Rethinking Gender is an entertaining but also educational and important book. When reading it, one notices how much effort the author has put into the texts and the drawings.
I can highly recommend this book. It educates about an important topic that more people should deal with.

Rethinking Gender: An Illustrated Exploration by Louie Lauger
Originally published as: Gender-Kram: Illustrationen und Stimmen zum Geschlecht

Edition: Ebook, 222 pages, on sale November 2022

Disclaimer: I got this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you so much for this amazing opportunity!

Have you ever heard a term for a gender and you didn't know what to do with it? Have you asked yourself if you are not cis? And if the answer is yes, what is the gender that feels right to you? Is it safe to invite others to know about your not-cis gender? And what is gender after all?!
Well, Louie Lauger's beautifully illustrated "guide" can answer a lot of questions! (I put guide in "" because as Louie says themself these are all opinions and knowledge that they collected and not everything works for anyone due to cultural background or other reasons.)

I am nonbinary and I thought I had myself educated on that matter - but dear, was I wrong!!! I learned so much new stuff and I loved it.

Louie explains the social construct gender, the different kind of genders and how society deals with it in a very understandable way.
This book was created as part of Louie's masters degree and so it is very thought through and well researched. It includes a lot of opinion and life story of different people and shows a broadly defined spectrum about gender.
The book has a lot of space for your own annotations and thoughts which I liked a lot.

This book teaches you stuff on eye level with a lot of love and positive messages.
My only problem with it was that I would have really preference a printed version because of the possibility of annotations and because sometimes my phone screen was too small to read the font comfortably (but we can zoom so that's a first world problem, okay?!).

4.5/5 ⭐️

Rethinking Gender by Louis Läuger is a wonderful exploration of gender and gender identity. Throughout the book, topics are presented in an accessible and informative manner. The beautiful illustration helps ensure that the book remains engaging and helps keep it from being overwhelming. Rethinking Gender helped me feel more confident in my own gender presentation and expression, and I would absolutely recommend this book to my students. I also really enjoyed the history and myths sections of the book and I look forward to incorporating the contents of this book into my teaching in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and MIT Press for the advanced copy of this book.

This Book was clearly written with the target audience being people with little to no understanding of concept of gender outside of male and female looking to learn more about the concept. So, if thats what you are looking for I would definitely recommend this book as a starting point.

But as someone who already knows quite a lot about the concept of gender this book felt repetitive and boring. There is nothing inherently wrong with this book i am just not the target audience.

A good layout of both the basics and complexities of gender, Redefining Gender will make a great resource for those just beginning or deepening their understanding of others and themselves. I think it will be a good educational resource for late high school and college students studying gender. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of citations, both from a research standpoint and wanting to read some of the studies mentioned.

While I appreciate the diversity in examples, things like having Black "characters" say they're from the ghetto and starring out the n-word was unnecessary. I understand that the author may lack some cultural context and nuance in that department, as they openly admit in their own intro.

This was a really cute guide to all things around surrounding gender! Most of it I felt like was a bit 101-type knowledge, so this would be really good for people who are new to this conversation. I did learn some new identities from the section that listed a bunch of genders, and I love that it included interview quotes from people with each identity. This would be a great book for people trying to expand their knowledge!

This book is a comprehensive, easy to understand, honest look at gender and sexuality. It meets the reader where they are and doesn't shy away or sugarcoat. I would recommend this to anyone - of almost any age! - who is trying to get a better handle on understanding idenity. I would use this as a textbook for an intro undergraduate class!

An accessible and informative guide for anyone interested in learning about or expanding their knowledge on the subject of gender, with wonderful illustrations to complement the information.

Accessible, fun, and informative.
A fantastic book exploring the nuances of gender and identity, and mixing the art and style of a graphic novel with a non fiction book.
This is a book both for people on the gender spectrum, and those wanting to better understand or educate themselves on gender identity and presentation.
Affirming and written with care and empathy towards those, including myself, who find themselves outside of the cisgender label. I found myself learning and better understanding concepts and identities I had already thought myself familiar with.
On the other side of this the book is equally accessible for those with none to little base knowledge of gender identities and presentations and is a fantastic resource and start towards educating yourself and others.

This was ok, very beginner and I think there are better books on gender that are already out that I would choose to sell at my store instead.

I want to thank NetGalley for giving me a digital copy of “Rethinking Gender” to review.

The author of “Rethinking Gender,” Louie, takes us on a guided tour of how gender is defined and what all of these new terms mean. If you’ve ever wanted to take a class about Gender & Sexuality, but haven’t had the opportunity, this might be a good book for you! The book begins with Louie identifying their biases and admitting that they don’t know everything. They encourage people who don’t feel represented or seen by this book to reach out to them and explain their experiences. I love knowing that the author is willing to keep learning even after gaining a master’s degree in this subject!

Part of this book reads like an underclassman’s college essay and I wish that the sentences were more varied in both content and length. It felt repetitive at parts. There were entire paragraphs repeated from one section of the book to another. I got the sense they were trying to lengthen the book, but I wish they would’ve chosen a different method in which to do that. There are discussion questions and dedicated pages for notes within the book that do lengthen it and also make it a great book for small group or classroom discussion.

Unfortunately, I found this book difficult to read due to the layout. There were multiple times words were cut in half and continued on to the next line and the way the illustrations and fonts were done made it difficult to read at times. I wish this book had been more accessible in that aspect and I hope that they have an alternative way to share this information for those that aren’t able to read within these fonts. I wasn’t a fan of the illustrations and I find that to be one of the most compelling components of graphic novels. For me, the illustrations just didn’t hit the mark and made it hard for me to want to keep reading what is essentially a textbook. I thought the information was great, but the format ultimately wasn’t for me.

Overall, I would recommend this book to people who are looking to learn more about gender identity and professors or teachings looking for alternative books to use instead of gender studies textbooks.

This was a cute and informative book. It really helped answer questions I had and how to verbalize things I knew.

I recieved a copy from NetGalley and this is my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 4/5
Genre: Nonfiction

I’m not a huge nonfiction reader but I found myself getting really into this book largely due to the beautiful illustrations. I loved the colourful drawings and it helped the whole topic of gender to feel a little less daunting. I learned a lot from Rethinking Gender, and I liked how the author provided reflection questions. The author interviewed various people who had a variety of different experiences with gender and it was interesting getting to see multiple perspectives. There were times when I found the information a lot to take in at once but by dividing up the reading as well as paying attention to the illustrations it made reading a little more manageable.

*Review to come on Instagram closer to the publication date*

This is a very thorough, warmly educational book on the social construction of gender and gender identities, with a host of awesome interviews and some great graphics to accompany the writing.

Rethinking Gender was a very enjoyable, quick and informative reader helpful for anyone whether you be someone questioning your gender identity and looking for guidance or a cis ally looking to be better for your Trans friends.

This book breaks down all the labels you could want (though ensures you know that more will appear, due to language ever-evolving) and provides not only definitions but examples of people and the feelings behind these labels to ensure empathy never is lost amongst the discourse and discussion.

The length of this book paired with the illustrations made it easy to follow which I think is essential here.

Absolutely recommend: especially if you want detailed explanations on multiple gender identities as well as one of the best examinations of Intersex history, rights and identity that I have read.

Very interesting booklet information about gender identity and sex that is easy to understand. I also have learn something that I thought i knew about already. I would recommended to anyone who wants to a clear understanding of gender and sexuality.

I was unable to finish this book as the format made it very hard to read, was very interested in the content though!

As someone who has given considerable thought and research to gender, I initially felt that this book would be too “introductory” for where I personally am in my journey — which isn’t a flaw of the book. However, I ended up learning quite a bit and really valued the experience of reading it. It’s a great resource and there are several aspects of the book that I liked. Even as someone who has been very engaged in discussions about gender, I still learned from this book and feel I benefited from reading it. There are prompts throughout, guiding the reader on questions to continue thinking about, helping the reader to engage with the material and think critically. There are even pages labeled “space for your notes” with guided

This would be an excellent resource for kids or teens, people early in their gender journey, or allies looking to better understand the complexities of gender. It would be a great addition to a diversity and education focused Little Free Library, or a gift for someone with a gender-queer individual in their life. It would be particularly excellent for anyone looking to better understand the difference between sex and gender, how neither are binary, and how the perception of them as binary affects people and society.

The author introduces themselves and explicitly acknowledges the point of view they are writing from. I like that the book opens with a glossary; I imagine this would make conversations around gender feel a lot more accessible for someone who isn’t overly familiar with these terms yet. History (including pop culture representations) is weaved throughout in an engaging — and not boring — way, which provides important context and helps readers to better understand the topics being discussed.

The author writes with compassion — there are reminders that not everything may be helpful, to discuss with friends if need be, and that some topics may be sensitive.

The illustrations are great, I quite like the author’s style. The colors are soothing, and the art is neither too complex or simple. Typically, I felt like the art contributed to the text in a meaningful way. I particularly liked the illustration on intersectionality as a ball of tangled thread.

Beautifully intelligent graphic novel focusing on the uniqueness of our species and the importance of embracing ourselves and each other on a journey to create space for for us to be who we are.

The book was highly informative and would be a fantastic resource for new allies.

*Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this ARC. All opinions expressed are genuine and my own.

This book was brilliant and made me think of those American girl diary books that I loves so much when I was younger. This was beautiful and I’d love to own a hard copy!