“Females” by Andrea Long Chu

This is a short book that I again, have no idea how it ended up on my reading list. But I am glad that I picked it up. It’s based on a play by Valerie Solanas, the author of SCUM Manifesto who later on shot Andy Warhol. This was actually good timing, my partner had just read SCUM Manifesto and could explain some of those references to me.

The idea behind this work is that being female is a state of mind, with nothing to do with gender or sex. Being female means repressing your wants in order to make room for someone else’s wants. And damn if that doesn’t resonate with me watching myself and other femmes make ourselves smaller so that someone else can take up space. Anyways, everyone is female and also everyone hates it. We all can’t stand that we do this to ourselves, but we do it anyways. And sometimes, we even seek it out.

Long Chu’s perspective as a trans women I think is really key here, she talks a lot about her process of transitioning and what she was thinking about and the art she was creating. I thought it was fascinating to hear about her experiences, and how she loops that into Solanas’ work. I’m not super familiar with the play or anything, but it is explained pretty sufficiently in the text. She also pulls in other works like the movie “Don Jon” featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and such. Everything just revolves around this idea of demonstrating that we are all, in fact, female even if we may identify as male.

I thought this was really thought-provoking and interesting to read. I’m not sure if I agree with all of it, sometimes it seems as though people like being female, but it is a really interesting look at gender dynamics. I love anything that separates gendered terms from gender/sex so it was up my alley. Anyways, it’s short and sweet so pick it up if you haven’t yet!