Detransition, Baby

Last updated
Detransition, Baby
Detransition Baby, Rachel Ake Kuech Cover, 2021.png
Front Cover
Author Torrey Peters
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Literary fiction, Transgender literature
Set in Brooklyn
PublisherOne World (imprint of Penguin Random House)
Publication date
January 12, 2021
Media typePrint
ISBN 0593133374

Detransition, Baby is a 2021 novel by American author Torrey Peters. It is her debut novel and was published by One World (an imprint of Penguin Random House). The novel was met with critical success and praise for crafting a tender exploration of gender, parenthood, love, and trans life. [1] [2]

Contents

Plot

The main characters are Reese, a trans woman and former partner of Amy; Amy, who detransitioned to live as a man and became Ames; and Katrina, a biracial Chinese and Jewish cis woman who is Ames's boss and current lover. [3] [4] All three are in their thirties and live in Brooklyn. After the end of their relationship, Reese and Ames have been estranged because of Ames's decision to detransition three years ago.

Katrina discovers that she is pregnant with Ames's child, though Ames was misguided by his doctor, who conveyed to Ames that he would be sterile because of his time on hormone replacement therapy. Ames reveals to Katrina that he spent six years living as an out trans woman before deciding to socially detransition due to associated risks of transphobia; in particular, increased risk of violence. Although he is certain he is not a man, he is still unsure of his gender identity. Because of his complicated relationship with his gender, Ames is hesitant to accept the role of a father to a child in a heterotypical family because of the label's social connotations of masculinity.

Ames reconnects with Reese, who has long wanted to mother a child of her own, believing that the three of them could form an unconventional family to raise the baby together. Reese grapples with the same self-destructive coping mechanisms that soured her old relationship with Amy, including sex with married men and chasers, while Ames tries to navigate life as a man again. Katrina attempts to adjust to a different understanding of gender and questions her own queerness, but intends to get an abortion if she cannot be sure she will have a support system. The three question their identities, their relationships with each other, and if they could form a stable family.

The book is separated into sections that move in time from years before the conception of Katrina's child to weeks after conception and explore both the nature of Reese and Amy's relationship and the negotiation of a possible family dynamic for the trio.

Characters

Drawing of Reese, Ames and Katrina Detransition, Baby 01.tif
Drawing of Reese, Ames and Katrina

Reese

One of the protagonists and a narrator of some chapters. She is a trans woman, PR executive, and former partner of Amy. She deeply values motherhood as a part of her identity as a woman, and wishes she could have her own child. Because she cannot become pregnant, she instead works in childcare and mentors other young trans women, including Amy when she presented as a trans woman.

Ames

One of the protagonists and a narrator of some chapters. Ames, or Amy before her detransition, was Reese's lover for a period. After their detransition, Ames is still unsure of their identity as a male. Ames works for Katrina and his relationship with her has resulted in the pregnancy that is a focal point for this book.

Katrina

Katrina is a biracial Chinese and Jewish cisgender woman who is Ames's boss and current lover. Before the events of the novel she experienced a miscarriage that led to her divorce with her former husband. Through her relationship with Ames and later Reese,  she begins questioning her own identity as a heterosexual woman and potential mother.

Stanley

Stanley is a cisgender man who had a relationship with Reese prior to Reese and Ames’ relationship. The reignition of Reese and Stanley's relationship culminates in the end of her relationship with Ames.

Garrett (The Cowboy)

Garrett is one of Reese's lovers, whom she refers to as her “cowboy." Garrett is married and previously contracted HIV from another trans woman with whom he cheated on his wife. Garrett uses Reese only for sex and keeps his relationship with her and his own family separate.

Background

Peters has stated that the character of Ames is inspired by an experience she had in 2016, when she visited Mexico and wore a suit to pass as male and avoid questions from customs about her male passport. [5] Peters reflected that the novel is written in the genre of a soap opera and that the novel's characters talk "how I talk with my friends." [6] [7] In 2021, Peters said that while she was writing the book in 2018, "I was just thinking about what was going to be funny for my friends and what was pertinent to our lives", and "I had the freedom to imagine trans people as just quotidian, boring, flawed people. I wasn't engaging with trans people as an embattled group." [8]

The dedication for Detransition, Baby is addressed to "divorced cis women". Peters' reasoning for this is that "divorced cis women must start over at a point in adulthood when they're supposed to be established", which she compares to what trans women experience. [9]

Detransition, Baby was one of the first novels written by an out trans person to be published by a big-five publishing house. [10]

Reception

Kirkus called Detransition, Baby "a wonderfully original exploration of desire and the evolving shape of family. [11] Writing for The New Yorker, Crispin Long identifies the novel as "a bourgeois comedy of manners" and notes that Peters is "refreshingly uninterested in persuading the public of the bravery and nobility of trans people, and lets them be as dysfunctional as anyone else." [12] In a review for Vox, Emily St. James praised the depiction of Ames as someone "just trying to fumble his way through a life that has afforded him very few good options." [13]

Detransition, Baby was nominated for the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction, making Peters the first openly trans woman nominated for the award. [14] The longlisting of Peters was met with some controversy from those who did not consider her to be a woman. A letter argued that she is male and therefore should not be eligible for the prize. [15] Its list of signatories included atheist writer Ophelia Benson and environmentalist Rebecca Lush, as well as long-dead writers such as Emily Dickinson and Willa Cather. [16] Authors including Melinda Salisbury, Joanne Harris, and Naoise Dolan—another nominee for the 2021 prize—condemned the letter and expressed their support for Peters. The organisers of the prize released a statement condemning the letter and defending the decision to nominate Peters' book. [15] [17]

In early 2021, a TV adaptation of Detransition, Baby was announced. Grey's Anatomy writer-producers Joan Rater and Tony Phelan are the showrunners for the drama/comedy television adaptation. [10]

Related Research Articles

The word cisgender describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth, i.e., someone who is not transgender. The prefix cis- is Latin and means on this side of. The term cisgender was coined in 1994 as an antonym to transgender, and entered into dictionaries starting in 2015 as a result of changes in social discourse about gender. The term has been and continues to be controversial and subject to critique.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magda Szabó</span> Hungarian novelist

Magda Szabó was a Hungarian novelist. Doctor of philology, she also wrote dramas, essays, studies, memoirs, poetry and children's literature. She was a founding member of the Digital Literary Academy, an online digital repository of Hungarian literature. She is the most translated Hungarian author, with publications in 42 countries and over 30 languages.

<i>Tar Baby</i> (novel) 1981 novel by Toni Morrison

Tar Baby is a 1981 novel by the American author Toni Morrison, her fourth to be published.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine Center</span> American author

Katherine Sherar Pannill Center is an American author of contemporary fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Serano</span> American writer and activist

Julia Michelle Serano is an American writer, musician, spoken-word performer, transgender and bisexual activist, and biologist. She is known for her transfeminist books, such as Whipping Girl (2007), Excluded (2013), and Outspoken (2016). She is also a public speaker who has given many talks at universities and conferences. Her writing is frequently featured in queer, feminist, and popular culture magazines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender</span> Gender identity other than sex assigned at birth

A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex, it may also include people who are non-binary or genderqueer. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. The term may also include cross-dressers or drag kings and drag queens in some contexts. The term transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers.

<i>Gone Girl</i> (novel) 2012 novel by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl is a 2012 crime thriller novel by American writer Gillian Flynn. It was published by Crown Publishing Group in June 2012. The novel was popular and made the New York Times Best Seller list. The sense of suspense in the novel comes from whether Nick Dunne is responsible for the disappearance of his wife Amy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Beck (Navy SEAL)</span> Navy SEAL

Christopher Todd Beck is a retired United States Navy SEAL who gained public attention in 2013 after coming out as a trans woman, and in 2022, when he announced his detransition. During the time of his transition, he went by the name Kristin Beck. A memoir detailing his experience was published in June 2013, Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL's Journey to Coming out Transgender. He served in the U.S. Navy for twenty years. In December 2022, Beck announced that he had detransitioned because "it ruined my life".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherri L. Smith</span> American writer

Sherri L. Smith is an American writer. Her novel Flygirl was selected as one of the American Library Association's 2010 Best Books for Young Adults.

<i>Evidence</i> (2013 film) 2013 American film

Evidence is a 2013 crime thriller film directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by John Swetnam. The film stars Torrey DeVitto, Caitlin Stasey, Harry Lennix, Svetlana Metkina, Dale Dickey, Radha Mitchell, and Stephen Moyer and was released by Bold Films on July 19, 2013. It follows two detectives on their investigation of a brutal massacre, with their only leads being recording devices found at the crime scene.

<i>Nevada</i> (Binnie novel) Book by Imogen Binnie

Nevada: A Novel is the debut novel from author Imogen Binnie, released by Topside Press in 2013. Nevada follows the story of Maria Griffiths, a trans woman living in Brooklyn, who embarks on a road trip headed towards the West Coast. In the years following its release, it has been credited by literary critic Stephanie Burt as having starting a transgender literary movement and inspiring authors such as Torrey Peters and Casey Plett.

Balli Kaur Jaswal is a Singaporean novelist, having family roots in Punjab. Her first novel Inheritance won the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelist Award in 2014, and was adapted for a film presented at the 2017 Singapore International Festival of the Arts. Her second novel Sugarbread was a finalist for the 2015 inaugural Epigram Books Fiction Prize. Her third novel, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows was released in 2017, and garnered her a wider international following, driven in part by being picked as a selection for Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine online book club. Movie rights for Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows have been sold to Scott Free Productions and Film4. In 2019, the Business Times described Jaswal as "the most internationally well-known Singapore novelist after Crazy Rich Asians’ Kevin Kwan."

Detransition is the cessation or reversal of a transgender identification or of gender transition, temporarily or permanently, through social, legal, and/or medical means. The term is distinct from the concept of 'regret', and the decision may be based on a shift in gender identity, or other reasons, such as health concerns, social pressure, or discrimination and stigma.

Lesbian erasure is a form of lesbophobia that involves the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence of lesbian women or relationships in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources. Lesbian erasure also refers to instances wherein lesbian issues, activism, and identity is deemphasized or ignored within feminist groups or the LGBT community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender literature</span>

Transgender literature is a collective term used to designate the literary production that addresses, has been written by or portrays people of diverse gender identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torrey Peters</span> American author

Torrey Peters is an American author. Her debut novel, Detransition, Baby, has received mainstream and critical success. The novel was nominated for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honorée Fanonne Jeffers</span> American poet and novelist (born 1967)

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is an American poet and novelist, and a professor of English at the University of Oklahoma. She has published five collections of poetry and a novel. Her 2020 collection The Age of Phillis reexamines the life of American poet Phillis Wheatley, based on years of archival research; it was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry, and won the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry. Her debut novel, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, was published by HarperCollins in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse Singal</span> American journalist

Jesse Singal is an American journalist. He has written for publications including New York magazine, The New York Times and The Atlantic. Singal also publishes a newsletter on Substack and hosts a podcast, Blocked and Reported, with journalist Katie Herzog.

Topside Press was an independent publisher of trans and feminist literature based in Brooklyn, New York that operated from 2011 to 2017. The press published fiction, memoirs, short story collections, poetry, and non-fiction by trans authors, for trans readers, and about trans characters. It is often credited as an important contributor to the "trans literary renaissance."

References

  1. Epstein, Rachel (2020-11-16). "Pre-Order These Highly-Anticipated 2021 Book Releases". Marie Claire. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  2. Berlatsky, Noah (2021-01-06). "Review: A social comedy on 'detransitioning' asks: Who is anyone to judge?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  3. "Alma's Favorite Books for Winter 2021". Alma. 2020-11-24. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  4. "Serpent's Tail to publish 'uniquely trans take on love and parenting' by Torrey Peters | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  5. Butter, Susannah (2021-04-07). "Trans writer Torrey Peters: 'I have a lot of empathy for JK Rowling'". www.standard.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
  6. "Writing for a Trans Audience: Talking with Torrey Peters". The Rumpus.net. 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  7. Lowder, Christina Cauterucci, J. Bryan (2021-01-21). "What Stories of Transition and Divorce Have in Common". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. "'I just wanted to write something funny for my friends': Torrey Peters on Detransition, Baby". the Guardian. 2021-10-07. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  9. "Torrey Peters". www.artforum.com. January 2021. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  10. 1 2 Curto, Justin (2021-03-04). "Move Over, Sex and the City Reboot, a Detransition, Baby Series Is on the Way". Vulture. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  11. "Detransition, Baby". Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  12. Long, Crispin (31 January 2021). "The Insider Insights of "Detransition, Baby"". The New Yorker. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  13. St. James, Emily (18 January 2021). "One Good Thing: Groundbreaking new novel Detransition, Baby lays bare the innermost thoughts of trans women". Vox. Vox Media. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  14. Zhan, Jennifer (2021-04-07). "Torrey Peters Addresses Transphobic Backlash Over Women's Prize Nomination". Vulture. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  15. 1 2 "Women's prize condemns online attack on trans nominee Torrey Peters". the Guardian. 2021-04-07. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
  16. "Open letter to the Women's Prize". Wild Woman Writing Club. 2021-04-06. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
  17. "Women's Prize stands by its nomination of trans author Torrey Peters after open letter". Los Angeles Times. 2021-04-07. Retrieved 2021-10-04.