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Born Both: An Intersex Life
Author:
Viloria, Hida
Biographee:
Viloria, Hida
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Class:
Biography
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: HQ77.98
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ISBN-13: 9780316347846
LCCN: 2016030284
Imprint: Hachette Book Group USA
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Pub Date: 03/14/2017
Availability: Available
List: $39.00
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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viii, 339 pages ; 24 cm
H 9.25",
W 6.375",
D 1.25",
1.24 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Bibliographies:
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Public Library Core Collection: Nonfiction, 17th ed.
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Awards:
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Starred Reviews:
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TIPS Subjects:
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Social Sciences/Sociology
Social Issues
Biography, Individual
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BISAC Subjects: |
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / LGBTQ+
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies
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LC Subjects:
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BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs
Intersex people, Identity
Intersex people, United States, Biography
Intersexuality
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies
Viloria, Hida
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| Annotations |
| ONIX annotations | 08/04/2020 |
| From one of the world's foremost intersex activists, a candid, provocative, and eye-opening memoir of gender identity, self-acceptance, and love.
My name is Hida Viloria. I was raised as a girl but discovered at a young age that my body looked different. Having endured an often turbulent home life as a kid, there were many times when I felt scared and alone, especially given my attraction to girls. But unlike most people in the first world who are born intersex--meaning they have genitals, reproductive organs, hormones, and/or chromosomal patterns that do not fit standard definitions of male or female--I grew up in the body I was born with because my parents did not have my sex characteristics surgically altered at birth.
It wasn't until I was twenty-six and encountered the term intersex in a San Francisco newspaper that I finally had a name for my difference. That's when I began to explore what it means to live in the space between genders--to be both and neither. I tried living as a feminine woman, an androgynous person, and even for a brief period of time as a man. Good friends would not recognize me, and gay men would hit on me. My gender fluidity was exciting, and in many ways freeing--but it could also be isolating.
I had to know if there were other intersex people like me, but when I finally found an intersex community to connect with I was shocked, and then deeply upset, to learn that most of the people I met had been scarred, both physically and psychologically, by infant surgeries and hormone treatments meant to "correct" their bodies. Realizing that the invisibility of intersex people in society facilitated these practices, I made it my mission to bring an end to it--and became one of the first people to voluntarily come out as intersex at a national and then international level.
Born Both is the story of my lifelong journey toward finding love and embracing my authentic identity in a world that insists on categorizing people into either/or, and of my decades-long fight for human rights and equality for intersex people everywhere. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Booklist | 12/15/2016 |
| Writer-activist Viloria was born to South American immigrant parents in 1968 in Queens with sexual anatomy that wasn't "typically" male or female. Viloria was raised as a girl and, aside from knowing early on that s/he (the author's chosen pronoun) had crushes on he/r female friends, didn't feel outside-the-norm. After a traumatic pregnancy at 20, s/he learned that he/r larger-than-average clitoris placed he/r on a spectrum of people known as "intersex." S/he moved to San Francisco, enjoying he/r ability to emphasize whichever masculine or feminine aspects felt right on any given day and the sex and dating that went with it. After meeting other intersex people and learning of the horrific "treatments" most had endured as infants to fall plainly on one side of the gender binary, Viloria felt compelled to fight for he/r community. S/he outed he/r intersex status more publicly, appearing in documentaries and on TV news programs and international conference panels in service of the rights and acceptance of intersex people. Viloria's personal, positive, vibrant, and emotional work of advocacy will educate and affirm. YA: As a teen, Viloria found an androgynous safe haven in Ziggy Stardust, Grace Slick, and Prince; today's teens could find the same in he/r. AB. Bostrom, Annie. 352p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2016. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 02/01/2017 |
| A noted intersex activist tells the inspiring story of her struggles living as a lesbian hermaphrodite. Until she was 20 years old, Viloria lived her life as a female. But when a doctor said that the size of her clitoris "just [wasn't] normal" and asked to run tests on her, Viloria began to question her identity. Her femaleness had never been an issue at home; neither her mother nor her doctor father had ever discussed her physical differences and never allowed for any surgical alterations at birth. At the same time, however, her Catholic upbringing had made it difficult for Viloria to acknowledge to her parents that she was a lesbian. A move to San Francisco in 1990 propelled the author on a journey of sexual self-discovery that included relationships primarily with women and occasionally men. Five years later, and after reading a newspaper article on intersex people, she finally came to the realization that she, too, was intersex, or as she would say later on, a "hermaphrodyke." Viloria began experimenting with her identity and, for a time, dressed and acted like a male before settling into a more consciously androgynous mode of self-presentation. She also became involved with intersex organizations, where she not only learned the vocabulary to articulate her identity, but also about the surgeries that deprived other hermaphrodites "the opportunity to explore who and what they were, from the beginning." Her awakening consciousness to the plight of intersex people drove her to shed all remaining vestiges of inhibition regarding her differences and become a passionate advocate of the intersex community. In her personal life, Viloria came to understand and eventually break self-destructive patterns that had kept her from the loving lesbian partnership she had always wanted for herself. Intelligent and courageous, the author's book chronicles one intersex person's path to wholeness, but it also affirms the right of all intersex and nonbinary people to receive dignity and respect. A relentlessly honest and revealing memoir. 352pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2017. |
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| Library Journal | 11/15/2016 |
| In this groundbreaking memoir, writer and intersex activist Viloria eloquently gives voice to living as an intersex person, especially one who takes pride in he/r gender fluidity. Viloria's parents elected not to have nonconsensual surgery performed at birth; the author discovered s/he was intersex--a person born with sexual anatomy that doesn't fit the standard definition of male or female--after becoming sexually active as a teenager. After coming out in he/r 20s, Viloria found a community but also realized that many had not been spared unnecessary surgeries that scarred them for life, both physically and psychologically. This experience combined with an evolving sense of self inspired the author's involvement in the movement for intersex rights. Speaking frequently about the uniqueness of embodying yin and yang elements in equal measure and how intersex people can manifest this difference as profound and compelling, rather than shameful or transgressive, Viloria describes the ways in which language, especially labels, matter deeply when discussing identity. As the author demonstrates, the words "disorder" and "diagnosis" are stigmatizing, unhelpful, and even harmful. Owing to the dedicated research and advocacy of writers like Viloria, the intersex community is making meaningful progress toward equal rights. VERDICT This brave and empowering book deserves a wide audience. Barrie Olmstead, Sacramento P.L. 352p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2016. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 11/21/2016 |
| Viloria, a writer and activist who identifies as both male and female and uses s/he and he/r as pronouns, describes he/r life as an intersex person and what led he/r to become a spokesperson for intersex and genderqueer/nonbinary people. Born in New York in 1968 to parents who had recently emigrated from Central America, the author was raised as a girl and was mostly unaware of he/r anatomical difference from other girls. It was not until s/he was in he/r mid-20s that the author read an article on intersex people and began to piece together clues. Eventually, s/he came to identify as intersex and as someone who experiences he/r gender as fluid. The memoir is written episodically, with scenes arranged in roughly chronological order and introduced with a location and date ("San Francisco, California, May 1996"). The author's childhood and adolescence are touched on, but the majority of the narrative focuses on he/r activist awakening and recent advocacy. The present-tense narrative and recreated dialogue are clunky at times, and readers unfamiliar with certain events and organizations described may wish for more context. Despite these drawbacks, the book will be a valuable resource for those seeking first-person narratives by intersex people. (Mar.). 352p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2016. |
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| School Library Journal | 11/01/2017 |
| Through short scenes and vignettes, Viloria, who is intersex and prefers the pronouns s/he and he/r, chronicles he/r life, from growing up with a tyrannical father to working as an activist and advocate for intersex and nonbinary people. S/he was outed in college, and he/r parents cut off support. After comments from sexual partners, Viloria realized s/he was intersex and built a community. Along the way, s/he fell in and out of love, went back to school, and explored he/r gender presentation and identity. He/r personable, chatty style comes through whether s/he's relating the details of romantic relationships, detailing the nervous thrill of meeting Oprah Winfrey, or explaining he/r positions on issues facing he/r community. Viloria's thoughts on pronouns and the language used to describe intersex people are especially compelling. Though s/he touches on complex subjects, including rape, domestic violence, racism, and genital mutilation, he/r comfort in who s/he is and he/r desire to create a better world for intersex people permeate the ultimately hopeful narrative. VERDICT An affecting work for fans of memoir or those who wish to learn more about gender identity. Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington Public Library, Arlington VA. 352p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2017. |
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9780316347846,dl.it[0].title
| Review Citations |
| New York Times Book Review | 05/28/2017 |
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