociologist and author of the book Queering Families, provides a well-rounded and surprisingly intimate look at a world within the transgender community involving cisgender women and transgender men. Pfeffer leads the reader through her natural academic curiosity while providing readers with a simple and easy to navigate understanding throughout the book, making it a must read. Throughout the early part of Queering Families, the author provides the reader with information from a variety of sources, including a notable pop culture reference to a moment from The Oprah Winfrey Show. This interview with a pregnant Female to Male or FTM individual and his wife provided a spotlight on the transgender community by showing the redefined roles and family construction that can exist within this community. As the author continues, she provides the reader with historical context to better familiarize themselves to the unique language and perspective with which the community situates its self. This approach provides insight into the experiences of the transgender community in the U.S. from mid-1950s up to the publishing of this book in 2017.
The author fosters a rich understanding of transgender relationships and illuminates the complex difficulty FTM individuals deal with on a day to day basis. These difficulties help to demonstrate how day to day interactions, conflicts and misunderstandings can make basic relationship dynamics difficult. As many social scientists do, Pfeffer utilizes quotes to reduce the academic nature of the text while bringing those individuals referenced in the text to the reader in stunning detail. One highlight of chapter two seems to span the chapter in subtle undertones. This is the concept of passing, which in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community often spans the LGBT community in different shades and contexts. Pfeffer and her illustrations highlight passing in some trans communities is a desired outcome as it allows for formal recognition of one’s gender identity and expression. While it can be fraught with struggles such as being passable enough to use a restroom, ensuring that identification matches one’s gender identity and the possibility of community rejection for FTM or Male to Female individuals (MTF); passing provides a safety net in most day to day interactions for members of the trans community.
The focus on passing is continued throughout the text and is expanded to provide a better understanding of the role’s partners take in family development. These roles are further developed as the reader learns more about how duties, household chores and emotional labor are divided within relationships along gender roles. An example of this division can be seen in cisgender women performing more feminine chores and their transgendered partners more masculine tasks such as mowing the lawn. Another interesting division is the care of FTM individuals by their cisgender partners post-surgery. These divisions seem to mirror those of their heterosexual counter parts. This partner negotiation continues with a very intimate narrative on sexuality. The case examples provided offer a well-developed, no holds bar discussion on sex and sexuality within relationships between cisgender women and trans men. This in-depth dialogue provides the reader with a vocabulary and experience with which to truly understand sex and sexual identity as it interplays in the above relationships.
Pfeffer moves from the intimate to the social as she begins to focus on the subsequent cultural differences that exist for the FTM population. In these cultural contexts, she discusses the resistance to broad heteronormative practices such as monogamy and accessing unique cultural needs and dimensions such as reproductive technologies. These cultural nuances are further examined and illuminated as the reader is led deeper into this perspective of trans communities to discover things such as violence within LGBT communities, the rejection of transitioning individuals by some LGB social circles and the lack of support trans relationships have within social and extended family contexts.
Queering Families is a wonderfully in-depth and refreshing look at the often-misunderstood relationships of trans individuals. The author focuses on the relationships of cisgender women and transgender men to illustrate the complexities some trans individuals must navigate on a day to day basis. The postmodern ideology is interwoven within the book through the language and narratives provided by case examples and the cultural understanding of the trans community. These wonderful relationships are unique and often specific to the couple and their understanding of each other and trans culture. Pfeffer focuses on the continued and persistent need for social justice not only in the LGBT community but in trans communities in its global position among cultures. Trans individuals are often marginalized even in their cultural grouping within the LGBT dynamic. This marginalization must change on a global scale to a state of curiosity and inclusivity to promote learning for all individuals.