Almost inevitably, in one class each semester, there comes a time when I have to read about myself in a textbook. Last semester it was my Abnormal Psychology class when it discussed Gender Identity Disorder. The semester before that it was the "Third Sex and Hinduism" chapter in my Comparative Religion class. Before that it was my Human Sexuality class. And every damn time it makes me extremely uncomfortable because the position of the textbooks are always cis authors writing about trans people for the benefit of cis readers. Not once does it ever seem like the publishers, editors, or writers acknowledge that trans people might be reading their text book. Never is it suggested to the reader than trans people may be in their classroom. Never is it suggested that the reader has more than likely interacted with multiple trans people and never even realised it. The discussion always hovers around genitals and medical issues rather than the implications of a society that highly values cisgender identities over transgender ones. It is almost always "othering" by constantly assuming that the reader is cis and has absolutely no idea what it must be like to be uncomfortable with their gender or physical sex. The text almost always uses problematic language in some form or another, whether it uses outdated terminology, misgendering pronouns and names, reveals or prefers birth names over prefered, or overly simplistic definitions.
