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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 306.76 EAN: 9781580051842 ISBN: 1580051847 Label: Seal Press Manufacturer: Seal Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 250 Publication Date: November 06, 2006 Publisher: Seal Press Sales Rank: 185949 Studio: Seal Press
Nobody Passes is a collection of essays that confronts and challenges the very notion of belonging. By examining the perilous intersections of identity, categorization, and community, contributors challenge societal mores and countercultural norms. Nobody Passes explores and critiques the various systems of power seen (or not seen) in the act of “passing.” In a pass-fail situation, standards for acceptance may vary, but somebody always gets trampled on. This anthology seeks to eliminate the pressure to pass and thereby unearth the delicious and devastating opportunities for transformation that might create. Mattilda, aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore, has a history of editing anthologies based on brazen nonconformity and gender defiance. Mattilda sets out to ask the question, “What lies are people forced to tell in order to gain acceptance as 'real'.” The answers are as varied as the life experiences of the writers who tackle this urgent and essential topic.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Just Who Are We?
Sycamore, Matt Bernstein. "Nobody Passes; Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity", Seal Press, 2006.
Just Who Are We?
Amos Lassen
Matt Bernstein Sycamore's anthology "Nobody Passes" has a diverse group of contributors. There is an Arab-American, transgender people, a former political prisoner, a sex worker and a host of others. Each gives his/her personal views on the evolving notions of gender identity, race, class and sexuality. Unlike many other anthologies, each essay is interesting and engaging. The quality of writing is high and many of the essays ... Read More
Rating: - A True Classic, Having Passed the Test of Time
Many months have gone by since the publication of this handsome and groundbreaking anthology, and is is time to declare it a true classic, having passed the test of time, the test truly exacting, the test that makes sense. The articles are still as timely and fresh as the day they were written. On the topic of passing, Mattilda (a/k/a Matt Bernstein Sycamore) is often eloquent, while stretching the topic into unexpected places to such a degree that the often elastic word comes to have little or no connection with the activity it once used to denote. In a way, this book is a more progressive and ... Read More
Rating: - A book every radical feminist and LGBTQI activist should read!
As a queer man who because of my politics, my class, and my weight always felt like an outsider among other queer men, this radical anthology on passing and not passing really resonated with me. Like Gloria Anzaldua's groundbreaking feminist classic, "Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza", this book challenges us all to interrogate the gender, racial, and sexual orientation dichotomies that so confine us. By exploring the contradictions, ambiguities, and complexities of our individual and collective selves, this liberatory book encourages readers to move beyond identity politics and discover new ... Read More
Rating: - less like jane, more like shaw
buy a copy of this book for yourself and any person you know that isnt simple minded. The other day i went out and bought two copies, one for me, and one for that kind of person, and both of us love it. Though i am not done yet, this book is one of my favorite non-fiction that i have read this year. Matt Bernstein Sycamore does not pretend to be an absolute authority on the topics of passing/not passing, and niether do any of the contributors, but they all hand down a great amount of knowledge to the reader about what it is like to grow up as an Okie, in a homohop group, someone who is into masochism, ... Read More
