Louisa May Alcott is progressive

It's annoying me too much to continue to avoid going ahead with it. As a book junkie, I cannot fail to notice a distinct absence of trans literature.

You can find some if you go to the LGBT section of Borders or whatever mainstream bookstore happens to be nearest to you, but what I've found is that the few books they do have that touch on the subject of transitioning are mostly post-testosterone memoirs. While I give credit to people for putting their stories out there, these books don't help me specifically. I won't be on testosterone for a while, so how would reading a man's account of life after T do me good? What I'd love to see is a book that goes over the stuff outside of T, like the emotional aspects of transitioning, presenting as your preferred gender, how to handle the loss of friendships as a result of your transition, etc.

I'm sure there's stuff out there. I probably just haven't found it yet.

When it comes to the emotional aspect of transitioning, the book that I've found touches on this most is Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. I know, it sounds strange. When I first read the book, my initial reaction was, "What the f*ck?! How sexist can you get?! I am never reading this again!"

But if you haven't read the book, read it. And if you have read it, read it again. Read it and specifically pay attention to the character Jo. She says multiple times throughout the story that she wishes she had been born a boy. She wears men's clothes and has "manly" mannerisms. Her sisters are constantly telling her to act like a lady and not like a boy, and all she cares about is playing in the mud with her best friend.

Okay, so the end of the story was a bit of a letdown. No testosterone or mastectomies for Jo. But this is forgivable, seeing as the story was written over 150 years ago. Little Women is about the closest you can find for trans lit for that time period.

And of course, trans lit published 150 years ago is so applicable right now...

For those of us who are interested in something currently useful, I recommend S. Bear Bergman. Ze is the only author I've found who writes specifically for transpeople. And ze doesn't limit zir writing to just male-to-female or female-to-male transpeople. A lot of zir writing is specifically about androgyny.

Aside from Louisa May Alcott and S. Bear Bergman, I have been unable to locate an author who meets my specific desires for trans lit. This is distressing to me. As an unstoppable book addict, I like to believe that literature holds solutions for everything and if I just read enough, eventually I will learn all there is to know about life, the universe, and everything. I'm not giving up on my system, either; I refuse to believe that the literature isn't out there. I am convinced that it's there and just eluding me.