Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man

Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man

by ThomasPageMcBee (Author), Thomas Page McBee (Author)

Synopsis

In this ground-breaking new book, Thomas Page McBee, a trans man, trains to fight in a charity match at Madison Square Garden while struggling to untangle the vexed relationship between masculinity and violence. Through his experience of boxing - learning to get hit, and to hit back; wrestling with the camaraderie of the gym; confronting the betrayals and strength of his own body - McBee examines the weight of male violence, the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes and the limitations of conventional masculinity. A wide-ranging exploration of gender in our society, Amateur is ultimately a story of hope, as McBee traces a way forward: a new masculinity, inside the ring and out of it. A graceful and uncompromising exploration of living, fighting and healing, in Amateur we gain insight into the stereotypes and shifting realities of masculinity today through the eyes of a new man.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Edition: Main
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 02 Aug 2018

ISBN 10: 1786890976
ISBN 13: 9781786890979

Media Reviews
A blazingly wise and beautiful book -- A.L. KENNEDY
Amateur provocatively describes the ways in which an increasingly fragile patriarchal culture needs to keep men in their place. A quest for self-liberation, this loving and deeply intelligent exploration of contemporary masculinities is essential reading -- DEBORAH LEVY
Amidst a generational shift bringing to question what exactly defines gender, this book plays like x-ray glasses, examining every oddity one may pretend isn't apparent -- JORDAN STEPHENS
Deeply personal and politically vital, a calm and contemplative antidote to male toxicity * * The Skinny * *
Praise for Man Alive: Thomas Page McBee writes about manhood - in all its danger and damaged allure - more beautifully and with greater nuance than any other writer I know. Man Alive is a brilliant, necessary book -- GARTH GREENWELL, author of What Belongs to You
A sweet, tender hurt of a memoir . . . McBee shows us what it takes to become a man who is gloriously, gloriously alive -- ROXANE GAY, author of Bad Feminist
Like sitting with someone uncurling his hands, then holding them out to you, open, so that you can behold all the hard-won strength, insight, agility, and love to be found there -- MAGGIE NELSON, author of The Argonauts
Empathy is McBee's objective, the most important part of becoming real in one's own eyes . . . we are born human; with hard work, we achieve humanity * * New York Times * *
A vitally important book. McBee's story harnesses the power of self-inquiry, of generosity, of a transformation powerful enough to address even the fallout from child abuse * * Los Angeles Review of Books * *
By turns despairing and hopeful, exceptional and relatable. To read it is to witness the birth of a fuller, truer self -- ANN FRIEDMAN * * New York Magazine * *
Author Bio
Thomas Page McBee was 'masculinity expert' for Vice and the first trans man ever to box at Madison Square Garden. His essays and reportage have appeared in the New York Times, Playboy, Glamour and Salon. @ThomasPageMcBee | thomaspagemcbee.com